Urban Space Production in Transition: The Cases of the New Urban Areas of Hanoi

Abstract

In recent decades, hundreds of master-planned new urban areas (NUAs) have developed on the urban fringes of expanding cities in Vietnam. They are promoted as a new urban planning concept in the post-reform policies. This article discusses the NUAs' planning concepts based on qualitative case studies of four NUAs in Hanoi, and on an examination of the 1990–2000 urban policies. It sheds light on transitional planning and urban space production processes in Vietnam and discusses urban quality in a rapidly urbanising Asian context. The article argues that NUAs are products of a hybrid, transitional system in which local government and the public sector form an alliance with the private sector to serve private interests in urban development. At the same time, NUAs are hybrid products of government-led, entrepreneur-driven planning and self-organising space production by the residents. The self-organising space production activities contribute to the urban quality of these new urban spaces, while the production of privatised, commodified spaces by corporate actors poses a threat to community life.