Examining Conservation Possibilities on Reciprocal Relations between the built Environment and Heritage User: A case study of 36 Old Streets Quarter in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Ngo Minh Hung, Wong Yunn Chii, Heng Chye Kiang

(Accepted in: HERITAGE 2008 International Conference, Portugal)

Abstract

The Old Quarter of Hanoi, implies the commercial area- “Kẻ Chợ” outside the Royal Citadel, is considered the best place to experience the spirit of the one thousand year old Hanoi with values- tangible: urban fabric, tube-house architecture and historic-cultural- religious buildings; – intangible: lifestyle and ethnic standard of natives, traditional guilds with its streets (Hàng) bearing the names of the goods manufactured on them. Change of the built environment in the Ancient Quarter has been challenging heritage users (local authority, native, merchant) before current market-oriented mechanism of mega-city like Hanoi. Over the past 25 years, such three pilot projects of building preservation within Hanoi Ancient Quarter (HAQ)- covering over 800 relics that need to be urgently preserved, have been conducted by applied “reproducible preservation method” with the international assistance.

To Hanoi city, community participation plays a vital role in retaining the built heritages, which provide significant functions to the users – who enable to grasp opportunities in use of physical settings. The research aims to assess reciprocal relationship of both key elements (material elements and user’s behavior) in heritage environment (in-outdoor and sharing spaces) of 36 Old Streets Quarter that affords inhabitants (i) perceiving the environment qualities to spring potential opportunities in (ii) utilizing physical settings and; (iii) shaping variously spatial forms; and a cross- comparison of those layers is logically analyzed to formulate a notion of “interplay- preservation” at town and architectural level. It argues that for a sustainable development that would retain the identity of the heritage city, a ground-up framework (GUF) is conceptualized to emphasis on integrating actual heritage condition with traditional methods of indigenous community is recommended.

Keyword: community participation, potential possibilities, GUF, urban heritage