Gilles Antier, international director, Architecture and Urban
Planning Institute, Île-de-France (IAU-idf)
Participants invited by IMV included the directors of the
Hanoi Departments of Urban Planning, Construction and Transport, the director
of the Hanoi Urban Planning Institute, the director of the Hanoi Urban
Development Agency, the rector and teaching staff members from the Hanoi
Faculty of Architecture, the chairman of the Association of Cities of Vietnam, of
the Vietnam Construction Association, representatives of French engineering
offices set up in Vietnam…
The conference focussed on the issues of population,
space, mobility and basic urban utilities, environment and risks confronting
megacities all over the world, as well as the new challenges induced by climate
warming (rising of coastline waters, flooding) and the impending energy
crisis. The dual energy and economic constraint in which cities of emerging
countries are developing today is such that they can no longer keep up with the
20th-century western urbanisation model. At the same time, the
world’s population is becoming increasingly concentrated in cities, thus
increasing exposure to risks, a case in point being the triple disaster
suffered in Sendai, Japan (earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident).
The debate with audience participation went on to
examine solutions that decision-makers could implement to cope with such
challenges. The relevance of establishing new cities and of putting in public
transit networks was explored by the participants, as well as the relevance of
the city governance that such developments beg.
The conference ended with an autograph session
for Gilles Antier’s book Les stratégies
des grandes métropoles translated into Vietnamese and distributed by IMV.