Preserving and promoting the architectural identity of Hanoi Capital

Deep dive into architectural management

Previously, the Urban Planning Law managed both planning and architecture. This regulation focuses on the management of architecture, space, and landscape of Hanoi City. This regulation is implemented according to the provisions of the Law on Architecture, especially Decree 85 dated July 17, 2020 detailing a number of articles of the Law on Architecture. Next, the Architecture Management Regulation has provisions on special areas, areas requiring competitive examinations, etc., which are newer contents than before.

Master. Architect Pham Hoang Phuong - National Institute of Architecture ( Ministry of Construction ) shared : " According to the provisions of the Law on Architecture 2019, Decree 85/2020/ND - CP of the Government , the official promulgation of the Regulation on architectural management by Hanoi City is very practical and suitable for the requirements of developing urban landscape architecture in the context of the General Planning of Hanoi capital to 2045 with a vision to 2065 which has been officially approved as well as the mission in the new era of development to bring the capital to develop modernity - civilization - identity".

In the Architecture Management Regulations issued by the Hanoi People's Committee in Decision No. 73/2024/QD-UBND dated December 31, 2024, there are some outstanding points such as: The City encourages the removal of existing fences in parks; in special cases, low and sparse fences are arranged, creating a friendly space for people, actively contributing to improving the urban landscape;

Renovate and embellish the sidewalk system in the direction of reducing concreting combined with adding urban amenities such as urban trees, flower beds, seats, public trash cans, information boards, public toilets to serve residents and tourists (especially the elderly, children, and people with disabilities); have solutions to repair and overcome existing shortcomings in landscape architecture in the direction of making detailed plans for management, associated with renovating and embellishing residential areas, prioritizing the expansion of alleys and internal traffic routes to control construction and ensure fire prevention and fighting requirements...

Preserving and promoting the architectural identity of the capital

As the capital of a thousand years of culture, preservation in terms of preserving and promoting the architectural identity and urban landscape is always considered a very important content. Regarding this content alone, the Architectural Management Regulations have mentioned a number of essential main contents with a specific approach that is not only considered specific in the spirit of the law but also has a new scientific approach, inheriting and promoting many contents of the separate management regulations with typical historical and cultural areas such as the old quarter and the old quarter.

Hang Bong Street (Hanoi). Photo: Lai Tan

According to Master of Architecture Pham Hoang Phuong, on a comprehensive scale, unlike many previous separate and individual regulations, the contents on preserving and promoting the space of urban landscape architectural values, combining the typical values of landscape architecture with natural and cultural characteristics have been mentioned in a basic, synchronous, scientific and specific manner for both inner-city and suburban spaces such as: managing landscape architecture in the central area in accordance with approved planning; preserving, embellishing, renovating, rebuilding and supplementing social infrastructure; promoting the landscape values of water surfaces, rivers, lakes and green spaces to preserve and promote the green urban image of Hanoi.

With the existing inner-city space, enhance the renovation of landscapes and architectural works in areas with cultural characteristics such as the old quarter, old streets, Thang Long Imperial Citadel, Ba Dinh Political Center, etc. Design and renovate urban areas of important and characteristic streets (around Hoan Kiem Lake, Ly Thuong Kiet, Tran Hung Dao, etc.).

Preserve and restore valuable architectural works and urban spatial axes such as the Dien Bien Phu - Trang Tien - Opera House cultural axis, Ngo Quyen financial - banking axis, Tran Quang Khai - Hanoi Railway Station commercial and service axis. Renovate the landscape axes of the old street space, connecting with the landscape space outside the Red River.

For inner and outer urban areas, focus on protecting and promoting traditional rural forms, village structures, local landscape architecture, managing and controlling the conservation, restoration and regeneration of traditional cultural spaces, works and clusters of works with cultural, historical and architectural values.

On the other hand, at the scale of valuable relics and architectural works. Master Architect Pham Hoang Phuong commented: “The regulations have clear requirements for the renovation and restoration of degraded works. Especially not only single works as before but also require attention to the preservation and restoration of the landscape surrounding valuable historical - cultural - urban architectural relics.

However, there are still some contents that need to be completed soon to bring the regulations into life, namely to soon develop criteria and complete the list of valuable architectural works to be clearly mentioned in the appendix of the regulations. This is still relatively complicated when these works often have very different characteristics compared to the relics ranked according to the Law on Cultural Heritage such as: quite large quantity, belonging to many types of works (houses, public works ...), diverse and rich architectural forms belonging to many different architectural styles, most of them are privately owned, many works have been seriously degraded, can be renovated and changed a lot compared to the original during use.

In addition, the listing of valuable architectural works only focuses on old and ancient works. Meanwhile, the assessment, review and inclusion of modern and contemporary works with many architectural characteristics of the city in the current development stage into the list of valuable architectural works to be preserved and promoted for the purpose of having a plan to preserve and promote the values in order to have a proper plan to preserve and promote the values also needs to be considered and reviewed fully and thoroughly.

Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/bao-ton-phat-huy-ban-sac-kien-truc-thu-do-ha-noi.html