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Hanoi gears up
Preservation expert to speak By Burl Burlingame
for its millennium
by saving past
Star-BulletinHanoi has a millennium birthday coming up. It seems that in 1010, after chasing out the Chinese, King Ly Thai Lo imagined he saw a golden dragon take to the sky, leaping out of a sleepy fishing village.
Good place, thought King Ly, for my new capitol city. He started calling the place Thang Long -- "Soaring Dragon" -- and it became the center of government for the region now known as Vietnam.
Early in the 1800s, the capitol shifted to Hue, and the literal Vietnamese began referring to the former capitol as "the city between the rivers," or Hanoi.
And so, in 2010, Hanoi turns 1000. Despite limited resources, the Vietnamese are getting serious about historic preservation, keeping alive the city's architectural legacy, particularly in light of the upcoming anniversary.
Southeast Asia in general, with its rich and turbulent mixture of ancient empires, recent colonizations and modern industrialization, has become a flashpoint for a growing awareness of preservation issues.
Hoang Huu Phe, a world expert in Hanoi's architectural history, will talk about "Preserving Old Hanoi" in a free lecture at noon tomorrow in the Old Archives Building.
Hoang is assistant to the general director of Vietnam Construction & Import-Export Corp. and a lecturer at the University of London.
"Hanoi," Hoang tells us, "is actually three cities, and we call them by their age -- Ancient, Modern and New. Hanoi is not a very large city, either. In 1981, it was only 40 square kilometers."
(This amounts to 15.5 square miles, about the same as the urban core of Honolulu.)
Since 1981, the definition of "Hanoi" has changed to include the surrounding countryside, so the size of the actual urban core is unknown. "But is has grown substantially since 1981," he said.
The Ancient part of the city, an area clustered around a tradesmens' and shopkeepers' district called "36 Streets," is also home to the densest population in the city and has remained virtually unchanged for the last century.
The historic parts of Hanoi, Hoang says, survived the massive bombing raids of the Vietnam War almost untouched. The bombs were aimed at industrial and military targets and rarely missed.
"Hanoi has a rich fabric of architecture, like any other city with a colonial past," said Hoang. "There are some parts of the city where -- when you walk through them -- you feel like you're going back in time.
Born in Central Vietnam, Hoang went to school in Hanoi in 1968, then received a civil-engineering scholarship to a state-run university in Kiev, Ukraine. He returned to Vietnam in the mid-'70s and worked as an architect, primarily designing schools and arenas.
In 1987, he received another scholarship from the Asian Institute of Technology, and his thesis -- a technical description of Hanoi's historic facade, illustrated with his own charming drawings -- proved to be a best-seller.
He expounded on his thesis as an article in the journal Habitat International, which earned him another scholarship, an architectural prize and an invitation to study and lecture in London.
More prizes and journal articles followed, but Hoang has continued to focus on the many-influenced architecture and urban planning of Vietnam.
"Because of (the upcoming anniversary) and a desire to keep Hanoi special, there is a kind of organic conservation movement growing.
"Of course, there is no money! Boards are forming to seek funding. Education is part of it. We have to decide if 'preservation' is more active intervention, or is it adaptive reuse, logical changes in a building's use while preserving what's special about it?"
Another problem is that the civic infrastructure -- sewage, electricity, water, etc -- is "now very, very old, back from French colonial times. How do you modernize while retaining character? How do you modernize without relocating people?"
Unlike American cities, Asian cities are not built around commuters. "It's a different model of city structures," said Hoang. "People live where they work. That means preservation issues are different as well."
Meaning that, generally unlike America, historic preservation will directly impact lifestyles in Asian cities. It's not an abstract issue.
"Every city in Asia is facing this problem," said Hoang.
"Preserving Old Hanoi" is the subject of Hoang Huu Phe's free talk at noon tomorrow at the Old Archives Building on 'Iolani Palace grounds. Preservation expert to speak
The talk is part of the "Experts at the Palace" series of preservation lectures sponsored by the Historic Preservation Program in American Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Historic Hawaii Foundation and the Friends of 'Iolani Palace.
Upcoming "Experts" talks -- same time, same place -- are:
March 23 -- "Saving Hawaii's Outdoor Sculptures" with conservator Laura Gorman.
The UH is also offering a couple of six-credit field schools in preservation this summer. Maunalani Heights will be examined May 22 through June 16; and Bangkok, Thailand, will be studied July 2 through Aug. 13. Tuition and fees for both programs run $1,022.
In addition, the cost of roundtrip transportation, lodging and meals for the Bangkok program runs approximately $2,000 per person. Registration deadline: April 30.
Information: 956-8570 or 956-9546.
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