Developing new shades of ‘green’

Eco-housing is becoming a trend in Vietnam and demand will surely keep growing 

Many developers nowadays focus on green values to distinguish themselves from others.

A range of real estate projects have been developed under green criteria. Among those are Ecopark, Gamuda City and Vincom Village in Hanoi; Phu My Hung, Riviera Cove and Hoa Sen Dai Phuoc in Ho Chi Minh City, and  EcoLake My Phuoc in Binh Duong province.

Alex Loh, representative of SP Setia Bhd, the foreign partner in the joint venture to develop EcoLake My Phuoc, said that the Malaysian company wanted to create a perfect eco-urban area in design and plan right at Binh Duong’s centre.

In reality, SP Setia has applied its experiences from Setia Eco Park, another eco project of this company in Malaysia. The firm brought core development criteria featuring eco theme and green values into the EcoLakes development master plan, which is being developed on a 226 hectare site with some 10,000 housing units, comprising villas, row houses, apartments and commercial centres.

SP Setia has committed to spend about 20 per cent of the total development area for green spaces, as well as incorporating energy-saving features in all the house designs and infrastructure works.

For example, the houses are designed to allow for maximum natural lighting and ventilation, thus reducing energy consumption. Besides, the developer has developed a 2.5ha town park and a 2ha lake with a sandy beach. These facilities are open to the surrounding communities.

Guy Major, national sales director of residential sales at Savills Vietnam, said diversifying products to meet customers’ demand was a right way for developers in the downturn market.

“The trend of developing eco-residential projects has become more and more popular in modern life. This kind of house meets the demand of having a fresh environment living standard, by using natural green features to be a part of the master design of the project,” Major said.

This trend is also seen in several other property projects in Vietnam.

The Singapore-based developer CapitaLand can be considered another green-value advocator, introducing environmental design practices to property projects in Vietnam.

Its serviced apartment buildings, including The Vista in Ho Chi Minh City and the Mulberry Lane in Hanoi, are projects that incorporate energy efficiency and environmental friendly designs.

CapitaLand has local and international awards for their quality and environment-friendly designs and features, as well as for energy efficiency.

A layout providing natural cross ventilation to reduce the need for air-conditioning, ample windows openings to reduce the requirement for artificial lighting, large landscape areas with sky gardens to create vertical greenery and energy efficiency are among criteria for designing the company’s projects in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Ecopark in northern Hung Yen province next to Hanoi is currently the largest eco urban township development in northern Vietnam with a total development area of 500ha.

According to Dao Ngoc Thanh, chairman of the Ecopark developer Vihajico, it was an advantage for Ecopark to be the first ecological township in Vietnam. The project’s master plan has been scientifically constructed for the township to receive fresh winds from the Red River using aero principal, with 110ha reserved for lakes and trees.

Only a few developed countries, Thanh said, had this development form of ecological urban combined with rivers.

There are still a lot of things to be done for reaching ecological urban criteria, but with its initial achievements, Ecopark has defined its own development strategy and been distinguished from others. “Green city” has become its own distinctive brand.

Even people who have visited Singapore, Malaysia, Sydney (Australia) or Bonn (Germany) are still surprised with streets covered by natural colors at Ecopark, according to Vihajico.

Vuon Tung, Vuon Mai, Pho Truc, and Rung Co area, all are formed in their own styles and together create a beautiful image of nature. It is the combination of old, large trees with various colorful flower kinds. An ancient tree would take hundreds of years for growing. Each ancient tree at Ecopark is an evidence for the developer’s commitments of covering the entire township with natural green.

The developer of Ecopark has gradually come closer to its target – to make a modern ecological residential project which can be a pilot project for other countries to follow.

Alfredo Serpell, a professor from the Catholic University of Chile, said  Ecopark was an outstanding case for renovation and sustainable development in construction.

“It is a long way from theory to reality and from planning to implementation. Ecopark, however,  is a good example for many other countries to follow,”  Serpell said.

Green features have  been applied not only in large scale projects, but also in single residential building.

Hoa Binh Green City project in Hanoi is taking the priority use of environment friendly materials and installing a ventilation system and using bio-wastewater treatment which will minimise adverse impacts on the environment.

Some other buildings also installed sensor lighting systems to adjust light flow in low-light areas so as to reduce energy use and limit the heat dissipated within the buildings.

Eco-housing is becoming a trend and demand will surely keep growing.