Study coordinator: Christine Larousse (urban planner)
Trainee assistants: Anne Chapalain and Aurélie Jehanno (ISUR Rennes), Julien Meisel, Momoko Tojo and Benjamin Villard (IFU)
A site had been slated for the construction of a new international service centre for Hanoi. The Hanoi People’s Committee requested a study on integrating the existing villages in the new urban cluster in response to a three different issues: heritage (preservation and showcasing of places of worship and village commons), social (adapting the traditional activities and products of the villages to the expectations of international tourism) and environmental (prevention of flooding, enhanced drinking water network, development of means of transportation as alternatives to automobile and motorcycle).
Diagnostic studies were carried out on each of these aspects by a group of urban planning students. This yielded a proposal for a site development project that ensured preservation of the villages and their community life while enabling them to cash in on the stepped-up economic and tourist activity expected to take place in the new urban centre. Further, an instructional approach was deliberately included to raise awareness among Vietnamese professionals of the need to take into account sustainable development objectives in carrying out any planning project. This study is a leading example of an alternative to steamroller urban expansion and the large-scale land transactions that currently prevail in Hanoi.