Design assignment

The Spring 2011 Landscape Urbanism Studio works within the frame of the European Master of Urbanism’s (EMU) collective agenda concerning urban deltas. The main objective of the Hanoi-based design research is to develop an innovative approach to urban design, engineering and management that will function at an intersection of two major contemporary problematics: (1) climate change and (2) accelerated urban growth and urban mutation. Design research will focus on the development of innovative, contextually embedded approaches to urban waste/storm water and urban flood mitigation that can be incorporated into the existing framework of master-planning in Vietnam. It aims to integrate the approaches of design, engineering and management that currently operate as separate jurisdictions within a standard master-planning framework.

Historically, Vietnam’s water paradigm was one of (1) integration of different actors, forces, aspects of life and (2) adaptation and a certain degree of accommodation of the forces of nature. Today – in a period of economic liberalization and transition from tradition to modernity – water is often regarded from a singular and dominating perspective (be it political, technical or commercial). As both urbanization and climate change challenges increase, water issues are on the rise while the plural and adaptive manner to deal with them is side-lined in the name single actors or single sector dominance. Business-as-usual will only spell disaster. Today, Vietnamese cities are facing incredible challenges. Existing urban cores are far beyond their carrying-capacity and infrastructure provision can simply not keep apace with urban transformations. At the same time, the consequences of increased flooding are severely felt.

The studio will:

• address the regional/metropolitan scale and the interplay between different scales;
• deal with different time-scales;
• design public space in its relation with the urban strategy and strategic projects;
• design for complexity (e.g. incorporating transformation, uncertain programmatic conditions, etc.);
• integrate strategic considerations into the design concept.

The studio will focus on three phases of a design and policy process: urban analysis, urban visions for the region and development of strategic urban projects.

Urban Analysis

• from ‘above’ (historical & contemporary mapping);
• from ‘below’ (fieldwork – projective & active description);
• critical review of master plan / projects-in-the-pipeline;
• definition of the context, trends, developments and specific planning circumstances;
• identification of the key-actors in the decision making process, and imagining new stakeholder alliances for urban development;
• formulation of a working hypothesis about the vision for the intended future and the specification of research questions.

Urban Visions

• strengthening existing spatial structure;
• dynamic, coherent and integrating framework;
• addressing threats & creating new opportunities;

Strategic Urban Projects

• make apparent urban visions;
• unite and canalize different contested urban forces;
• structural impact and leverage effect;
• capacity to link, mediate and organize multiple actions and actors;
• feasibility, visibility and innovation.