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Landscape as Urban Structure: the
Case of Cantho, Vietnam
Kelly Shannon
KU Leuven, Department of Architecture,
Urbanism and Planning (ASRO), Architecture and
Urbanism Research Group (OSA), Kasteelpark
Arenberg 1, B-3001, Heverlee, Belgium
(e-mail: kelly.shannon@asro.kuleuven.be)
Abstract
Cantho and its surroundings attest to an alternative
concept of an indigenous modernity, based upon
cultural hybridization and absorption of multiple foreign
influences. The impressive transformation of a regional
landscape into a colonized urban nature by the French
was succeeded by a modernization of colonization by
the Americans. Yet, the impositions did not cancel out
the essence of the region’s indigenous modernity –
namely that of an intensive relationship of landscape
and urbanity. Today, the Mekong delta’s indigenous
urban identity is threatened by ex-nihilo urbanization.
Modern master planning is in direct contradiction
with the native modernity. The late-Fordist visions for
Cantho – replete with large-scale investment and tabula
rasa city building are at least half (if not one) a century
too late. This paper will distill the layered narratives
of Cantho and present a series of cartographies and
interpretative analysis which in turn lead to alternative
scenarios for the rapidly urbanizing city. The hypothesis
is that the urbanization can continue to work with
the existing logics of the landscape as opposed to
against them in the drive towards modernization.
Key words
Cantho, Vietnam, urbanization, landscape.
Harnessing the Potential of a Liquid Geography
Cantho (fig. 1) is a thriving city in Vietnam’s southern
region of the Mekong Delta. Unlike the north and center
of the country, the region has only been occupied by
Vietnamese for approximately three centuries. South
Vietnam (called Nam Bo) was known as a frontier region
with a rich liquid geography: ‘A largely waterlogged world
of black mud and mangrove trees, bordered by thick tropical
forests where the land rose away from the flooded
plain. Drainage canals had only slowly begun to ensure
that some areas were protected from the annual floods
that came with the rainy season and the steady rise of
the Mekong’s level, its volume swollen both by the rains
and by the melting of snows in faraway Tibet’ (Osborne
2000:21).
The region’s landscape was the primary determinant in
its urban structure. In the early feudal era, the swampy
area of Nam Bo was transformed into fertile plains for
wet paddy cultivation. Settlements developed linearly,
following the alluvial, non-salted high-land banks of rivers
and canals. Villages advanced following the construction
of the canal system. Unlike other parts of Vietnam (due
to strict urbanization regulations), the population of the
south was allowed to freely occupy land, motivated by
the possibility to cultivate new lands. Market cities were
established along the natural waterways and trade flourished.
A network of market places, transient stations for
traders, service stations for the repair and maintenance
of boats and supply of fresh water and areas for rice
processing (oriented towards export) was established –
many of which were floating on the inter-connected
waterways. The delta has been called ‘modern by nature’
with a geographically amenable to the commodity
economy and international trade which easily accommodated
cultural hybridization (Taylor 2001). In pre-colonial
times, the Mekong Delta was a thriving hub of regional
commerce, a major exporter of rice and a place where
merchant ships clustered in search of profitable cargo
(Li and Reid 1993). From the feudal era through colonial
times and until present day, there has been a regimented
and strictly governed policy of public works and land
reclamation to, on the one hand, increase land productivity
and, on the other hand, to create settlement in an
organized manner – as ‘agricultural colonies’ (dinh dien)
and ‘military colonies’ (don dien).
In the mid-18th century, Cantho was established as a
regional center due to its strategic location at the confluence
of the Hau (lower branch of the mighty Mekong)
and Cantho Rivers. At 100 km from the East Sea (also
known as the South China Sea), it was far enough away
from the direct vagaries of coastal habitation, yet close
enough to function as a competitive entrepôt city. Thus,
Cantho was established as Tay Do (the ‘Western Capital’)
and was an important crossroads between areas
deep in the delta and Saigon. During the colonial era (in
1876 the entire Mekong Delta fell under control of the
French), massive capital investment by the government
of Indochina was expended for infrastructure: railways,
port facilities, roadways, bridges (known as Eiffel ponts)
and the massive irrigation and transport canal system of
the Mekong Delta – specifically directed at the promotion
of commercial agriculture. The French radically transformed
Vietnam’s lower Mekong delta from scarcely-populated
swamp into the granary of Vietnam and a bustling
heartland of commercial export agriculture (Taylor
2001:6). From 1890-1936, 1,360 kilometers of main
canals and 2,500 kilometers of auxiliary canals were dug
by a combined effort of machines and manual labor – in
addition to 3,000 kilometers of inter-provincial land routes
between 1880-1913 (Nguyen Quang Vinh 1996:46). Prior