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HIEP PHUOC: (r)Evolutionary Land_Structure & Infra_Scape (2007)
Location: Hiep Phuoc, HCMC, Vietnam
Designers: RUA, WIT, PROAP in collaboration with VIAP Kelly Shannon, Bruno De Meulder, Janina Gosseye, Bieke Cattoor, Matthew Neville (RUA); Guido Geenen, Roeland Joosten, Yuri Gerrits, Brecht Verstraete (WIT); Joao Ferreira Nunes, Carlos Ribas Da Silva (PROAP); Thi Kim Ngan, Nguyen Ly Hong, Ho Bac, Dinh Quoc Thai, Vu Van Nga, Ha An, Pham Thi Hue Linh, Nguyen Minh Phuong, Nguyen Thanh Tu, Ha An, Pham Thi Hue Linh, Sam Minh Tuan, Nguyen Thi, Thu Phuong, Do Xuan Anh Vu, Tran Tuan Anh, Hoan Long, Luu Quang Huy, Do Kim Dung, Tran Anh Tuan, Hoan Tan Truc (VIAP).
VIETNAM
Strategic Importance of Hiep Phuoc’s Ecology and Economy
Hiep Phuoc holds a unique ecology and economic value for the region. The proposal sets a spatially determined, strategic frame for the evolutionary growth of a state-of-the-art port and urban district. It reconciles the push of Vietnam towards modernization while balancing the enormous ecological impact of such development.
In addition to meeting the requirements of relocating Ho Chi Minh City’s ports on the Saigon River and developing a new impetus for socio-economic development of the City (industrial and port-related logistical services), the rise in sea level, seasonal flooding, and water pollution are explicitly addressed.
Hiep Phuoc in its regional context
Hiep Phuoc is Ho Chi Minh City's southern gateway on the East Sea. The new port facility is to be located south of the urban core and in relation to new ring-roads and a series of industrial zones (in purple). Hiep Phuoc is west of the Can Gio mangrove forest.
river flooding
mangrove sponges
industrialization
Port-Mangove-Port-Mangrove
Hiep Phuoc is vulnerable to up-stream and sea-source flooding. The proposal creates a spatial sequence of a built /non-built rhythm along the Soai Rap River's bends. High-land (fill) alternates with low-land and port logistic platforms alternate with mangrove afforestation.
Challenges of Sea Level Rise and Industrialization
The flexible strategy addresses the spatial implications of the economic-driven industrialization policies of establishing Export Processing Zones (EPZ) and Industrial Zones (IZs). Sea level rise, seasonal flooding, and water pollution pose significant challenges to the sustainable development of Hiep Phuoc. The proposal aims to mitigate these risks through adaptive land-use strategies that respond to both environmental and economic needs.
Reunification Palace
Saigon South
The HCMC Parkway
The light rail, the 'red line' connects Tan Son Tat Airport to the proposed urban port, linking various exceptional urban programs.
Artificial Topography and Infrastructure Planning
Land structure and infra-scape is a frame of reference that steers urban development through manipulation of the ground plane, an artificial topography – of roads, rails, dykes, water purification and retention basins, and platforms of various heights – which orients development through a process of evolutionary transformation.
The proposal carefully considers specific contexts and works simultaneously with both macro- and micro-economic and ecologic concerns and develops densities and programs accordingly.
Possible Hiep Phuoc realities
A fix master plan is avoided. Instead a structure is developed which can respond to different political and economic realities as they are reflected on the site (port-driven development; parkway driven development; balanced development).
Accessibility
Three main infrastructural axes structure the site; the existing road to Hiep Phouc village is up-graded (orange); the HCMC Parkway (red) has car and light-rail transport; and the port has rail and road access (black). The roads/rails are built as dykes and are spines for a secondary and tertiary network of roads.
Transformation of the landscape of the site is designed to create development that is in a constant state of change though never appears incomplete. Five landscape morphologies are envisaged. From east to west: an XL-grain port transition into a L- to S-grain urban zone through a hybrid zone to the XS-grain village clusters. The four built morphologies are enriched with mangrove afforestation in the south. Strategic Projects. Various strategic projects - such as a container terminal (orange), and urban park (green), numerous public amenities (bright red), an urban void (dark red) and two 'green, mangrove afforestation and wetland construction (dark green)' - are a frame and catalysts for urban growth.
Landscape Types
Strategic Projects for Sustainable Growth
The abstraction of visions (allowing for adaptation to evolving circumstances, yet protecting non-negotiable, consensually agreed-upon principles) are made concrete through the development of strategic projects.
Strategic projects confront visions with a specific context – with the realities of Hiep Phuoc’s urban life and development. Pragmatic locations for industry and urbanization along the entire network of waterways are considered in light of a host of issues, including environmental protection, tourism, and maintenance of the very characteristics that give Hiep Phuoc its identity – namely its green, liquid landscape.
Water purification systems are flood-proof and combined with additional purification through constructed wetlands. Two parallel systems are designed to treat industrial and domestic wastewater. Industrial wastewater is first cleaned on-site in canals and then in a collective chemical plant before emptying into constructed wetlands. Aerated lagoons are used for the urban and village areas.
Water (infra)structure
