MUDD student projects

exhibits

2004-2005 Hanoi

Master Plan (Trang Tien Street Redevelopment option 2)

Outdoor cafe along the pedestrian street (Trang Tien Street Redevelopment)

Trang Tien Street Redevelopment

Trang Tien Street in Hanoi is a major shopping street between the French quarter and the Old Quarter of city, it is the centre of the city’s cultural hub. The studio began with students undertaking detailed analysis of issues and existing conditions on the street, revealing the opportunities and constraints for development and improvement. The street was divided into four segments as spontaneously different characters were evident: cultural, lakeside, formal and local. Some of the issues uncovered were universal. Case studies of streets from different parts of the world were made, investigating the qualities that make up a good street. As the client was not commited to a vision for Hanoi or the future of the street a number of were possible designs were presented, ranging from low scale through to intrusive intervention. The five solutions included a proposal maintaining the existing character; a proposal with no intervention; a proposal for piece by piece improvement; a scheme for pedestrianization of the street and a proposal for total gentrification. Presented here are the latter two schemes.

Master Plan (An Khanh New Town option 2)

An Khanh New Town

An Khanh is located approximately 30km west of Hanoi’s city centre. It is strategically located along a proposed major east-west inter-urban road and future light rail link. Due to its location on this major east-west urban growth corridor, An Khanh will become an important urban centre as ti absorbs the urban pressure from Hanoi and serves as a link between Hanoi and the new industrial, education, and urban centres to the west.

The objectives of the An Khanh design studio are many. The first objective is to conduct regional and site analyses of An Khanh; second, to formulate a number of working assumptions and variables that will form the foundation of the entire study; third, to explore, through the use of precedents from around the region and the world, the different possibilities and options available for An Khanh; fourth, to generate a number of options based on the analyses and precedents and the implications and consequences of each option; and fifth, to evaluate the various options in terms of strengths and weaknesses.

Three of the six options proposed in the studio are presented here. The first option addresses the influence of market forces in urban development and considers a developer driven total control type of scenario in designing a new town for An Khanh. The second option proposes the transformation of An Khanh into a bustling, integrated university town. The third option stresses the possibility of increasing the consolidation potential of An Khanh by designing for a high-density new town.