Living in “New Urban Areas”: towards sustainable urban communities in Hanoi, Vietnam

Abstract

Under the impacts of the socio-economic transition in Vietnam in the last decades, residential patterns in Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam, have substantially changed from the ‘Collective Living Quarter’ (KTT) which embodied the old socialist period to the “New Urban Area” (NUA); a new type of large scale urban development promoted since the late 1990s. Hundreds of such NUAs have spread over Hanoi, mostly in the outskirts. Lacking social infrastructure, having a bad connection to the city centre and lacking public services, many NUAs run the risk of becoming merely ‘sleeping’ townships without the vibrant urban life which is characteristic for the older parts of Hanoi.