Hanoi: Density through land use planning

Just why are Hanoi’s houses so narrow? Like many oddities or inconveniences, one need look no further than government regulation. For centuries, governments in Hanoi used a method of determining property taxes based on the width of the property from the street. The wider your home, the more you paid. Not surprisingly, people responded by building houses so narrow that two people can barely stand next to each other in some of them. But it has led to interesting density outcomes, and little in the way of highrise.

Here's a useful paper about Vietnamese housing and buildings combining shop and home. I've quoted from it in this post.

If you're interested in recent Vietnam property tax and land ownership reforms - here's a good paper.

There are two main things you'll probably notice about the architecture in Hanoi. Firstly there are the foreign influences, particularly from the French colonial period.  This is especially apparent in the Old Quarter of Hanoi where people buy houses with very narrow frontages so that they minimise their tax burden while having a place to display their merchandise to passers by on the street. These buildings are sometimes referred to as "tube houses" - some run through from one street to the next - and often include courtyards partway through to improve air flow. Tube houses tend to be long and low - rather than tall and high. But the property tax outcomes are similar.

DECREE No. 188/2004/ND-CP OF NOVEMBER 16, 2004: On methods of determining land prices and assorted-land price brackets. This reform is from the communist run central government. Note that Vietnam - like China - has adopted various market policies.

Article 10.- Classification of urban areas, streets, land positions in urban centers of each specific land category for land price determination For urban residential land, non-agricultural production and/or business land and other non-agricultural land categories in urban centers such as land for construction of working offices, construction of non-business works; land used for defense or security purposes; land used for public purposes, including traffic land, irrigation land; land for construction of cultural, medical, education and training, physical training and sport facilities in service of public interests; land with historical and/or cultural relics, scenic places; land for construction of other public works as provided for by the Government; land used by religious establishments; land with works being communal houses, temples, shrines, small pagodas, worshipping halls, ancestral worship houses; land for cemeteries, graveyards and other non-agricultural land as provided for by the Government shall be graded according to types of urban centers, types of street and land positions for price determination. 1. Urban centers include cities, provincial capitals, district townships, set up and graded under decisions of competent state agencies. Urban centers are classified into 6 grades: special-grade urban centers, grade-I urban centers, grade-II urban centers, grade-III urban centers, grade-IV urban centers, grade-V urban centers according to the current regulations of the State. For provincial capitals, district townships not yet graded as urban centers, they shall be classified into grade-V urban centers. 2. Classification of urban streets Types of street in each grade of urban center shall be determined mainly on the basis of profit-generating capability, infrastructure conditions convenient for daily- life, production, business, service, tourist activities, on the distance to urban centers, trade, service and tourist centers. Streets in each type of urban center are classified into different grades of street with ordinal numbers from No. 1 on. Grade-I streets apply to land in the hearts of urban centers, trade, service and/or tourist centers; have the highest profit-generating capacity and the most convenient infrastructure conditions; the following street grades from grade 2 onwards shall apply to land not lying in the hearts of urban centers, trade, service and/or tourist centers, with lower profit-generating capability and less convenient infrastructure conditions. In cases where a street consists of various street sections with different profit-generating capabilities, different infrastructure conditions, such street sections shall be graded into the corresponding street grades. 3. Land positions in every street grade of each grade of urban center shall be determined on the basis of profit-generating capability, infrastructure conditions favorable for daily-life, production, business and/or service activities, on the distance to traffic axes. Land positions in each street grade of each urban center grade shall be classified into positions from No. 1 on. Position No. 1 shall apply to land adjacent to streets (with frontage) with the highest profit-generating capability, most convenient infrastructure conditions; the following positions from No. 2 onwards shall apply to land not adjacent to streets, with lower profit-generating capability and less convenient infrastructure conditions.

A detour via a semantics study allows for a better understanding of the particular concept of the street within Vietnamese culture. The Vietnamese language provides a categorization of the world characterized by the use of classifiers for nouns, according to whether they are living things ( con ) or inanimate objects ( cái ). It is quite revealing that the common name for “street” is therefore “ con đ ườ ng ” and not “ cái đ ườ ng ”. The street is thought of in Vietnamese as an active being. The social practices contribute to define the street’s identity and they accompany its metamorphoses.

There are many alleyways like this. They feel a little like designs you see in Dubai - keep the hot sun away from street level - and promote air movement. Though the alleyways of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh Cities are places of trade, their functional organisation has a different nature.The alleyways are characterised by their lack of sidewalk, which does not prevent them from having a strong commercial use but requires a different spatial organisation. The households with small shops on the ground floor use the space in front of their houses to display goods or install tables and chairs if they own a coffee shop.Alleyways are most of all defined by the presence of hawkers or temporary market places that succeed each other throughout the day. Crossroads are considered the most strategic place to invest in, and every blind wall is considered a location to be freely used for trade. The alleyways’ urban space corresponds to what the urban sociologist Tôn Nữ Qu z nh Trân identifies as the “quiet city” as opposed to the “dynamic city” of major arteries (Qu z nh Trân, 2007). This distinction is mainly based upon the criterion of urban rhythm.

This is a communal space shared by several houses off a common laneway in an old part of Hanoi.

Interesting. These are streets where social encounters and exchange are the 'commons' that local people value, and which shapes and maintains social cohesion and organisation. Lose that, and you lose the heart of urban civilisation.