The New “Jungle” of Vietnam. Technological Version

 Traditional notions of contemporary Russian reader about Vietnam mainly limited to images, gleaned generally from American action movies of different years, where wet impenetrable jungle is full of local people in conical hats, Y-bar slippers and Soviet arms in hands actively fighting against the inculcation of American “humane and democratic regime”. Of course, none up-to-date cultural values, high-tech or scientific modern achievements do not fit in this image, but yet such an attitude to this small South Asian country is fundamentally wrong.

Hanoi
In addition to the rich history, reflected, in particular, and in the architectural monuments of international importance, modern Vietnam - it is a highly developed country with a capital of seven million people and such quantity of high-rise buildings that do not possess the majority of European cities. Certainly, Hanoi (Ha N?i) is largely inferior to its Asian neighbors in the scale and pace of development. However, there are many interesting things that are worth seeing. Many people who visited it recently say that the current appearance of the capital of Vietnam is similar to Hong Kong model of the 1970s. But Hanoi is growing rapidly, and a large number of new including high-rise projects are this plain evidence.

From architectural point of view artistic image of the main city of the country is rather heterogeneous. Samples of traditional national heritage in the urban fabric - are palaces and temples in the form of tiered pagodas, narrow streets and fourfive- story private houses. Foreign European influence is reflected in the patterns of the colonial architecture of the period of French rule, where the main vertical is the Catholic Cathedral of St. Joseph. Featured vertical arise almost everyday and have the most extensive functionality. Hotels and offices, residential and commercial complexes, government buildings and transportation hubs - all this radically reshaping the Vietnamese capital in front one’s very eyes. There are entire areas of high-rise apartment buildings, where since recent time prefer to settle foreign businessmen, wealthy officials and other well-off Vietnamese.

Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Tower is the tallest skyscraper of Hanoi. Its name came through the South Koreabased company Keangnam - owner and main investor of the complex that has invested in the project a huge amount ($ 1.05 billion U.S.). The Tower is located in Pham Hung Boulevard, Cau Giay district. The area is reserved for big companies to set up their headquarters there such as Agribank and VNPT. This tower is part of a complex of residences and office towers, including a 70-story office tower with the height of 336 m and two 47-story residence towers 212 m high. Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Tower is located on an area of 46,000 m2 and the total floor area is 579,000 m2, ranking 5th for the floor area of a single building in the world. The complex features a 5-star 383-room hotel, offices, entertainment areas, retail spaces, clinics, convention centers and living apartments of various configurations. Hanoi Landmark Tower is the world’s 26th highest building and the highest in Vietnam. The second highest skyscraper in Vietnam is the 68-story Bitexco Financial Tower in Ho Chi Minh City.

In terms of the sophistication of architecture, complex Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Tower is not particularly impressive. These are extremely massive and monumental buildings, the main advantage of which is the new town-planning scale, giving their physical parameters of the entire city’s environment. 70 aboveground and 4 underground floors of the office tower clearly arranged in the traditional three-part vertical development scheme of the skyscraper. In addition to the multi-storey podiums and highlighted by the ledges of crowning parts, volumes of each tower are visually divided along the central axis. This artistic device somehow conceals overall heaviness of the composition. But the lack of more nuanced plastic of facades treatment allows blaming designers from Heerim, Samoo, Aum & Lee, and Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum on some excessive megalomania and practicality at the expense of visual artistic image.

Recently was completed the construction of the new Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation Headquarters was held in Hanoi. The complex, which is comprised a five-storey pedestal building and an approximately 135 m high tower, emerged as the victor in a competition held in April 2008. Located directly next to the expressway to the airport, the 31-storey office tower for the Cement Industry Corporation will be a distinctive point of reference in the west of the capital Hanoi. Austere geometric and concise forms emphasize a building extremely modern sophisticated look. Large windows enter into tense interplay with the lamella limestone facade surrounding the entire complex. In addition to limestone’s importance as a raw material for the cement industry, its use in the design of the exterior sheath makes reference to the nearby limestone cliffs in Halong Bay. The entrance to the office tower on the expressway leads visitors into a spacious reception area. From the fivestorey lobby, visitors can reach the offices on the upper floors directly by elevators in the access core. In addition to the head office of the Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation on the top 16 floors the tower also contains flexible rented office space on the floors below (level 6-14). Furthermore, the five-storey pedestal building, which is accessed through another entrance in the north, features restaurants, entertainment and conference halls. On this first Vietnamese assignment KSP Jurgen Engel Architekten is cooperating with local subcontractors VNCC for the technical design and German Iproplan for the engineering, mechanical equipment and electricity.

ICE – Ideas for Contemporary Environments became our first AD Futures ever. DK2 is a luxury service apartment project in Hanoi, Vietnam for which they won 3rd prize in an invited competition. The project is located next to the West Lake in Hanoi. The competition was requesting to create a residential iconic tower of 65 floors. As the project is a naturally dominant in a city of rather low scale, it focused less on the design of the form of the building, but rather on the quality of the units within to create a user based experience. The site design is inspired by the serenity and beauty of traditional Vietnamese landscapes in Hue with their gentle slopes, lush gardens, bridges, reflective pools and lakes. The clubhouse for the service apartments is located at the skybridge connecting the two towers offering a panoramic view of the city and shared facilities such as an Executive Lounge, Business Facilities, Library, Sky Gym, Roof Pool, etc.

The exterior design of the high rises is an extrapolation of the spatial qualities of the interior and maintains the integrity of the configuration. Metropolis transformation under conditions of intensive economic growth is the primary task. Therefore, by 2011 was drawn up an ambitious grand masterplan for the modernization and development of the city. ACLA design a masterplan that will not only benefit the city, but also the wider region. The 366 ha project is located to the west of Vietnam’s Capital Hanoi and is to become part of the city’s new satellite developments in accordance with the overall Hanoi Masterplan. Its flat site conditions have excellent connectivity to major new developments in the city, including the new political centre as well as the airport. It is surrounded by future residential development.

Full version you can download here

text MARIANNA MAEVSKAYA