Articulating intra-Asian urbanism: the production of satellite cities in Phnom Penh

Privately built satellite cities are becoming an increasingly common urban development concept in peri-urban areas of Southeast Asian cities. While these projects are beginning to receive academic attention, the majority of studies have a limited capacity to explain why and how they are produced. Most satellite cities built in the last five years have some degree of foreign influence from other Asian countries in terms of invested capital, planning concepts, or urban design and architecture. The majority of this influence originates from within the Asian region. This paper argues that an investigation which incorporates both the relational and the territorial can increase an understanding of the production of satellite cities. This argument is illustrated with empirical research on two satellite city projects in Phnom Penh, Cambodia: one by a Korean developer and another by Indonesian conglomerate Ciputra.