Urban Green Areas – their functions under a changing lifestyle of ...

expanded into new areas which were given a "gridded plan" forming avenues and spacious
streets which are still present in areas of "western streets".
A large park was constructed at the West Lake, together with an amusement-cum-sport
green zone in the west side of the city (including Quần gựa stadium, which is still in-use
recently). This plan gives evidence of the development of urban green areas in Hanoi and at
the same time it is an important marker in which the first plan of such areas in the city was
elanorated.
The well-matched and imposing "Paris style" spatial axes nevertheless committed a serious
fault. These axes formed diagonals from the door opening into the old South to Ba Dinh
Square (now is Dien Bien Phu street) which intersected at an angle into the wall of the old
palace (constructed around 1010). This new structure is completely inconsistent with the
rest of the old palace area, especially with the very important Flag tower (Cot Co).
In 1943, the deputy director of architecture and urban planning, Louis Georges Pineau,
created a new master plan. He came to Hanoi in 1930, continuing the work of Ernest
Hesbrard and had deeply studied narrative architecture. He had many well executed
drawings and written notes of terraced houses in the Old Quarter. Those drawings and notes
were shown and attracted much attention at the colonial exhibition in Paris many years ago.
Pineau's master plan reduced the extension to the west of Ho Tay, and fully exploited the
belt parallel with Lang Street (along the To Lich River). He took advantage of high ground
for housing construction and of low land areas for green trees. At this time, the political
situation was difficult and there was little opportunity to deploy great and majestic works.
The world war restricted investment from Frence in Indochina, and because of this little of
this plan was put into practice. Two years after elaboration of this plan, the national
liberation revolutions broke out by which all objectives of the colonial government became
moot.
1.2.1.3 Period 1954-1964
Hanoi had a 152 km 2 area including eight districts with a population of 37,000 and a further
16,000 in the city outskirts (1955 statistics). Right from the first days of taking over Hanoi,
the Communist Party and Government paid attention to the planning work. With the help of
Soviet, Polish, Chinese experts, Hanoi had been researched and a population of from
700,000 to 1,000,000 inhabitants was forecast (see NGHIEM 2004).
In June 1961, Hanoi had been extended to an area of 584 km 2 , 91,000 people, now lived in
the four main inner-city districts (which are Ba Dinh Hoan Kiem Street, Hai Ba Trung) and
the four suburban districts. During this period, the government implemented a master plan
to guide and build the basis for economic development in Hanoi. Soviet experts had
researched plans for planning the capitalon a scale of a million people, with about 20,000
hectares of land and with development options towards the northern Red River.
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