The evolution of pathways linking main streets and marketplaces to home-based business locations in Hanoi, Vietnam

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the spatial complexities of Hanoi’s urban form, with a focus on the evolution of the pathways linking the front door of individual households engaged in home-based income-generating activities, and the local main streets and marketplaces that provide opportunities for commerce. The pathway is an overlooked spatial element in existing urban studies, despite its critical importance in urban dwellers’ everyday lives. At the city scale, a space syntax methodology is employed to examine the changing configuration of the street network in Hanoi across five historical periods. The analysis simulates the distribution of human movement across the network, highlighting the natural formation and changes to major economic hubs. The formation, evolution, and spatial character of these pathways are then examined at the neighbourhood scale, by employing three-dimensional mapping and semi-structured on-site interviews with Home-Based Business owners. The paper extends existing understandings of how urban form influences citizens’ economic well-being.

KEYWORDS:

• Pathway
• urban morphology
• space syntax
• informal urbanism
• Hanoi

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank anonymous reviewers for their comments and advice.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ha Minh Hai Thai

Ha Minh Hai Thai received his PhD from the School of Architecture and Urban Design, RMIT University. His research focuses include space syntax, urban morphology, building typology, informal urbanism, smart city, and the Asia Pacific region. He is an experienced architect, urban designer, and university lecturer working in Vietnam and Australia.

Quentin Stevens

Quentin Stevens is an associate professor in urban design. His research focuses on people’s perception and behaviour in urban open spaces. His work has been funded by major competitive grants from Australia, Germany, South Korea, and Taiwan. His recent books include Creative Milieux: How Urban Design Nurtures Creative Clusters and Public Space Design and Social Cohesion: An International Comparison.

Judy Rogers

Judy Rogers is a senior lecturer in the School of Architecture and Urban Design, RMIT University and Program Manager of the Master of Disaster Design and Development. Her research focus is multidisciplinary, incorporating design, planning, policy and sustainability science. She has researched and written on urban sustainability challenges with a particular focus on the discursive construction of “sustainable” cities and the implications of these understandings on social equity and resilience. She has also maintained an on-going reflective practice in the field of Education for Sustainability.