Why, What and How Conserve to Integrate Historic Urban Landscape: The case of 36 Guild Streets in Hanoi

Ref.: 349
Key theme: 01 Physical integrity of historic urban landscapes
Date of reception: 31/03/2009

AUTHORS (*Main author)

YUICHI, Fukukawa * (Japan) - Chiba University

ABSTRACT

The Ancient Quarter "36 Guild Streets"of Hanoi has been one of the World's liveliest urban environments for centuries. Its historical roots can be traced back to the 11th century, in the wake of the establishment of the Citadel as the centre of royal authority in Hanoi. Conserving this area has been a main subject for the people of Hanoi. In response to this, the Hanoi city authorities have passed a "Provisional Law Concerning Building, Conservation, Repair and Protection in the Ancient Quarter of Hanoi", and have embarked on a programme of conservation and restriction of new development. The Vietnamese Government designated the major streets of the Ancient Quarter as a National Historic Site in April, 2004.
However the flourishing commercial district of Hanoi has been changing everyday. Multistorey buildings have mushroomed and the property value has been rising like a rocket. The number of surviving historic buildings has been limited and the ratio might be less than 30%. In such a situation why, what and how should we conserve in this area ? In this paper I am going to discuss the question from the architectural viewpoint based on our survey from 2004 to 2008.
After clarifying the features of the traditional town houses of 36 Guild Streets, I am going to show that the features are not only valuable as cultural properties but also they play substantial roles to create socially rich public spaces and to maintain essential residential environment even in a modern city. More specifically as the town houses are placed side by side, 1) Enclosed street is formed, 2) A gradation from community to privacy (intimacy gradient) is formed, 3) The fronts of the houses has filled the gap between inside and outside, 4) An order to secure the environment in the back of the street has been established. And 5) Order and diversity have been realized simultaneously. Although the houses in the 36 Streets have been built by various persons, at various time, for various purposes, a certain order has been realized and maintained. We may call this quality organic or whole which modern cities have lost.
Thus we reach the following conclusion: 1) The reason why the ancient town should be conserved is that the system of traditional town houses is good for today's urban environment. 2) What should be conserved is not only the historic houses but also the patterns the traditional town houses of the 36 Guild Streets have realized. 3) What is necessary to conserve this area is to manage the building activities based on the found and acknowledged patterns. It is desirable design code as a collection of patterns are acknowledged and managed by the inhabitants.

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