Experts warn high-rises ruin old quarter image

French and Vietnamese architecture experts are concerned that newly-built housing constructions are changing the face of the French-style quarter in Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem district for the worse.Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Planning and Architecture Nguyen Van Hai said in the last few years, there were some high-rise constructions whose designs were incongruous to the region’s general architecture.“The region is being faced with challenges of urban development. If architecture planning is not oriented and managed in time, we will face the danger of losing specific values of a French-style old quarter located in centre of Hanoi,” he said.These concerns were raised at a seminar in Hanoi on Nov. 13, 2008 to review the first-year phase of the four-phase project “Protection and Development of Old Quarter France” that aimed to specify and assess the city’s urban architectural heritage, the transportation situation, technological infrastructure and surroundings.Jointly implemented by the planning department and Ile de France’s Institut des Métiers de la Ville-IMV, the project aims to develop measures to reserve and promote unique existing values and positively respond to the economic, cultural and social development situation in the city.France has allocated USD 125,000 for the project, and Hanoi will invest USD 31,250.Hanoi’s urban image has been changing gradually with the opening and revitalization of the country. There was a trend to develop international commerce and services in the old quarter, because investors considered this the most strategic location, according to IMV architecture experts.These changes were, however, trending to deform the French-style residential quarter in Hanoi. A big concern is the enlargement of the quarter’s residential houses without any coordinated management or cohesive architectural plan, according to IMV experts.On the other hand, IMV experts also say that the old quarter’s French-style architecture has not been changed dramatically, and there have been no major deviations from the planning map created by the French in 1920.Since 1986, there have been international and domestic organizations working on and studying architecture and urban buildings in the old quarter.Vietnam lacks stringent measures to control and plan for urban development, said Hai.