THE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LAKE The aim of the project is to mend the relations of the historic center, in particular, that between Han Dao Street and the Hò Hoàn Kiêm Lake. The partial pedestrianization and the redesign of Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Square are aimed at recovering the overlooking towards the lake. The square becomes one of those margin squares as the italian Piazza San Marco in Venice, Piazza Unità d’Italia in Trieste and the portuguese Praça do Comercio in Lisbon, where one side opens to the mutability of the natural environment: the weak edge that allows the dialogue between the imperturbability of the stone carpet of the square and the ongoing transformation in the lake. Some steps decends into the lake: during the day, they will be sometimes submerged as in the Venetian piazza, and sometimes they will provide a panoramic seating for residents and tourists. Architecture as a measure of the flow of nature. As Taoism says take from what is too much and give to what isn’t enough. A row of new trees (Hopea odorata), arranged parallel to the direction of Han Dao street and perpendicular to the edge of Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Square, define the western margin and perceptually strengthen the connection between the road and the lake. The embankment that runs along Dinh Tien Hoang Street will be naturalized with aquatic plants, herbaceous and shrubs. Traffic analysis has shown that it is possible to pedestrianize part of the area and restrict the use of cars to improve environmental quality. Dinh Tien Hoang and Hang Dao street will only become pedestrian street in the evening and in the weekend or vacations. However, the street surface and the landscape will be designed pedestrian friendly and the motor speed will be under 20 km/h.
Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc, planimetria
© Valentina Dallaturca . Published on November 16, 2013.
RENOVATION CRITERIA As to the recovery of the urban street fronts in the historic center of Hanoi, it is useful to understand the mechanisms that formed the current picturesque disorder and thereby recognize the existence of a genius loci that shaped the city as it appears today. We start by recognizing a basic type: a single-celled element in one or two floors formed by two walls perpendicular to the path, among which there is only one large opening on the ground floor and a balcony on the first floor. The ground floor is occupied by a commercial space, within which lies the passage to the rear area. It is almost never given to distinguish what we would call “showcase” or “shop” from the houses above or behind. The term pipe house sometimes has been attributed to this type, however, it is preferable, the definition row house, which emphasizes its belonging to a well-known category, probably developed in Vietnam during the period of French colonization of Indochina. From a XIX° century plan of the city it appears clearly that the interior of the blocks was a marshy area, at that time, mainly occupied by water. Such water dried in the course of the century and, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the inner parts of the blocks was completely dry so that the clogging construction began on the back of the street with the construction of new buildings rendered necessary to meet the growing demand for housing. There are no buildings in the area which have retained the original architectural characteristics of the full basic type, but some of them are still widely recognizable. The evolution of this basic type is developed according to two phenomena: the closing of the loggia and the raising of buildings with more floors. In the first case, the closing of the loggia manifested itself in various shapes: the simplest but infrequent case is that where the loggia is transformed into a window or a pair of windows, depending on the width of the front. The loggia is an element of the house to which people do not want to give up: the closing of the loggia normally goes with the construction of a balcony sheltered by a canopy that proposes space again “open-covered” on the first floor. Other type have in common a high level of accuracy and decorative richness: this represents the third steps of the evolution in the basic type. The second typological process of evolution concerns the raising of buildings with more floors. The progressive elevation of buildings to render available new houses, which took place during the twentieth century, brought the current average height of the houses at 3-4 floors and more. The buildings became composite buildings, the appearance of which is far from its original aspect, and the complicated and colorful architecture, that today constitutes its salient feature, is rearranged and safeguarded at the same time: all available space is to be exploited. These common dynamics are the main problem of the restoration of Hang Dao street. As it is obviously unreasonable to remove all additional floors above the original houses, we propose a method to improve the quality of architecture, from which we extrapolated criteria to guide the restoration of the facades. Simply by giving a list of materials (bamboo or tents) and possible combination between elements on the facades we try to obtain a more regular use in term of additional patios, new windows, etc.. We use this criteria also to hide the incongruous elements of architecture, without requiring the owners to give up their spaces.
Matrice tipologica
© Valentina Dallaturca . Published on November 16, 2013.
ARCHITECTURE AND PUBLIC TENTS: FACING TRADITION TROUGHT INNOVATION The most evident value of the streets of Hanoi’s Old Quarter is their vitality diverse and picturesque, a urban landscape characterized by variety and contrasts of perception. In the beginning of the 15th century, Han Dao Street was the location of the silk dyer guild from the Hai Hung Province, which specialized in a deep pink dye. Dao, the name of the street, refers to the pink of apricot blossoms, which are symbolic of Vietnamese Lunar New Year. The project will replace the tents of the single shops with a system of public tents in some cases permanent and in other removable. In our intention, the public tents play the role recomposing the actual disorder, preserving at the same time, the diversity and variety. In order to contrast the variety of the architecture of the upper floors, we oppose a horizontal layout, that gives consistency and excellence to the street. The curtains, stretched between bamboo poles, are made of high-tenacity polyester braided twine netting and the deep pink color of the fabric recall the historical significance of this district. Ham Building was built in 1996 using a modern architecture language, which included with more horizontal lines rather than vertical ones. We keep all original structural elements and propose to change the glass curtain wall, open the ground floor towards the street and use a vertical green element to improve its architectural value.
Hang Dao, planimetria e prospetti
© Valentina Dallaturca . Published on November 16, 2013.
Hang Dao, vista dall'alto
© Valentina Dallaturca . Published on November 16, 2013.
Render
© Valentina Dallaturca . Published on November 16, 2013.