Firms’ vision of Hanoi held up to light for further scrutiny

The plans, from a Japanese-Netherlands consortium between Arata Isozaki and Metropolitan Architecture, a South Korean-America consortium between Posco E&C, Jina Architecture and Perkins Eeastman and another from America firm RTKL, were chosen from more than 20 initial tenders to develop a master plan for the newly expanded capital city. The final winner will be announced in 2010.

The tenders came from Britain, France, America, German, Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea and Singapore. Deputy Minister of Construction Tran Ngoc Chinh said strong experience, technology and implementation capacity and unique ideas were key reasons why the consortiums were chosen.

The Arata Isozaki-Metropolitan Architecture proposal would see Hanoi developed into a multi-polar capital connected among satellite cities to reduce the population, transportation and pollution in downtown areas.
The Posco E&C, Jina Architecture and Perkins Eeastman proposal stressed that Hanoi must have a green corridor of trees and gardens to occupy around 60 per cent of urban development land.

The RTKL company concept would see an accent on culture, society, transport facilities and urban development.
According to this company’s proposal, Hanoi would have key development areas, focusing on training and education, administration, tourism and resorts and health care.

Chinh said the three proposals had unique ideas to develop Hanoi into a modern city. “We, under the instructions of the government, will consider all three proposals and one of them will be chosen to design a new Hanoi,” Chinh said. To Anh Tuan, director of Hanoi Zoning and Architecture Department, said the proposals were appropriated with the government’s strategy and Hanoi’s traditional custom.