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Designed by acclaimed Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid and inspired by Siem Reap's Angkor Wat Temple, the new Sleuk Rith Institute in Phnom Penh aims to honour the scars of Cambodia's past while educating and promoting reconciliation to the next generation.

Construction of the unique five wooden structures, ranging from three to eight storeys, will begin next year on the site of a former Khmer Rouge re-education centre, and they will house the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, along with a graduate school, auditorium and museum with changing works.

Human rights activist Youk Chhang, executive director of the Documentation Centre which was founded with Yale University, provided  a brief that included the explicit request that the building veer away from the stereotypes usually associated with genocide memorials.

The new Sleuk Rith Institute in Phnom Penh, designed by acclaimed Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, has been granted building approval

'Cambodia will never escape its history, but it does not need to be enslaved by it,' he says. 'Post-conflict societies have to move on.

'Memorial architecture has tended to reflect the evil and misfortune of the historical period it represents [but] in this sense the architecture's legacy is dark, sombre, and firmly oriented in the past.'

Nearly two million people - 21 per cent of the country's population - died at the hands of the Communist Khmer Rouge regime led by Pol Pot between 1975 and 1979. 

Rather than just a museum, the Sleuk Rith Institute incorporates the library for Southeast Asia's biggest collection of genocide-related material, a graduate school focusing on genocide, human rights and conflict studies, a research centre and archives, and a media centre and auditorium to be used by the entire community.

The plans, which have received final approval from the government, also include a 730,000-square foot memorial park with sports fields, orchards and vegetable gardens, and forest with traditional sculptures, all to be used by the wider community.

The five wooden buildings in the complex will be separate at the ground level but will intertwine as they rise, becoming one cohesive unit

'We were keen to create a forward-looking institution that deviates from the distress-invoking, quasi-industrial harshness of most existing genocide memorial models,' Chhang said.

'This is not to criticise or denigrate such models but, instead, to emphasise that in light of Cambodia's rich cultural and religious traditions, we must move in a different and more positively-oriented direction.'

'The best memorials are not objects we visit once, contemplate, and file away. The best memorials evoke reflection and commemoration, but are also living, dynamic public places that engage with all generations within the community.' 

The memorial will include the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, along with a graduate school, auditorium and museum

The structures themselves will be separate at ground level but will intertwine as they rise upwards, inspired by the connecting levels of the Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap. 

Sleuk Rith translates as 'The power of the leaves', an homage to the dried leaves used to record history. The existing research institute, which will move into part of the new development, is home to more than one million documents that recount the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge.

Chhang himself was a survivor of the horrific period of the Killing Fields after being a prisoner of the Khmer Rouge, who ruled from 1975-79, when he was just 15. 

The Angkor Wat Temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia, which provided inspiration for the new Sleuk Rith Institute 

Hadid, a controversial choice for the soon-to-be iconic project given she's not from the region, said she hoped that the institute and its memorial park would transform the community.

She said: 'Our hope is that the Sleuk Rith Institute and its memorial park can have a truly transformative effect, bringing new life and a bright future to a site that holds traces of the great tragedies of the past ... An inviting place where reflection, interaction and connectivity are not only its spatial expression, but also embedded within its covenant to the people of Cambodia.'