IMV and the Hanoi Urban Planning Department have been working on this study since 2007, at the request of the Hanoi People’s Committee. Because of a great number of large real estate projects underway (or on the drawing board), this central hub of the city is undergoing drastic transformation. Some old colonial villas are slated for demolition. Buildings for higher tertiary functions (company headquarters, banks, luxury businesses and the like) are going up with no consideration for the surrounding heritage and no local district development scheme.

The study is focusing on the sector south of Hoan Kiem Lake and the Ba Dinh political district. The French urban planning and urban landscape agency Interscène is carrying out the study based on surveys made by a local working group (IMV-city planning department). A Vietnamese group of experts is pitching in with scientific and historic validation part of the research.

The study has three phases:

Inventory of the French heritage:

French architects and city planners have inventoried the colonial heritage (public and private buildings). As a result, over 400 buildings have been categorized as of exceptional, notable or secondary interest. The Vietnamese heritage (religious buildings in particular) was catalogued by Vietnamese city planners. This heritage requires safeguards and new surrounding buildings should not be allowed to mar it.

Master plan and principles to limit new construction:

Based on the heritage inventory highlighting the various socio-economic uses of buildings, green spaces and transport networks, the study pointed out subsectors in which safeguards require varying levels of toughness. Areas requiring the highest level of protection are the Ba Dinh political district, Opera quarter, cathedral quarter and district around Thien Quang Lake. An effort needs to be made to establish a pedestrian walkway linking these various districts. Elsewhere, depending on what activities take place on the street, it is proposed that the height of new buildings be limited and that they be required to be set back from the street front. This would help preserve the typical urban atmosphere in the district, while not inhibiting development of the downtown core with its vocation to provide central tertiary functions of international calibre in a capital city of 6 million inhabitants. A 3-D modelling of the heritage and height limits will provide a visualisation of the proposed urban landscape.

Drafting a building code specific to this district of the city:

The building code to accompany the plan must be written in a way that will enable the municipal engineering departments in Hoan Kiem and Ba Dinh districts to easily enforce the proposed measures. Detailed work on this is now underway. An interdepartmental working group (urban planning, construction, environment, culture, municipal divisions, etc.) was established and will be chaired by the deputy chairman of the people’s committee. Plans call for it to have a set of regulations ready to be submitted for official approval in 2010