Study tours and exchange of delegations
Mission to Paris and Madrid to study heritage protection and showcasing (12 – 19/01/2011)
Participants:
- Mr. Duong
Duc Tuan, deputy director, Hanoi Department of Urban Planning and Architecture
(DUA)
- Mr. Nguyen
Trong Ky Anh, administrative assistant, DUA Planning Office
- Ms. Nguyen
Thi Thu Huyen, administrative assistant, DUA Planning Office
- Mr. Tran
Hoang Linh, director, Architecture Research Centre, DUA
- Ms. Le
Thi Thuy Nga, officer in charge of French Quarter study, DUA
- Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc,
official cabinet representative, Hanoi People’s Committee
- Ms. Vu Thi Bich Ha, officer in charge of
city planning and transportation, Hanoi Finance Department
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The meeting with Mr Gaillot at SMU
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The mission took place as part of the project for the
protection and showcasing of Hanoi’s Old French Quarter. The field study was
designed to assist the Vietnamese team tasked with reworking the draft French
Quarter regulations that were prepared by French experts from the Interscène
Company.
The delegation was hosted by Mr. Jean-Claude Gaillot, deputy
director general of the Île-de-France Regional Council’s Sustainable Management
Unit (SMU) to discuss the feasibility of the regulations and that of the draft
master plan for Hanoi province that has been set before the prime minister of
Vietnam for approval. The plan includes the study on protecting and showcasing
Hanoi’s Old French Quarter. Meetings at the SMU office were also attended by
two experts who conducted the study in Hanoi, Mr. Thierry Huau, Interscène’s
founder, and Ms. Christine Larousse.
The senior Hanoi city officials then visited the
office of the Urban Planning and Development Agency (Institut d’Aménagement et d’Urbanisme – IAU-îdf) and met with Mr.
Gilles Antier, director of international affairs at the IAU. They discussed potential
areas in which the IAU could work in the urban planning initiatives for Hanoi once
the new master plan was approved.
As a sideline to the professional-level talks, the delegation
made a number of site visits in Paris to grasp the know-how that Île-de-France
had put into play in order to protect and showcase vintage architecture and
urban heritage. The tours took them to outstanding buildings as well as to city-core
neighbourhoods of exceptional urban fabric, such as the Marais district.
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| Tour in Madrid’s downtown core |
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The delegation went on to spend two days in Madrid,
where it toured a number of urban heritage sites in the Spanish capital. The
visitors were keenly interested in ways in which public spaces were being highlighted
in Madrid’s downtown core, such as the city’s open and closed squares and
public gardens adjacent to historical monuments. The Vietnamese group of
professional city planners were very impressed with the group cultural
activities, particularly the street shows on the various sites.