The recent incident of repairing, destroying the chapel of the old Franciscaines monastery in Da Lat (9.3), once again rang the alarm bell ‘landslide heritage in the heart of the city’.
. However, while the beautiful and beautiful architectural heritages have been erased or destroyed endlessly, at the same time many new constructions that damage the general aesthetic are continuously born.
Many “strange” buildings have appeared and are dense, changing the scenery of the neighborhoods that once made the spirit of the cities. In recent years, many public buildings, monuments, parks and even bridges and roads have a rugged design or deformed colors that have caused a “storm of public opinion” among local residents and tourists.
Aesthetic “rich” and pragmatic
In the current urban areas, Da Lat is a typical example for the contrasting images of the two parallel types of “landslides” above. In addition to Franciscaines monastery, the cherry blossom city has quite a lot of old architecture with charming lines, in harmony with the romantic nature. Highlights are the palaces of Bao Dai, Governor’s Palace, Yersin School, Couvent des Oiseaux School, Chicken Church, Palace Hotel and hundreds of beautiful villas. However, that charm is becoming hustle as more and more “new stamped” architecture, with rough shapes in it.
For example, three massive white office buildings have naturally sprung up in the area near the Chicken Church and many old schools and villas. From a distance, they are like three straight “computer hard drive bins”, and closer to them, they look like square “three mountains”. They have a contrasting appearance and are completely isolated from the lovely buildings around them. Plus, they don’t offer the friendly feel of an administrative center!
The scene of the Franciscaines monastery when dismantled. Photo: Lam Vien / Youth Newspaper
Meanwhile, not far away, the beautiful scenery of the Palace Hotel has also been torn apart by two “modern” architectures. It was a giant salute gate – a Roman imitation that obscured the entrance and exit of the wide open steps, leading to the immense Xuan Huong Lake. Heard that a new investor of the Palace Hotel built this welcome gate for feng shui reasons (?). But for any reason, the investor – accidentally or intentionally, has destroyed the familiar facade image of an architectural masterpiece on the hill, shaped from the 1920s.
Not only that, by a certain “miracle”, the investor also built a four-storey building with strange lines, placed parallel to the old building. Is it right in the famous tourist cities like Da Lat, not in the neo-modern city, the “baldy” and pragmatic look begins to overwhelm the elegant aesthetic point of view?
Taste of concrete and “market goods”
Last year, Da Lat lovers across the country protested against the project to demolish the Governor’s Palace and convert Dinh Hill into a shopping and resort center. In this project, there are design plans outlining the great glass-covered buildings covering the hill, taking away the last large green patch of the central area of Da Lat. Tomorrow, surely “city of thousands” will turn into a Hong Kong crowded “home forest” on high mountains if the trend of “commercialization” and “concretization” continues to prevail in the planning and build!
Not only Da Lat, many other cities are also “compressed” into the cold concrete blocks and the taste of “market goods” is hot! In Ho Chi Minh City, “computer hard drive boxes” and tissue-box buildings, are spreading a lot in Khanh Hoi, Vo Van Kiet avenue, Tan Cang and Thu Thiem new urban area. That bare industrial design is completely opposite and objectionable to the calm river landscape, heritage architectures and tree-lined streets that have been stably placed on this strip of land since the last century. .
Opposite images of the box-shaped building that houses the ventilator for the Thu Thiem tunnel (left) and the State Bank building on Vo Van Kiet Street (old Ben Chuong Duong) in Ho Chi Minh City (photo 18.2.2021) .
Notably, along Vo Van Kiet Boulevard (old Ben Chuong Duong), there is a majestic building – the headquarters of the State Bank of Vietnam, born in 1930. Nearly a hundred years ago, the bank of Ben Nghe canal in front of the building The house was left empty, but since 2011, there has been a boxy architecture painted in gray and white. This five-storey “box” is the place where ventilation equipment for the Thu Thiem tunnel is hastily built, regardless of the surrounding aesthetics. Now, the road in front of the State Bank’s headquarters has become a place to “exhibit” two opposing architectures: one side is the talented Indochinese architectural style, the other is the crude concrete block.
City-wide, there is not only one “exhibition” spot of such clumsy construction planning and implementation!
The spaces are so crowded and short
The headquarters area of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City (1910) and the Opera House square (1900) are two beautiful, open spaces that are being invaded. In the early 1990s, a black-painted office building on Pasteur Street, when it was just built, was called an article in the Saigon Giai Phong newspaper, called “the bizarre building”. The article claims that this building worsens the background of the city People’s Committee headquarters.
After much debate, the office of the Chief Architect and the owner at that time agreed to repaint the building with a light blue color, well-suited to the sky. However, 20 years later, a “forest of tall buildings” of all kinds and colors has sprung up around the city People’s Committee headquarters. In particular, the Vincom twin towers – 26-storey high-end apartments and shopping centers (2012), look like two bulky “robots”, soaring upwards, changing the landscape of a large area.
At the nearby City Theater square, the space here is becoming disproportionate and unbalanced. Caravelle Hotel has two opposing architectures, including a lovely 10-storey old building (1959), limping next to the giant new 24-storey building (1998). The new building – superficial and tall is also located adjacent to the left side of the Theater (1900), making the architecture of the Theater a pitiful dwarf. Meanwhile, fortunately on the right side of the Theater still has a 4-storey Continental hotel building (1905). Luckily, behind the Theater, Park Hyatt modern hotel (2005) was built with only 8 floors and designed in harmony with the Theater and Continental Hotel.
With the current legal tools, authorities at all levels and managers of planning, architecture and construction can completely take action to stop the situation of “aesthetic landslide” and “urban deterioration. “.
In the past two decades, a series of skyscrapers have sprung up around the streets of Dong Khoi, Nguyen Hue, Le Loi, Ham Nghi, Le Duan, Ton Duc Thang, Ly Tu Trong and Me Linh construction site. They quickly peeled off the open green spaces in the heart of Saigon – where the French had planned it since the 1870s. Most of these buildings have a similar design as monotonous boxes are appearing. shifting cultivation in newly developed urban areas. Without warning, it is very likely that both sides of the land strip of Ben Nghe and Thu Thiem, whether new urban or old city, have only backpacking buildings, streets “wearing modern uniforms”. Is it true that urban areas only need economic acceleration, not aesthetic and aesthetic factors? Urban on the way to flourish just rich and rich, not beautiful and human?
Building and controlling urban aesthetics by law
KTS-TS. Nguyen Anh Tuan – Head of the General Planning Department of the Department of Planning and Architecture of Ho Chi Minh City, frankly answered “no” to the above question! According to him, in theory, aesthetics is a leading fundamental factor in urban design, architectural design and construction. In fact, many advanced countries have set up aesthetic control requirements for buildings and spatial aesthetics. Control tools include spatial and landscape management regulations, and guide lines on architectural design and construction.
In addition, there is also an appraisal and approval process for planning and architectural and construction projects. Thereby, a construction project wants to be licensed, need to consider many specific details such as architectural style, size, work setback, materials, colors, surrounding landscape …
In Vietnam, according to TS. Tuan, a small-scale civil engineering or private house that wants to build must go through the district level for approval. Public works, construction works of important significance will need to be approved by the city level. Many projects must consult the Architecture Council – plan or organize an examination before being granted a construction permit. However, there are still quite a few “camels that pass through the pinhole”.
Mr. Tuan said that the implementation regulations “seem to be still general, incomplete and really effective”, leading to a situation of urban aesthetics not being properly respected. KTS. Van Phung Hieu Minh, who is a graduate student at Cambridge University (UK), thinks that if you want to have a beautiful project, a beautiful city, of course, you must have money and “now there must be technology!”. However, he agreed that the education of beauty and the legalization of urban aesthetic principles is necessary and must be done immediately.
Turtle Tower – Ho Guom’s heart is in danger of sinking between concrete blocks overhanging behind and construction project of Oriental Luxury hotel close to Hoan Kiem Lake stretching nearly 90m, over 30m high (Hanoi, photo taken morning 17.3.2021).
Indeed, the legal documents in Vietnam related to urban aesthetics have only recently appeared, but also create the necessary foundations for maintaining and embellishing beauty through architecture and landscape. According to our research, the Law on Construction 2014, although not mentioning the aesthetic elements of the building and the aesthetic of space in construction, has mentioned the elements of conservation, embellishment and promotion of the historical analysis, cultural heritage, beliefs, religion (article 10). On the other hand, this law also requires construction planning to ensure “synchronous architectural space” (article 14). In particular, the Construction Law stipulates that construction planning projects must consult with residential communities, individuals and organizations before being executed (articles 16 and 17).
Meanwhile, the Law on Architecture in 2019 has raised many important principles related to elements of art and aesthetics. For example, part b of Article 11 of the Law requires that the use of colors, materials, and decoration of the exterior of an architectural work be aesthetically pleasing, without adversely affecting vision, human health, the environment and traffic Safety. In addition, Article 11 also requires that residential buildings, urban utility works, traffic works and even monuments, advertising and decoration works must also meet public aesthetic requirements and consistent with the overall architecture of the area.
Recently, Decree 85/2020-CP of the Government has specified in detail the organization of competition for architectural plans for many important and prominent projects of the city. The Decree also outlines regulations for areas with specific management requirements, including architectures that reflect the historical development process and contribute to creating a unique identity for the city (article 8, annex). 2). On the other hand, the Decree stipulates many specific standards to supervise the construction of works to meet the economic requirements as well as the aesthetics.
Obviously, with the current legal tools as above, governments at all levels and managers of planning, architecture and construction can completely take action to stop the situation of “aesthetic landslide” and “Urbanization”. Public opinion, especially the press, professional associations and the public are ready to contribute and should be respected. The time has come, the law needs to stipulate the sanctions, severely punish those who cause or assist in “landslide heritage”, “landscape erosion”. The law needs to force them to pay compensation and repent for damaging and degrading the beautiful, urban and rural environment and space!
10 ugly cities
According to Ucityguide.com, the following 10 cities are considered Ugly City – ugly cities: Guatemala City, Mexico City (Mexico), Amman (Jordan), Caracas (Venezuela), Luanda (Angola), Chisinau (Moldova), Houston. (USA), Detroit (USA), São Paulo (Brazil), Los Angeles (USA). Signs of the ‘ugly city’ are concrete or greenhouse ‘tall building forests’, smog and dust, messy roads, houses and unplanned areas, neighborhoods. substandard… Posts and photos:
Phuc Tien
___________________ See “Heritage landslide in the heart of the city” of the same author, Urban People No. 103. Date 18.12.2020
The Prime Minister has issued a directive document
Alarm bells
Box shape
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