TRANSFORMATIONS OF PUBLIC SPACE IN HANOI’S PERI-

URBAN TRADITIONAL VILLAGES, VIETNAM

Le Quynh Chi**, PhD. Urban Planning Department, National University of Civil Engineering. Vietnam
Nguyen Thanh Tu, Msc.Urban Planning Department, National University of Civil Engineering.Vietnam.
Duong Quynh Nga, Msc.Urban Planning Department, National University of Civil Engineering.Vietnam.
Dao Hai Nam, Msc.Urban Planning Department, National University of Civil Engineering.Vietnam.
Aaron Vansintjan, Msc. PhD Candidate,.Birkbeck, University of London - CIAT-Asia. United Kingdom.

Corresponding author: Le Quynh Chi - lequynhchi233@gmail.com

Oral-presenter at ASEAN 2017 R&D Congress: Nguyen Thanh Tu - tienoz3@yahoo.com

Peri-urban areas in developing Southeast Asia are undergoing profound transformations.

Formerly agrarian places surrounding fast-growing agglomerations such as Bangkok, Jakarta,
Manila, and Hanoi have become dynamic sites of encounter between urban and rural built forms,
activities and ways of life. The resulting urban formations belie conceptions of a neat cleavage
between city and countryside. Since at least the 1980s, rural traditional villages at Hanoi’s
periphery have been absorbed into the urban fabric. The tightly knit community of traditional
village life—based on religion, kinship ties and common use of space—has been breaking up.
This phenomenon has been attributed to four processes. First and foremost, the formerly rural
population has adopted what might be called “urban” ways of life, which focuses more on
individuality—possibly linked to a decline in traditional values. Second is tighter control of the
urban administration system. Thirdly, around Hanoi, as in many other densely settled regions of
developing Southeast Asia, village-based urbanization processes have recently been confronted
with a new, exogenous form of peri-urban space production: the massive development of so-
called “new urban areas”—large-scale land redevelopment dominated by residential housing,
geared toward expats and high- and middle-income residents. The consequent loss of farmland
often leads to the reduction of communities’ spaces of production and reproduction. Last but not
least, urbanization has involved a high influx of underemployed and low-skilled rural migrants.
This paper outlines how public space in peri-urban villages has transformed—with the
assumption that these changes are reflecting broader changes in society. Relying on qualitative
surveys and mapping, the research involved a case study of Nhat Tan village, a thousand-year
old peach flower village strongly affected by Ciputra Hanoi (West Thang Long), the first new
urban area in Hanoi. After describing traditional community space structures in the Red River
delta and Hanoi’s urbanism, we present the analytical results of the survey. The research
identifies emerging networks of public space that help to make the community resilient. The
paper also contributes an initial exploration of the uses of the terms of “public” space in the
context of the Vietnamese contemporary city.

Keywords: peri-urban, urbanization, globalization, public space, traditional village

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1.Introduction: Background and research interest

Over the span of several decades, Southeast Asia’s big cities have begun a process of
metropolisation linked to globalization, relying on the development of transportation and
communications to create conurbations and within which the cadences of population mobilities
are intense and increasingly complex (Fanchette, 2016, p.7). These new metropoles create new
kinds of urban morphologies as well as rural ones (Asher, 2003). Within metropolitan areas of
Southeast Asia, a triple process of urbanization can be observed: the expansion of urban sprawl,
acceleration of in situ urbanization, and administrative urbanization (Fanchette, 2016, p.8). The
driving forces accelerating urbanization in Southeast Asia are principally associated with
globalization and with very heavy international and domestic investment in real estate,
communication, and industry. These changes in the use of peri-urban areas in Southeast Asia
occurred as early as the 1960s—industrial projects in many cases preceded major Western and
Asian development projects. These areas integrated into the market economy, ending the food
self-sufficiency among households (Askew, 2002). With the economic crisis of the 1970s
resulting in industrialized capitalist country’s increasing interest in cheap labour markets
(Peresthu, 2002), industry has become the main activity in the new megapolises of Jakarta,
Manila, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur (Rimmer & Dick, 2009). The scale of investments in the
real estate market linked to banking policies that encouraged new middle classes to acquire loans
for new property led to a construction boom and the expansion of urban sprawl (Goldbum,
2010). Villages that were integrated into the inner rings of the new suburban areas housed
migrants and became dormitory villages, while villagers developed new strategies to access
resources—especially land, the principal means of capital accumulation. In the 2000s, the
outskirts of these metropolises underwent rapid demographic and economic changes and acute
social upheaval, expanding outward to a radius of more than 30, sometimes as much as 50km
from the town centre (Jones, 2004).
Hanoi was distinct from its Southeast Asian counterparts because of its long years of war
and resistance toward international partners. Firstly, the border war with China did not end until
1979. Moreover, due to the US-Vietnam war, Vietnam was not only impoverished but also did
not have chance to get out of poverty. In contrast to China, which had been able to boost its
economy after connecting with the international capital market, Vietnam experienced a difficult
and slow economic growth due to the American trade embargo, which lasted until 1994.
Secondly, other countries in the region integrated with the global market and started liberalizing
more rapidly than Vietnam, thereby making the gap even wider. This has been further
exacerbated after the Asian crisis in 1997; most foreign direct investment went to South Korea,
Malaysia, and other countries, with Vietnam seeing much less interest from global investors.
Despite Vietnam's wish to “be friends with foreign countries” (Việt nam muốn làm bạn với các
nước) since 1991, it was not until 2000 when the US signed the Bilateral Agreement that foreign
capital started to flow in (Geertman & Le, 2010). Since then, Hanoi has been experiencing a

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great urban transformation due to an increasing integration into the global economy and culture.
New large-scale projects such as shopping malls, business centres, and high-rise tower
residences have started to appear in the city, especially in the urban fringe, enabled by enlarged
inner city roads. The Vietnamese state is promoting these large-scale urban typologies in a
similar fashion as other Asian countries, with the goal of becoming a civilized society (xã hội
văn minh) (Geertman, 2015 ).
The thousand-year-old city of Hanoi, built on “the bend in the Red River”, is among
Southeast Asia’s most ancient metropolises. It took shape in part from a dense substratum of
villages that slowly absorbed into its fabric. The capital of feudal Vietnam originally conisisted
of a citadel, the site of imperial power, and a commercial district, the Old Quarter of 36 Streets
and Corporations—linked to a myriad of more distant peri-urban villages that supplied crafts and
agricultural products (Fanchette, 2016, p.11).
Hanoi's spread over its very populous fringes by means of the integration of surrounding
villages has followed various different patterns throughout history, depending on the nature of
state development policies in force, the town planning upon which it was based, the economic
activities of the villages in question, and the particularities of the local authorities running the
villages (Fanchette, 2016, p.12). While during the imperial era the urban model promoted was
one of integration of villages into administrative limits of the city, at the time of the colonial era
(1873-1945), villages were cleared in order to implement “la mission civilisatrice” to impose
French culture in the city; and in the collectivist period (1954-1986), villages in central urban
districts witnessed land subdivision and densification due to the changing policy in land
management (Le, 2016). Since the 2000s, the creation of large, private real estate groups made
up of what was left of former state-owned construction companies, with the help of foreign
capital, undertook the construction of new urban areas or khu đô thi mới (KDTM). This was
followed by an overheating of the land market, paired with anarchic construction—in keeping
with urban models imported from elsewhere in Asia (Fanchette, 2016, p.12). The change in
speed brought about by property developers small and large and the high influx of rural migrants
resulted in profound changes in villages in the urban fringe, including increasing informal
economic activities and the development of 'dormitory villages' for rural migrants (Le, 2016).
As we highlight in the following section, these phenomena leave their mark on public
spaces in these transforming villages. Spaces that were shaped by traditional tight-knit
communities characterized by kinship, religious and cultural norms, and neighbourly
relationships underwent drastic changes. This phenomenon has been attributed to four processes.
First and foremost, the formerly rural population has adopted what might be called “urban” ways
of life, which focus more on individuality—possibly linked to a decline in traditional values.
Second is tighter control of the urban administration system. Thirdly, around Hanoi, as in many
other densely settled regions of developing Southeast Asia, village-based urbanization process
have recently been confronted with a new, exogenous form of peri-urban space production: the
massive development of “new urban areas”—large-scale land redevelopment dominated by
residential housing, geared toward expats and high- and middle-income residents. The
consequent loss of farmland often leads to the reduction of communities’ spaces of production

3
and reproduction. Last but not least, urbanization has involved a high influx of underemployed
and low-skilled rural migrants. Thus, the paper seeks to clarify the change of village’s public
space, using the theory of “place” to shed light on such an important component of a village’s
physical structure. The paper also contributes an initial venture into thinking about the uses of
the terms of “public” space in the context of the Vietnamese contemporary city.

2. Literature review

Sense of Place

Place does not lend itself to a definitive interpretation. Whereas economic geographers
largely deal with place as location, architects, urban designers, physical planners, anthropologists
or human geographers may typically focus on how a sense of place informs people's attachment
to and conception of their environment (Atman & Low, 1992). In these fields, the interest in
place was opposed to a focus on ‘space’ in mid-20 th-century geography. In the past, human
geography tended to focus on quantifiable concepts like demographics, income, topography, or
resources. Yi-Fu Tuan (1977) argued that quantitifying human behavior in this way does not take
into account the meanings attached to specific locations or how these places change meaning at
different scales. From this perspective, places can be defined as “locations imbued with meaning
that are sites of everyday practice” (Cresswell 2009, p. 9). In other words, places are seen as loci
of materiality (the physical objects), meaning (the ideas and culture attached to these objects),
and practice (the habits formed around these ideas and objects) (ibid. p.1).
As part of this conception of place, some stress how it is also manifested spiritually. The
Norwegian architect and phenomenologist Christian Norberg-Schulz used the classical Roman
term genius loci (spirit of place) to describe the sense people have of a place, understood as the
sum of all physical as well as symbolic values in nature and the human environment. In the book
The Sense of Place, Fritz Steele discusses this same concept: “There are certain physical and
social settings that are so potent that they evoke similar responses, regardless of the diversity of
internal states of the responders. These settings have what we call a strong spirit of place that
acts in a powerful, predictable manner on everybody who encounters them” (Steele, 1981:13).
Physical environment settings (location, boundary, size) combined with social features
(behaviors, the willingness to share the setting with the outsiders, etc.) of the people living and
working in these settings form the spirit of some particular place.
The meanings and methodologies used to understand place have also shifted along with
major transformations of the global political economy. For one, the rise of the network society
eliminated the need of a physical location for a place to enable human interaction, let alone flows
of goods, capital, or information (Castells, 1996). The advent of “world cities” or “global cities”
(Sassen, 2001) is commonly understood as a process of cultural homogenisation and
synchronisation, thought to create similar global urban architecture and metropolitan lifestyles
throughout the “developed world” (Knox,1996). Concepts of “non-place” (Auge, 1995),

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“placelessness” (Relph, 1976), and “cities without a place” (Sorkin, 1992) downgraded the
importance of the local contexts of place and led some to claim that place should be seen as
something that didn’t matter anymore.
Other scholars developed an alternative view in which place has become a particular
instance in the network of social relations (Castells, 1996; Massey, 1994, 2005), in which a sense
of place can only be constructed by “linking that place to places beyond” (Massey, 1994:56). A
city (or a place) is a “milieu that is in constant formation, drawing on disparate connections, and
subject to the play of national and global forces” (Ong, 2012:2). Thus, place is seen as embedded
within a wider political economy, determined by systems at many scales that transcend the local.
In this view, the question is not whether and to what extent “place-making” has become
impossible,
Extending this argument further, urban critical theorists see “place” as a “market
commodity that can reproduce wealth and power for its owners” (Logan and Molotch 2013), a
social construct embedded within wider political economic systems and thereby always subject
to commodification by capital. As such, place-making is not just an organic, local process but
negotiated through power struggles. Who defines how place is used is inherently a political
process, determined by existing political economic institutions. However, while theorists have
explored how place-making becomes commodified under processes like gentrification (e.g.
Zukin 2011) and have theorized the role of the third sector in this process (Amin 2010), there
remains a poor understanding how place-making continues to occur despite accelerating
“planetary urbanization” (Brenner 2014), and what institutional mechanisms can prevent it from
becoming commodified (Clark 2014).
Taking these different perspectives into account, the paper will study three interrelated
elements: the material form of a place, its function and activities, the meanings and values of a
place, and the ways by which its formation is determined by both global and local forces.

Public space

The interpretation of public space has changed over time. Public space since the Greek
polis represents the material location where the social interactions and political activities of all
members of “the public” occur (Mitchell, 1995, p.116). Public space is the space “out there”
which belongs to the whole community, although regulated by prevailing social and legal norms
(Drummond, 2000). The Western ideal of public space is unconstrained space within which
political movements can organize and expand into wider arenas (Mitchell, 1995, p.115). It is a
space where the marginalised can challenge the status quo or dominant order (Duncan, 1996,
p.130) and where “oppositional social movements” can form and operate (Mitchell, 1995,
p.110). In practice, however, it is more often a controlled and orderly retreat where a properly
behaved public might experience the spectacle of the city (Mitchell, 1995, p.115). An especially
valuable contribution is Edensor’s (1998) comparison of Indian and Western streets wherein he

5
argues that social ordering and regulation of Western streets is culturally specific and not easily
transferable to the non-Western context (Drummond, 2000).

Hanoi’s people-driven urbansim

Since Vietnam’s change to a socialist market economy in 1986, Hanoi has experienced a
very rapid population growth. In the production of urban space, state and society are engaged in
a process of negotiation, resistance, and compromise (Kerkvliet, 2003; Koh, 2006). Urban space
production in Vietnam has been characterized as people-led (McGee, 2009:232) and self-
organizing (Geertman, 2007). In the early decade of reforms Vietnam witnessed a decrease of
state-employment and a growth of informal employment in the “informal sector”, leading
Hanoi’s streets to be occupied by street sellers (Drummond, 2000; Thomas, 2002; Higgs, 2003).
Urban culture became characterized by a pavement culture; individual households developed low
rise vernacular housing by encroaching on public land and making their own improvements in
existing housing (Hoang, 2002; Geertman, 2007). Many residents receive income from small
businesses on the ground levels and do not want to lose this source of income. Hanoians often in
close relationships with their neighbours and surroundings, and they often use their own
resources to restore and improve their houses. The vernacular houses have a high symbolic
meaning for the residents because they represent their newly acquired autonomy from the state
and display their new individual aspirations and aspirational lifestyles (Geertman, 2003). With
the seeming loosening of state control over many aspects of socioeconomic life has come a
number of pressing social problems. This includes ever-increasing rural-to-urban migration,
rising divorce rates and a changing structure of families. Another is a staggeringly young
population (estimate of over 60 percent of the population under 30 years of age)—meaning one
with no memory or experience of the nationalist anti-US war and little ideological attachment to
the Communist regime, as well as indicating a rapidly expanding labour force needing
employment. (Drummond, 2000).

3. Historical background

Components of traditional public spaces

Vietnamese traditional village ambience (prior to 1954) can be identified through the
agglomerate residential spaces, production, and cultivation spaces (Pham, 2014). Except for
the housing, the remaining structures were public areas shared by villagers and helped to bond
the community. According to Pham (2014), these public areas can be highlighted as below:

a. Village Gate(s) - Bamboo Bulwark - Defence booth: Every village had at least one
gate which was built in a variety of forms, from simple to solid. Some prosperous villages had
brick gates with introductive inscriptions. Together with gate(s), a surrounding dense thick

6
bamboo bulwark formed a strong shield for the village. For those returning home from far away,
a distant sight of bamboo bulwark and stepping through the village gate denoted the true sense of
going home. A defence booth was built near the gate as a resting place for on-duty nightingales
and a rain shelter for people working in the field. A booth is simply-structured, usually
consisting of a single compartment without door.

b. Communal house (Dinh), usually located at the vital location of a village, has alway
been the most important public building. It was recognized as both a public building (the
administrative headquarter and the common house for meetings) and a work of culture and
religion. In the past, it used to be a place for gatherings, litigation, tax collection, honouring
successful people, and accommodation for guests.

c. Pagoda - Temple - Shrine:

Every village had at least one pagoda, most of them were Mahayana Buddhist. With the
introduction of Taoism, some pagodas also include holy figures for worship. Buddhism is the
earliest religion introduced and widespread over most villages, and nearly all villages continue to
preserve their pagodas today. Religious structures like the pagoda are considered to be a key
spiritual support in people’s lives. On the day of the full moon every month and the first date of
the lunar calendar people visit these sites to pray for peace and fortune. The sites are shared by
everyone; especially the elderly and women are the keenest attendees.
Temples were dotted inside the village, including those dedicated to Confucius, martial
arts, ancestors, and patrimony (for craft villages). Confusian temples, apart from being places for
worshiping Confusius, were also gathering spaces of successful people or mandarins. A Temple
of Ancestors was built by each clan. In a village, kinship relations were very tight-knit, and
typically a village consisted of only a few clans. This underlines the special meaning of the
Temple of Ancestor, where common praying of a clan take place and generations of descendants
annually gather to pay tribute to their ancestors.

d. Market: Since ancient times villages have been quite economically self-contained and
self-sufficient. Not every village had a market. Generally four to seven villages often shared one
market which took place periodically once or a few times a month. Besides attending the market,
villagers also exchanged goods and food amongst each other.

e. Well - Pond : In Vietnamese folklore, water represents vitality. The meaning of water
in Vietnamese rural life was reflected in the public well and ponds of the village, depending on
the village's geography. Villagers were encouraged to share these sites to conserve the water
source, thus protecting a good layer of earth. The village well was prudently and solidly built of
bricks on good groundwater beds. People did not wash and clean directly at the well but took the
water home. A village public pond was located in the middle of the village adjacent to the temple
or pagoda and provided an airy space and landscape for religious events. Villagers shared the

7
pond in daily activities such as washing, bathing, chatting, singing and talking. Children often
gathered at the pond or wharf to play and learn to swim.

f. Farmland: Vietnamese villages were associated with wet rice cultivation. Villages
were always surrounded by rice fields which provided food and products. Most families had their
own plots of land, yet farming practices were highly collective and community-based. Rice fields
were not only the working place but also a ground for village gatherings.

The change of public space in traditional villages

Four key transformations in Vietnam’s history also had their impact on the use of public
space in Vietnam’s villages. In the Vietnamese feudal period, spaces that were not under the
direct control of the emperor, were under the control of village, its conventions, and its Council
of Notables. Two most important spaces, including the village communal house (dinh), and the
pagoda (chua) were restricted in access according to gender and status (women used the pagoda,
but were barred from the communal house). In the French colonial period (1873-1954), colonial
authorities allowed few oppositional social movements to surface in public space by interfering
with and controlling the Council of Notables which oversaw village matters (Drummond, 2000).
The post colonial state, up until the mid 1980s saw the reinscription of public spaces on a vast
scale. The state banned the council altogether and transformed the dinh into secular spaces used
for rice warehouses or other non-ritual purposes (Malarney, 1993, 1996) The state maintained
very tight control and surveillance over public space and even tighter control over the public
sphere (Lockhart, 1996; Marr, 1981). Visually, the most dramatic transformation was the
reinscription of the symbolic spaces with the symbolism of the nationalist and communist regime
and the creation of spatial icons of the communist regime (Logan, 1994). The contemporary
(post - doi moi) state still orders the use of public space , but residents and other users infringe
constantly on the more mundane areas of public spaces. The state no longer exercise the moral
authority which it held in the earlier socialist period and is no longer able to control rigidly the
use of all but the most symbolic of public space. People are coming to use public space for more
personal expressions. It is clear that the state is attempting to impose a notion of appropriate and
desirable use of “public space”, but that this is being faced with considerable, continual small-
scale, and individual infringement (Drummond, 2000). The Vietnamese government is following
a well-trodden path in attempting to control and eliminate informal use of space, as well as assert
the ownership of the city space by the entrenched urban residents in order to keep out rural
migrants, however impermanent their presence, as much as possible and to make the city
inhospitable for them (Drummond, 2000).

4. Methodology

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 This paper aims to define facts and values of public space (I) spatial/ material settings,
(II) function and existing uses, (III) meanings with regard to origin and formation process as
well as global/ local context; and therefore applied Qualitative approach with variation of
methods in Nhat Tan - a representative village in Hanoi urban fringe.

Nhat Tan - as a former agrarian village, had been under drastic impacts of a nearby
massive urban development project known as “Ciputra Hanoi” or West Thang Long which was
built in 2000 and operated in 2005. This project was the first foreign-developers owned new
urban area in Hanoi that manifested the beginning of globalization in Vietnam urbanization
during 2000s. In addition, as when the newly approved Hanoi Master Plan (2011) showed the
intention of shifting city centre to Western area of West lake, investment from national and
international developers rush to this area, including Nhat Tan village.

For data collection, the research team had conducted (1) Site investigation and (2) Social
discourses (Social survey, focus group interview)

Social survey
A convenient sampling method was applied to recruit participants as interviewees. All
interviews need to be in the survey were done based on participant consent and anonymously
when required. A cross-sectional study with 60 representatives households in three To dan phos 1
of Nhat Tan ward was carried out using a pre-designed questionnaire via face-to-face interviews
at their home and/or workplace.

Focus group interview: A group of eight citizens who are community administrative
leaders, community political leaders, representatives of social unions, representatives of
merchants working in local market of Nhat Tan village had been gathered in a focus group
interview.

5. Nhat Tan Case study

Nhat Tan village as former Nhat Chieu village is located in the northernmost area of
West lake, about three kilometres away from the city centre. According to Nguyen (2004), this
agrarian village had been geographically formed by the accretion and flow changing of the two
major water features of Hanoi, namely West lake and Red river. It has had a long history as the
sign of its ancient residential settlement area can be traced back to about seven hundreds years
ago. Since 1995, Nhat Tan has administratively upgraded as an urban ward. Being among
ancient villages of Hanoi, Nhat Tan village has always been widely famous for its heirloom
1
All surveyed ‘To dan phos’ are within ‘thon Bac’ as Northern residential group/cluster of former Nhat Tan village (authors)

9
peach tree2 cultivation profession which had been practiced since the very beginning of this
village till present. In addition, alike many other peri-urban villages, it also has been an
agricultural area that provides farming products (flowers and vegetables) for the city.

Figure.2. Location of case study Figure.1. Location of case study

(Source: NUCE workshop, 2017) (Source: NUCE workshop, 2017)

For centuries, Nhat Tan had always remained as tranquil rural village of which stable
physical settings that seems to last forever. However, within the recent two decades, this village
has truly been through an expeditious urbanization process turning from a rural village to an
urban neighborhood. There have been many major urban development activities and projects
contributing to such transformation, namely:

+ In 1995, Nhat Tan was institutionally defined as an urban ward. Its physical and
institutional settings have been changed/ improved following urban standards and performances
respectively.
+ 1998: ‘West Lake Water Park’ project started and the park opened in 2000;
+ In 2000, “Ciputra Hanoi”3 new urban area had been built in popular peach tree
planting area (‘Dinh đào’) of Nhat Tan - Phu Thuong villages. Accordingly, a large portion of
these farmland was taken for new development. To keep heirloom professional, Nhat Tan - Phu
Thuong farmers moved their peach garden to alternative places such as areas outside the dike
which used to be vegetable farmland.
+ In 2005, Lac Long Quan road which was on western side of West lake was renovated
and extended to promote transportation and to prevent encroachment onto the lake. This road had
divided Western residential group of Nhat Tan into two parts on each side of the road.

2
Traditionally, Vietnamese people use peach tree for house decorations and Spring welcome during Lunar New Year times. (Authors)
3
This was among first new urban areas in Hanoi ( and Vietnam), aiming to provide new/modern lifestyle with targeted customers as foreigners
and high income people. It started to operate in 2005 (Authors).

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 + During 2005-2015, West lake had been renovated through various landscape,
environmental and infrastructural projects. Hundreds of Nhat Tan houses facing West lake were
spatial affected by land recover and infrastructural network installation.
+ During 2011-2013, Nhat Tan bridge - an ODA transportation project connecting Hanoi
inner city and northern part, including Noi Bai international airport completed. It started to
operate in 2015. In addition, for the construction of the bridge, a sand exploitation location set
up by Red River and the front road of Nhat Tan village had been concreted and widen to
facilitate bulk trucks fetching sand..
+ In near future, Hanoi city authority plan to level and widen the main dike including the
part running through Nhat Tan. This signals significant changes on the two sides of the dike in
the future.

Based on the above descripted, we can see that Nhat Tan area are having been through a
restless period of urban development. External impacts and context changing had led to internal
physical and social changes inside Nhat Tan village.

5. Findings

a. Symbolic spaces

From the old days, communal house, temples, pagodas and shrines have become
symbolic places where Nhat Tan villagers organize significant community events. Our survey
reveals that when it comes to community life, Nhat Tan communal house is given the most
frequent reference over other places as 100% of the focus group and 55% of the social survey
mentioned ‘Dinh’/Communal house.. It more or less indicates that the communal house currently
has a great influence on the community life of Nhat Tan village.

With regards to the form, the communal house had been narrowed due to the expansion
of recent dike. .In terms of functions, three main functions of Nhat Tan communal house
(administration, religious practice, and sociocultural have vibrantly changed over time.

First of all, administrative function of the communal house has completely disappeared
upon the emergence of modern political system which manages the localities through
wards/communes People's Committees, which separates an administrative place out of a
traditional ritual one. It remains a place for people to meet and round up with talks of no political
concern but individual daily life. Although communal houses in use were restricted in gender
and status (only man and highly respected people), this space nowadays can be accessed by
everyone, which represent for the gender-equal society.

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 The religious practice is demonstrated by the worship of Village Tutelary God.
Nowadays, these practices are maintained and widespread for not only the villagers but people of
adjacent neighbourhoods, as local people put more weight on spiritual life. Another notable
feature of today's worship practice is the shift of gender roles. Nowadays men and women play
the same role, and women perform this role even more often. . Ms Hanh - a villagers who lived
in Nhat Tan for more than 40 years said that even she did not go to Nhat Tan communal house
monthly, she has always visited it during New Year times and traditional festival with her
family, friends and/or with local women union of Nhat Tan ward.

In terms of social-culture, firstly, as a way to convey the tradition of knowledge pursuit

and learning spirit of Nhat Tan village in particular (and Vietnamese people in general), the
House served the first place where those who achieved academic honours had to return home to
pay thanks to ancestors and also the avenue for villagers' festival of glory. In today's village
festival, students of academic excellence or passing the national university entrance exam are
honoured at the Communal House. Furthermore, Nhat Tan Communal House is where cultural
events and performances of people. Upon these occasions people meet, exchange, foster
traditional and update modern culture. Lastly and most importantly, the House serves traditional
community festival activities to commemorate the Village Tutelary God which is a great festival
for all villagers including far-away villagers to round up.

It can be seen from the above facts that Nhat Tan Communal House sustains a pool of
significance to the village people. Despite the disappearance of administrative function and the
role as the representative of local authority and village autonomy, the Communal House has
other meanings preserved and promoted. Local people still use, love and symbolize their
communal house as their home. The House itself is no longer isolated from the masses of people,
but welcomes all community members and tightens their closeness. Withstanding the powerful
influence of urbanization, the Communal House remains as symbol for those born and grown in
villages or former-villagers.

B. Communal places

Market

Nhat Tan Market is not an archaic public place associated with Nhat Tan Village from
the very beginning, however for decades it has played an important role as well as possesses
substantial influence that goes beyond the local level. This market was settled about 30 years ago
when trading and commercial activities start to be allowed after long time of banning in
collective period. Locating at the strategic location at the front of village and on the main road, it
has grown inconstantly, starting from several temporary stalls to a major city market facilitating
ample goods and services nowadays.

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 In terms of meanings, the most worth mentioned is the vital role of supporting
community in the past and its declination in modern times. The formation of Nhat Tan Market
and the increasing of its city influence had created a new status for Nhat Tan. Beside being a
well known agrarian village as before, it also became a marketplace promoting interrelationship
between communities.All of the people who are daily users of Nhat Tan market said that there
are people and merchants from surrounding communities and even other provinces come there
for commodity purchased and business.   Besides, there is a fact that Nhat Tan market has been
used quite regularly among Nhat Tan people. All of the surveyed people (100%) said that they
did go to Nhat Tan market at least once or twice times during their staying in this neighborhood
while nearly half of them (or their family) visited this location weekly for grocery. Therefore,,
this market also help to promote local community as it has been a daily communal location
where people practice buying, selling, meeting , exchanging information etc. A group of local
villagers as merchants also had formed a stable occupational relationship in the market.

Nowadays, Nhat Tan market is now facing massive challenges. There is a growing trend
in Vietnamese urban lifestyle affecting traditional markets in Hanoi, including Nhat Tan market.
Recently, not all city people consider local market as the only destination for daily items
purchased. Because of food safety concerns and changing lifestyle, many take supermarkets,
private stores, franchise convenience stores as alternatives option. . All  surveyed young citizens
of Nhat Tan market (about 35% of survey participants), especially people whose origins are from
other places showed concern about food safety and they do not put trust on food sold in the
market. Another reason might come from the explosion of information technology in modern
times that leads to a new shopping mode with convenient online sale - buy and delivery.
Respectively, people do not need to go out for shopping and hence traditional markets might also
lose a lot of customers.

Road network

The road network’s structure has been remained, but its landscape and its facilities have
been changed. According to the villagers, village roads in the past were just dark, muddy routes
with open gardens on either sides and no streetlight. Houses by main road and houses by alleys
showed no visual difference. Since 1990s, when Nhat Tan village was recognized as an urban
ward, all of its roads and alleys then were eventually concrete, equipped with lights and cable
lines so that these have been totally alike urban road network. According to Ms Nga, a local
people who has lived here for life, most of houses in the village have been renovated into a more
modern types. They are now having concrete wall, higher building density; especially houses by
main roads and houses nearby market.

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 In terms of activity, main village road has been emerged as vibrant commercial and
multi-use space. In collective period, as a result of abandoning of all private sector’s commercial
activities, village roads were quiet environment for slow movement, and were spacious
playgrounds for children also. They were truly public assets while showed no interest conflict.
Nowadays, most of houses on main roads, have first floors as stores, restaurants, workshop. The
main reason lies on the lost of farmland while having no sufficient knowledge to access recent
labor market except doing small businesses. Moreover, greetings, storytelling, shopping, social
interactions and entertaining (playing chess, playing cards) of local Nhat Tan people have been
witnessed widely. Trading activities actually have transformed Nhat Tan village routes into town
streets; and these roads-streets have become open spaces. All make a vivid picture, suggesting a
public forum in the city. Since traditional communal house, pagodas and temples is are sacred
places occasionally and sometimes exclusively used by villagers; main roads seem to be
alternative public places for Nhat Tan villagers in modern times. They are truly secular public
domain for everyone , showing life diversity and vibrancy, having a modern breath and tolerance
of new elements.

The main dike

In terms of function and uses, in addition to the vital protecting roles, the dike was also a
space nourishing communal, public activities of villagers through periodic dyke rehabilitation
and annual irrigation regulation. Such embankment area was ‘informal’ meeting and/or dating
place and playground for local population, especially young people. Today, Nhat Tan dike
retains only its infrastructural and transportation roles while gradually lost its social meanings to
local community. Dike rehabilitation also has no longer been a local joint activity as it is under
the responsibility of the state (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) or of the city
authority. Local people also do not use dike embarkment as a dating location and/or playground
anymore as they have alternative places in the city. Therefore, the responsibility and attachment
of the people to their dike, to their community through the dike greatly reduced.

While the main dike has eventually lost its fundamental influence to social life of Nhat
Tan village, there are infrastructural components which were formerly overlooked now have
transformed into a more useful and meaningful performance. Firstly, It is a major road parallely
running by the main dike. With humanscale size, diverse shophouses and busy street life, it now
has been a lucrative space as well as a close space for social activities. Secondly and lastly, it is
the dike gate as the sole entrance of North and East residential groups of Nhat Tan village. The
initial role of this entrance was to ensure flooding control. Nowadays, because of little influence
of flooding, the dike gates are used as a typical main entrance. This doorway are of great
significance to the community because they act like a true gates of the village. It Is a strategic
location for control access and more importantly, it brings symbolic meaning to the village
boundaries, represents for the community autonomy.

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Farmland

Farmland plays a key role in ensuring the stability and livelihood of people over
generations. In rural villages, fields and villages, people and (farming) production are naturally
inseparable and tied together into a sustainable unity from generation to generation. This close
and tight relationship has existed for hundreds of years in Nhat Tan Village. Nevertheless, it has
experienced dramatic changes under the intensive urbanization of Hanoi and contemporary
movements.

The first fact to be highlighted is that Nhat Tan has lost a lot of agricultural land. In the
past, most of villagers were peach growers who cultivated in their orchards and on the fields.
Today less than a half of village population pursues agricultural career (NUCE workshop, 2017)
and the agricultural space is limited outside the dike only. Peach planting farmers still present
while large-scale intensive vegetables ones become rare. This is mainly attributed to the loss of
agricultural land in 2000-2015 period as a result of urban development activities. The hardship
and low incomes of agricultural production compared to other industries has lead to a shift of
occupation in Nhat Tan society which are toward reduction of agriculture and increase of trade -
services.

Moreover, Nhat Tan's areas has witnessed a sharp rise of land price for past twenty years,
which boosts the gentrification process here. Villagers sell land and migrate while new
immigrants come and build houses for rent, open shops, hotels and many other services.
Population - occupation homogeneity fading out, fragmented collective farming environment and
changed farming practices make Nhat Tan less as a village and more as an urban area.

It is interesting to note that while many of original values have declined, Nhat Tan
agricultural activities go on with more variations, leading to the emerging of new public spaces.
First of all, being born and raised in an agricultural background, lots of Nhat Tan villagers
maintain their farming practices through small-scale vegetables growing. This could be in form
of some vegetable beds in the field, small gardens in private yards, some boxes for vegetables
growing at the front door, grid plates at the dike embankment or a roof garden - all are for clean
veggies, for fun and for neighbour relationship cementing through food exchange (NUCE
workshop, 2017). . With nearly three quarters of surveyed people admit they are having
vegetable from home and their neighbors’ gardens, vegetable home cultivation and food
exchange are truly a sign for the persisting of human and nature relationships. A new highlight-
worthy trend among Hanoians, especially youngsters, is the search for natural spaces and
farmland as destinations for sightseeing and photography. That is why Nhat Tan's fields of peach
trees become one of Hanoi's attractions which draws flocks of visitors who fancy sightseeing,
buying trees and having fun every spring. Quick-minded farmers have transformed their peaches

15
and vegetable gardens into scenery and poetic spaces that serve recreational services. Thus, the
meaning of Nhat Tan's production space parallel with the urban farming trend has changed in the
mind of local people. Although its production function has been declined, Nhat Tan's farmland
has become a tourism attraction winning the heart of both urban communities and foreign
visitors and gained new broader roles as a public space. This positive change brings sustainable
values to peri-urban villages like Nhat Tan at present and in the time to come.

6. Discussion and Conclusion

The changes in form, function, and meaning of traditional village’s public space are
summarized in following table:

Table 1. Changes of Nhat Tan village’s public spaces.

 
  Form Function Meaning

Communal The architectural form has Loses administrative function Local pride
house (Dinh) been well preserved.    
  Retains the ritual function Bonds the community and
The area was narrowed due   generations
to dike road widening. Retains the socio cultural activities  
Enhances the connection
with adjacent
communities

Market Enlarged and renovated Provide fresh food and commodity Connector of farmers and
from temporal stalls into for local people and for city people city residents
market álso  
Supports the life of
vulnerable group

Road network Retain the original Retain transportation function A lucrative space
structure    
  Develop commercial and social A public forum
Being upgraded activities
 
Change landscape

Main dike Widening Retain infrastructural and Protect city life

  transportation functions.  
Upgraded   Support to provide safe
  Alternative production space food
     

Farmland Narrowed Production space Lucrative space

   
Provide recreational service for Local pride
urban people

16
  

With regard to the form, the village infrastructure has been retained; the spiritual center and
production space have been narrowed; the commercial space has been enlarged. With regard to
the function, most of space changes from one space-one function into multi use one, except
communal house which was a multi purpose hall originally and recently, its function was
restricted to ritual and cultural activities. In term of meaning, village’s public space has become
more important to villagers.It help to tighten the community of villagers living inside and outside
the village, and to strengthen the relationship with surrounding communities. Moreover, it also
become a lucrative space and provide important source to support villagers’ life who are the
most suffered in the globalization and urbanization process since they are not well-prepared and
trained to adapt with new labor market. It reflects the change from closed and spiritual -
production center community to open and more commercial one. It also shed a light on
globalization process, rather than homogenize the culture and modernize the space following the
modern planning theory, the people-led urbanism has resulted in flexible spaces which drive
away from planer’s concept in use and government’s idea in order. The term “public space” in
context of Vietnam, therefore, should be considered as “pseudo-public space” since people are
always on negotiation with government to personalize the public spaces for fundamental living
purpose.

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