Interplays of Landscape and Infrastructure

JHSSR Vol. 4 (2) Dec., 2022

As the defining urban features of Hồ Chí Minh City, Việt Nam, the alleyway represents an important nexus of intervention for climate change adaptation as well as urban renovation to improve inhabitants' daily lives. This article aims to lay the theoretical groundwork for looking at the alley space as a concept belonging to structural-functional school in order to identify its features and functions with particular attention to its role in the context of climate change and rapid urbanization. The concept is examined through the study of the alley space via primary research consisting of a description of the alleyways in Gò Vấp District and interviews of inhabitants and users of these spaces on the condition of the alleyways. Additionally, secondary research on the renovation and adaptation of alleyways in other context was conducted in order to identify possible policy grafting to Vietnam. Results show that many alleyways have insufficient infrastructure, vegetation, and safety standards as shown through both observation and participants' responses. The planning of these spaces remain deficient in involving the local communities, especially when compared to international experience. It is concluded that the alley space is quintessential feature of the city's urban landscape but its adaptation to ongoing developmental pressures have been inadequate. Adapting these spaces to the modern context while incorporating community voices in planning and implementation is not only, it is essential to the survival of the city.

Southeast Asia is currently undergoing an accelerated and globally-driven urban transition. This process raises new social and political questions about the rise of civil society and the evolution of the “right to the city” (Lefebvre, 1968). This paper aims to address the contemporary mechanisms of urban change in Vietnam that can be seen through public spaces, at street level. With a very dense network of narrow neighbourhood lanes, street life culture is one of Ho Chi Minh City’s strongest features. But the ongoing urban renewal, with streets and alleyways (hẻm) widening projects, bring into question public spaces as a tool of social inclusion in an emerging metropolis. This process leads to a shift from multiple-use public spaces to single-use ones, from a neo-functionalist perspective. Such urban projects question not only the ways a city is shaped by its inhabitants, but also the effective role, power and voices of the various stakeholders. Using Michel de Certeau’s idea of “tactic” (De Certeau et al., 1990), the aim of this paper to analyze the everyday strategies used by the dwellers to impose their vision of the street in a transitional context. Based on an empirical and ethnographic approach, my research focuses on city dwellers’ urban practices in response to new conceptions and regulations of streets and alleys. My analysis is the product of several years of participatory observation and interviews in the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. First, I conducted 30 in-depth interviews both with representatives of the city’s authorities at different administrative levels and with local residents living along the city alleyways. I also conducted an extensive survey based on 120 qualitative questionnaires, both before and after the implementation of the alleys widening projects. This survey covers four neighbourhoods of the inner districts of Phu Nhuan, Binh Thanh, district 3 and district 6. My long stays in Ho Chi Minh City also allowed me to follow local debates about the evolution of street uses in the Vietnamese media. My observations and analysis contend that the streets of Ho Chi Minh City are “spaces of negotiation” at least as much as they are “spaces of control”. By altering the streets, by adapting them, the people are inviting themselves into the construction of the city. In that sense, streets constitute a relevant scale of analysis to propose a renewed approach to the urban transition in post-reform Vietnam.

Landscape Journal Design Planning and Management of the Land, 2011

La Citta' Creativa, R. Galdini and A. Marata (Eds.), Rome: 2017, 2017

This paper will discuss the interdependent and mutual relationship among some important concepts in the field of urbanism. More specifically will be explored how (roadway) infrastructure and forestry can be combined to affect urban life.

In V. Bharne, & T. Sandmeier (Eds.), Routledge companion to global heritage conservation, 2019

Primarily aimed to modernize the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi’s metro project has also challenged traditional heritage conservation practices. We argue that a relatively wide range of stakeholders seized the opportunity to re-evaluate various layers of the historic urban landscape and their role for future urban development. We conducted a case study of two significant landmarks. One plays a central role in official conservation strategies because of its indigenous features; the other remains peripheral since it is strongly representative of all foreign influences that shaped the city. In public discussions on the heritage impacts of Hanoi’s metro project on these two landmarks, we find significant shifts compared to the official approach to heritage conservation. These include broader public consultation, rising concerns for long-term cultural losses of all layers of the historic urban landscape, and an appeal for heritage conservation praxis as change and growth management.

The main objective of paper was to analyze and understand the working of landscape with urban form and also how the natural landscape which has been neglected consequently, can be enhanced by using the available infrastructure. This paper explains the glory, denial and revival of nature in two parts; the first part i.e. "landscape as urban infrastructure" explains about the natural heritage of a place, how it used to function as infrastructure of city and how it functions as an artifact; it also includes the criticism on denial of the natural system and how it is being used presently. The next part i.e. "urban as infrastructural landscape" deals with the rejuvenation of the disrupted nature and how it can work well and utilize the constructed infrastructure as its potential. Concluding that both infrastructure and landscape are integral part of the city and both are equally important; if infrastructure leads to the development of the city, then nature was the fir...

Following the impressive economic development and increased living standards experienced over the past decades, Vietnamese cities have also seen a massive influx of motorbikes, at the cost of air quality and urban mobility. In this article, Arve Hansen looks into the issue of urban sustainability from a transportation perspective, and argues that in order to make the air breathable and avoid an impending traffic nightmare, Hanoi will once again need to become a bicycle-friendly city.

Ho Chi Minh City, the largest economic center in Vietnam, has in recent years had to cope with a significant level of development, as accompanied by a very rapid rate of urbanization. However, this development has not been supported by a progressive planning framework, and this has led to a disorderly development process and the creation of a multitude of problems associated with successive waves of inward migration, traffic congestion, environmental pollution and a reduction in the number and size of public spaces. Increasingly, urban development and increasing population densities have led to major changes in the urban landscape, such as an "explosion" in the number of alley networks, which resemble the veins of a leaf and along which nearly 80% of urban residents live. At the same time, informal building activities -such as the construction of terraces, balconies and other housing elements, and informal economic activities -such as food vendors, vegetable and grocery sellers, have appeared and spread in these alleys and also on sidewalks. A number of authors, such as Ho B. Tham (2005), Le C. Hieu (2005), Ton N. Q. Tran (2007 and Vo K. Cuong (2012), have suggested that the problems caused by such activities break-up the urban landscape and threaten cultural values, as well as the quality of life of the city's residents.

French Network for Asian Studies, GIS Asie, 2017

As key places for social mixing and interactions in the city, public spaces occupy a paradoxical position in Vietnam today. While the country seeks a deeper integration within the global economy, Hồ Chí Minh City authorities support the creation of new metropolitan landmarks by launching iconic mega-projects. Thus, the planning of vast public spaces reflects the modernisation of the country and the sought-after status of the city as an emerging metropolis. But, at the same time, the ancient profusion of ordinary forms of public spaces, much more modest in size – and sometimes called " pocket public spaces " – is increasingly threatened. Two factors can be identified. First, as far as urban planning is concerned, massive real estate projects and the construction of heavy infrastructures – such as the metro – justify the progressive disappearance of small open spaces, such as parks, small squares and alleyways. Second, regarding urban regulations, vast state programmes are also launched to " clean " public spaces, directly targeting, and more and more openly, the multiple functions of these inherited spaces and the historic diversity of their daily usages.