Towards Green Cities

There are three periods of urban development in Vietnam. In the 1990s, infrastructure was not developed; transport and communication were poorly invested. The second period, from 2000 up to now, there are some urban areas such as Trung Hoa – Nhan Chinh, Ciputra, My Dinh and Viet Hung. After 2005, in particular, a series of urban areas have been developed. Networks of roads and infrastructure have been built. Vietnamese cities have undergone fast changes.

 

In the past two years, networks of roads have been developed such as Lang – Hoa Lac highway, fly-over network of Ring Road 3 linking National Highway 1 to Thang Long bridge and Ring Road 4 from Phap Van to Highway 32 connected with Lang – Hoa Lac to improve the traffic across Hanoi.

 

By late 2009, the government decided to limit the unplanned development of high buildings and to build networks of roads, infrastructure, services and green parks. The decision helps improve the building of complete urban areaswithout unorganized developments.

 

The development of urban architecture in Vietnam is oriented to sustainable development. For Hanoi, the Prime Minister has recently approved the master plan for socio-economic development in 2020-2030 in vision of 2050. The goal of the master plan is environment friendly with modern networks of social and technical infrastructures and in harmony with cultural and historical heritages and economic development. The notion of “green cities” is fully demonstrated in the planning, 70 percent of remaining natural land will be reserved for green areas. Environment friendly green city will also be developed to other cities in Vietnam.

 

Many people think that investors would not accept green areas because of low economic efficiency, or eco-cities attract less demand. However, it can be done artfully. Singapore, with small area and high population density, can even save land for green areas.

 

The urban architecture planning ensures transparency and legal basis for the development of cities with higher efficiency of socio-economic development, meeting demands of housing and services as well as those of economy, education, culture, technical infrastructure, environment and architecture space and urban conditions in line with general development strategy.

 

Urban planningin Vietnam in recent years has ensured the harmony between communication and infrastructure. In the conditions of urbanization and globalization, the planning and architecture of cities continue to preserve national identity. Hanoi, for example, has several projects of heritages inside the city such as funds of preserving 1,500 French-style villas, office buildings and Vietnamese old streets.

 

For the first time, Vietnam approved a big urban development plan for Hanoi. The orientation is precise. In the past, the planning in 1990s had vision for only 20 years. The new planning of much larger area has the vision of 40 years. Furthermore, the building of the core city and satellite cities is similar to those of big cities in the world. In the cities in the US and Germany, the core is almost unchanged for 3-4 decades while the size of the cities continue to expand. This is a suitable development for Hanoi.

 

In fact, urban development in Vietnam is far lagging behind other countries. For instance, in 1930s, New York built a 330m-high building, Chicago with 200m-high buildings, while in 2003, Vietnam could build a 34-floor building of 100m high designed by Malaysian experts. The urban development in Vietnam is later than the US 100 years, Europe 50 years and China 20-30 years. Therefore, it is natural that we must hire foreign consultants.

 

Presently, Vietnam has 16-18 centres training architects with three leading universities: Hanoi Architecture University, Construction University and Ho Chi Minh City Architecture University maintaining cooperation with foreign partners for post-graduate training. The cooperation will increase the quality and fill the gap in human resources between Vietnam and the world.

 

The Hanoi planning is grandiose in size but lacking in details. To make it come true, there must be regulations on planning, urban architecture, planning details, strict management on development investments, removing in time all constraints in the implementation and management of urban development.