"The Vertical Cities Asia International Design Competition is organised by the National University of Singapore (NUS) School of Design and Environment (SDE), and is sponsored by the World Future Foundation (WFF) and Beijing Vantone Citylogic Investment Corporation. The competition was launched on 1 Jan 2011, premised on the belief that a new paradigm of high density compact urban development was necessary for rapidly urbanising Asia, which is besieged by massive rural-urban migrations. Either existing urban architectural models will continue to be recycled to accommodate increasing populations with devastating effects on land, infrastructure, and the environment or new models of urban architecture will be formed to take on the specifics of Asian urban development." 

 

"Through this series of international student competitions, we hope to stimulate our students to think about this critical issue and propose solutions. A one square kilometre territory will be the subject of the Competition. This area, to house 100,000 people living and working, sets the stage for tremendous research and investigation into urban density, verticality, domesticity, work, food, infrastructure, nature, ecology, structure, and program – their holistic integration and the quest for visionary paradigm will be the challenges of this urban and architectural invention."

http://www.verticalcitiesasia.com/

 

The official VCA competition brief calls for a master plan that would accommodate 100,000 people in one square kilometre of Hanoi’s haphazardly-development, mostly neglected agriculture hinterland. Our visit to the site confirmed our suspicions that the proposed mega-city density is the wrong approach for our designated area, which is lacking in infrastructure, largely occupied by thriving villages and their farmland, and blighted by unfinished developments.

 

The last thing Hanoi needs is additional unaffordable, mono-functional housing developments on the outskirts of town that contribute to the relentless urban logic of radial growth. Instead of supplying four competing plans that blindly obey the competition brief, the studio will work together to develop an infrastructural, housing and economic framework for Hanoi and its hinterland.

 

A detailed analysis of Perkins Eastman’s 2012 master plan is essential; neither to confirm nor dismiss it, but to understand the objective factors that informed the proposal.

 

Simultaneously, separate teams will develop strategies for Hanoi’s critical issues: affordable housing, clean energy, pollution, mobility, transportation and growth. Strategies addressing Hanoi’s critical issues will be developed in a vacuum, i.e. independent of other needs, and perhaps Hanoi. Once the strategies are functioning as a clear system, each system will be layered into a comprehensive framework. This layering will “corrupt” the ideal strategies, which in turn will create a proposal which is specific to Hanoi. The structural framework to satisfy Hanoi’s present and future needs will reveal a “city model most appropriate for Hanoi…or perhaps a new model specific to Hanoi.

 

The studio has created an intensive research on Hanoi current and future developments and a new master plan has been created including 4 new satellite cities: Agriculture city, airport city, University City and transportation hub. Each of these cities will receive its own function.

 

Together with Michael Cerrone, I have designed the Airport city; a town that will house 300.000 people and is in direct connection with Hanoi. This city will also be a hub for expats including many high-end and local functions, such as hotels, shops, restaurants and a logistics centre. In the illustrations above, the Airport city will be explanined in detail.

 

If you would like to have more information or would like to see the research book and other cities, do not hesitate to contact me.

 

CLICK PICTURE FOR DETAILLED INFORMATION.