Spaces more or less visible: Supporting the inhabitation of the banks of the Red River, Hanoi, Vietnam.

The Raft project is a large scale architectural proposal that combines a mixture of infrastructural programs that were designed and strategically configured as the culmination of research upon the urban spatiality of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.

Observations made concerning Old Quarter Hanoi and its surrounds, and subsequent research conducted in Melbourne, developed notions of difference between the space of Hanoi as inhabited, and the space of Hanoi as devised

The space of Hanoi as devised is that framed, defined, organised or derived from the structure of the city in conjunction with its physical presence in infrastructure, landscape and buildings. They are spaces more visible

The space of Hanoi as inhabited are those spaces related to activity occurring within the city, such as gatherings, markets, and, particular to Hanoi, the external beer halls called Bia Hoi that operate throughout the city in the early evening. As ‘occurrences’, such spaces have a duration, and leave no physical mark upon the built environment: they are not definable voids removed from the solid of the city, spaces less visible.

The conclusion of the research was that due to the effects of economic and social change bought about by the Doi Moi policy in the 1980’s, the relationship between more visible and less visible

space in Hanoi had become reversed: More visible space, that defined by the built environment, still provided space, but could no longer identify its character or reveal its structure. The primary spatial conditions in Hanoi had become those of activity, event, of its inhabitation rather than its manifestation.

To explore the architectural implication s of such a condition the Raft project was developed. This project endeavoured to make the factors that produce less visible space primary to its strategy and to its architectural articulation.

The Raft project was also a response to particular issues of safety and amenity associated with uncontrolled housing upon the unprotected banks of the Red River. The majority of the city is protected from the river by a dyke system, though new housing has occurred in flood plain between it and the river. This new housing activity is a direct result increased urbanisation brought about by Doi Moi.

The Raft stretches the boundary between Wet and Dry into a new territory. It is an inclined plane that connects to an existing lake at its low point and then gradually rises above the existing ground level along its length. It is formed by dragging existing soil from lower lying areas of the site and laying on top of the existing ground to create a terrain increasingly protected from floodwater.

Rather than define and arrange programme, the project uses the strategic forces of the water space and the needs and desires of the existing

city to suggest use and determine its location.

To determine what might occur within the raft, the needs of the city that could be met by this new territory are investigated.

Subsequent programme is defined, as a combination of dry and flood brief items. In this way, needs in flood can be accommodated within needs in dry, and vice versa. Programmatic simultaneity, adjacency, and contingency, drawn from the qualities of activity – less visible – space, is merged with the distributive action of the water space to form the Raft’s architectural strategy.

There are five key architectural programs within the Raft.

Fishfarmhousing: a dwelling model based on a floating version of the shophouse.

Drainpools and accretive housing: A drainage infrastructure for the illegal housing that provides a network of pools throughout the area to provide external space, environmental cooling and drainage channels.

Hotel/Medical: A combination of emergency functions for storage and accommodation and hotel conference facilities.

Bus Station: New commuter bus station and airport link. Supports relief market space in flooding condition.

Relief Market Housing: temporary relief market space used when main market is flooded. Combined with housing type for increased protection from flood.