Final Review - VISIONS

CULTIVATING a structure.

The soil of the Red River Delta is a very precious and fertile resource. Can we give direction to or change the patterns of urbanisation, on a large and smaller scale, by allowing vegetation to grow in certain selected areas? How can – fruitful, inviting or harsh - green fields be given a strong presence so that they keep urban sprawl in check? Which kind of different uses can be made of green fields, how can we cultivate these uses and integrate some of the resulting fields as part of the urban setting of the Delta? Can a more conscious cultivation of particular mosaics of vegetation guide the growth of the Delta in a determined direction?

Vegetation can have a directing and guiding impact on urbanization if it is given a strong character:
- big natural or cultivated tropical rainforest as protecting environment for a variety of non-human species.
- ecological corridor: green structure functioning both on a local and a regional level that connects forests, mountains and river systems.
- flood plain park: large green field beside a river that is flooded during the wet season and that combines production, ecology and recreation.
- timber field: large wood used for wood production.
- edge park: green urban space that has a recreational and ecological function and that defines the end of urbanisation in a gradual or soft way.
- linear forest: like timber field, but along linear infrastructures to prevent uncontrolled urbanisation into the agricultural landscape.
- park field: hybrid green open space that has the formal character and diversity of an urban park but that also integrates agricultural uses.

B(l)ending with the water.

For the city of Hanoi and the Red River Delta, water is both a blessing and a curse. Is it possible to (re)invent cities to actively respond to abrupt and gradual changes in water levels? Besides fast flood discharge and water dilution, what qualities can be added to the urban environment if we give more space to the natural flow of rivers? Can we make the water (once again) an important productive force? If we look at the historical/ cultural importance of rivers, ponds and lakes can we again approach these water bodies as attracting cultural mediators that can guide urbanisation?

In the Red River Delta, different water-bodies can be approached as structural and integrating components of the urban setting:
- Red River flood pocket: water space compensation for urban land taken from the Red River flood plain.
- urban edge lake: lake that pauses blanket urbanisation creating a point of transition for alternative development patterns (reservoir, flood retention, park lake, ground water recharge, …).
- urban void lake: to secure open space prior to the advent of intense urbanisation a water body is excavated, also to make use of the soil for urban or rural development.
- urban wetland: green field that is used for urban water management, storm drainage and seasonal irrigation.
- productive canal: irrigation infrastructure for intense agricultural production.
- flood basin: huge water body created to enhance capacity of waterways and retain water perennially. used for seasonal irrigation, as dinking reservoir, …
- industrial waterway: a system of artificial and natural waterways that facilitates transport over water of goods.
- flood plain: large field beside rivers which is flooded during the wet season.
- existing water infrastructure enhanced to create a qualitative context for development.
- aquaculture pond: small scale water body used for breeding fish and aquatic vegetables.

RAISING THE CITY

Urbanisation and urban economy are strongly interrelated. To what extent can we use new infrastructures for trade and transport to guide an integrated urbanisation process? Which ports, gates, hubs, urban or logistical platforms are needed to make the necessary relations possible between Hanoi, its region and the world? Where can they best be organised? Where can we best make use of harbour-infrastructure and selectively connect the urbanisation to the Red River and the Eastern Sea? What are strategic locations for the new urban economy to take form? How can water become a part of the new urban economy?

Hanoi and the Red River Delta obviously need to position their logistics and infrastructures strategically in order to sustain its vibrant and growing urban economy:
- transferium: large public hubs integrating different modes of transportation and forming a compact city district from where one can travel into and away from the city.
- industrial platform: huge logistical infrastructure which may include a sea or river port, where industrial goods can be processed and/or stored, before they are transported to somewhere else.
- linear city: dense city between linear infrastructures having very intense economical relations strongly connected to rail, road and new port mobility armatures.
- urban plateau: urban field – raised or not - on which a strong and dense urban programme rests.
- agricultural field: large and intensely cultivated agricultural surface, that is using an irrigation system that is traversable for small boats.
- water cleaning basin: large water bodies integrating processes by which water is cleaned.
- special hub: strategic location at the confluences of rivers, at the intersection of roads or near large-scale infrastructures (airports, ports, industrial platforms, …).