Urban Space Production in Transition: The Cases of the New Urban Areas of Hanoi

Abstract

In recent decades, hundreds of master-planned new urban areas (NUAs) have developed on the urban fringes of expanding cities in Vietnam. They are promoted as a new urban planning concept in the post-reform policies. This article discusses the NUAs' planning concepts based on qualitative case studies of four NUAs in Hanoi, and on an examination of the 1990–2000 urban policies. It sheds light on transitional planning and urban space production processes in Vietnam and discusses urban quality in a rapidly urbanising Asian context. The article argues that NUAs are products of a hybrid, transitional system in which local government and the public sector form an alliance with the private sector to serve private interests in urban development. At the same time, NUAs are hybrid products of government-led, entrepreneur-driven planning and self-organising space production by the residents. The self-organising space production activities contribute to the urban quality of these new urban spaces, while the production of privatised, commodified spaces by corporate actors poses a threat to community life.

近几十年来，膨胀的越南城市周边，出现了数以百计的总体规划新市区（NUAs）。这些地区作为新的城市规划理念，在后改革政策中得到推广。本文以河内NUAs 的定性个案研究为基础，探讨1990 年至2000 年间的城市政策，以及这一规划理念。文章剖析了越南转型期规划和城市空间生产过程，在亚洲急速城市化的背景下讨论城市品质。作者指出，NUAs 是杂糅、转型体系的产物，在这个体系中，地方政府和公共部门与私营部门联手，在城市开发中满足私人利益。同时，NUAs 也是政府主导、企业驱动的规划与居民自组织空间生产相混杂的产物。自组织空间生产形成了这些城市空间的城市品质，而公司的私有化、商品化的空间生产则对社区生活形成了威胁。

Keywords::

• Urban space production
• urban planning
• urbanisation
• urban quality
• Hanoi
• new urban areas

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank all the members in the project team and associates for various contributions to this article. Many thanks are to friends and colleagues who have read and commented on earlier versions of this article. Special thanks are to Eileen Deener for her thorough editing work.

Notes

^1. In Vietnamse “co tinh thong nhat va hai hoa, trat tu”.

Additional information

Funding

The study is carried out within the framework of the project “Urbanisation and Sustainability: Shared Experiences from the New Urban Areas of Hanoi”, a Sida-funded collaboration between Lund University and the Vietnamese Institute of Regional and Urban Planning, the Ministry of Construction, the Department of Construction of Hanoi, the Vietnam Association of Sociology and the Vietnam Green Building Council. The funding of Sida is gratefully acknowledged.