Fading Tradition

You often don’t notice them as your ride by on modern Phnom Penh’s busy streets, but there are still quite a few old traditional wooden houses around. Often a shopfront has been added to turn what used to be just a family house into a family business so that from the street only a concrete facade is visible. As the city develops, though, these house are doomed.

A landscaping business almost hides this old house near the Maryknoll office
In the old traditional style, each room has its own peaked roof.
Here is a concrete room added to the front of the wooden house to create a business.
This used to be a neighborhood of wooden houses, but now all the adjoining traditional houses have become multistory apartment blocks.
How long will this little wooden house last on this corner?