My 2013 Portfolio by Dzung Nguyen

dzung do nguyenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s portfolio | 2013 planning + urban design + hydrology + cartography

Year

My vision of what constitutes good design evolves with people’s changing needs and their rich living traditions.

Projects

Scale

Theme

2007

Walking to LRT stations: a GIS exploration

City-wide

GIS / Transit-Oriented Development

2007

16th Avenue North: The People’s Corridor

Corridor

Urban Design / Transit-Oriented Development / Bus Rapid Transit

2008

Sen Viet Eco Village

District

Township Development / Urban design

2009

Riviere in Saigon South

Site

Urban design / High-density Urban Development

2010

Phuong Nam University Campus

Site

Campus planning / Urban design

2010

Viet Thuan Thanh Eco-city

District

Comprehensive planning / Waterfront development

2011

Phuoc Giang Regional Plan

Region

Regional planning / Land conservation / Urban Design

2012

Water as a system: a GIS exploration of Downtown Atlanta’s hydrolic dynamics

District

GIS / Hydrology

2012

Kallang River Site Design Competition

Site

Water-sensitive urban design / High-density Urban Development

2012

Built to Drive: Can higher density reduce Atlantans’ addiction to drive?

Regional

Land-use - Travel behaviour interaction / Statistical modeling

2012

Playground Design Charrette for An My Commune

Site

Participatory Design

2013

Making the Sense of San Francisco

City-wide

3-Dimension GIS / Visual analysis

2013

Urban Form - Hydrology Interaction in Saigon River Basin

Regional

GIS / Remote sensing / Hydrology / Urban ecology

Dzung Do Nguyen

nguyen.do@gmail.com dothivietnam.org

Site survey of the actual pedestrian shed around Heritage station confirms the GIS study.

10-minute walkable-distance from LRT stations - Downtown Calgary

Walking is a complementary mode to rail rapid transit. The city of Calgary defines a walkable-totransit urban area (WUA) as an 800m radius circle center at the LRT stations. Using a GIS network analysis tool, I attempted to measure the size of actual pedestrian sheds (APS) around stations and the number of people livingwithin these areas. In the Downtown, where the grid network defines urban patterns, APS equals to 84% of the WUA. In the suburb, where dendritic network champions the city layout, APS can be as small as 20% of the WUA.

The study also illustrates that as of 2001, approximately 55,000 people living within APSs and 107,000 people within the citydefined WUAs, accounting for 6% and 12% of the city's total population respectively. The study also suggests that Calgary can achieve the goal of having 10% of Calgarians living within pedestrian sheds of LRT stations through improving and extending walking pathways instead of increasing residential density, which is politically difficult to achieve.

10-minute walkable-distance from LRT stations - Calgary South Suburb

Actual versus city-defined walkable-tostation areas

APS area WUA area

Population density in APS areas

Regional Destinations

City Centre

Client: N/A (Academic work) Location: Calgary, Canada Scale: 56 square kilometers Complete year: 2007 Role: Urban Designer/Researcher This project analyzes the urban design potential for an extensive public transit system for Calgary's 16th Avenue North one of the city's major through streets. • The plan explores a land use strategy for a transit-first policy and design opportunity for the implementation of TransitOriented Development along the corridor. • The Plan aims to provide mobility in a regional and local scale. This is accomplished through the provision of a frequent and comprehensive cross-town and in-bound bus-rapid transit service. • A healthy land use and transportation relationship is obtained through supplying bus-rapid transit service to the Corridor and developing diverse activity nodes along the Avenue that provide places for living, working and playing.

Honorable Mention Calgary Mayor’s Biannual Urban Design Award 2007

Client: Invesco Development Location: Ho Chi Minh City South Vietnam Scale: 6 hectares/ 300,000 GFA Complete year: 2008 Role: Lead urban designer & illustrator (hand-sketch)

The combination of towers and lower street-front buildings contribute to creating intimate pedestrian-scaled environments as well as dramatic skylines. All these work to take advantage of the river and the city. While the small site and towers produce significant density of development, the landscaping and careful placement of all structures is orchestrated to provide amenities and beauty to this riverside. The most significant aspect of this project is the use of a formal diagonal axis to spatially organize all high-rise towers. The axis leads the viewer from an entrance mall past a pond through an undulating series of hills to a major pedestrian plaza and on to the Ong Be riverside marked with a pier and light towers.

Section A-A

The small hills conceal parking areas that help reduce the towersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; parking requirement. The curved boulevard further orders the composition and brings a simple understanding to the order of functional uses. Shopping Mall

Office Tower

Garden Hill Open Hall Crescent Avenue Plaza Parking

Condo Riverside Park Lighthouse

Phuong Nam University Campus Master Plan Temple of Literature, 11th century | Hanoi, Vietnam

Rubber Tree Farm

Dormitory The Phuong Nam University Campus Master Plan is based on the simple Vietnamese tradition of street and courts. The pattern of broad streets and narrow corridors combined with courtyards of various sizes provide an effective means of way - finding and creating a strong sense of place.

Student StudentCenter Center

Cooling Pond

The campus is divided between an urban and a more natural environment that enhances the contrast between the two settings. This contrast creates a dramatic visual setting for the University as well as provides students with a richness offered from both experiences. The central courtyard flanked by the library and administration building creates a heart for The University and provides a focus for campus life. The Central Courtyard supports academic life and complements the daily rhythm of work and relaxation. Student and faculty housing occupy the west periphery allowing access and views to the surrounding village and countryside.

Park & Playing Fields

Hotel Main entrance Rubber Tree Farm Central Library & Administration Faculties Central Court Classrooms Labs Lecture Theatres Adapting to the hot climate of Vietnam via cross ventilation and protecting buildings from the direct sun not only provides a simple and effective means of strengthening the identity of Phuong Nam University, but it is also based on common sense principles and traditional traditional wisdom.

Image Credit: Thanh Binh Consulting

Much like the heritage building of the Temple of Literature, the Central Library of Phuong Nam University gives meaning to the philosophical idea of the empty stage - helping to empty the mind in order to receive knowledge and wisdom. h Binh Consulting

Site Plan

Client: Viet Thuan Thanh Corp. Location: Dong Nai province South Vietnam Scale: 500 hectares Complete year: 2011 Role: Lead planner

Planning concept

Urban Hub

Green belt

Grading strategy

2m 1.5 m water low land (seasonal flooding)

70% land fill needed is accommodate on site

Tourist port

Villa on piles

Wetland Villa on piles

Tourist port Multifunctional Reservoir

400

800 m

image credit: Thanh Binh Consulting

Client: Dong Nai province / Sonadezi Corp. | Location: Dong Nai Province | Scale: 3,250 hectares | Complete year: 2011 | Theme: Regional Planing, Urban Design, TOD, Conservation Development | Skill: Project coordination, Illustrator | Role: Lead urban planner & urban designer | Status: First runner-up in the Binh Duong international planning competition for province Phuoc Giang Region

A Form-based Code is introduced as a complement to design to achieve a desirable urban form. Additionally, to provide a good illustration of the future developement as well as to meet the design requirement of the contest, a conceptual physical plan for each growth area is produced. Growth Area 4 is selected to demonstrate in greater detail an urban design plan to achieve a sustainable and context-sensitive urban developement.

Phuoc Giang Transect Plan

T1 Ecological/Agricultural reserve T2 Rural settlement T3 Sub-urban T4 General urban T5 Urban center S Special use (ie. industrial) Civic/Landmark building

South-East Region Context Phuoc Giang

Dong Nai province

Taking part in a planning competition for Phuoc Giang are, north of Bien Hoa city, we want to give the local government and communities an alternative solution and a set of planning tools to contiually nurture and sustain the environmental, social and economic well-being of the area. Our key strategies include: Conserve is to develop: fertile cropping land and rural settlements are preserved to maintain environmental sustainability, rural characteristics and also uniquely scenic views for new urban developments;

Connect to be the heart of the region: Phuoc Giang will be connected with the entire region through a new road network, an inter-city BRT service and a waterway transit system; Grow along the edge: urban growht areas are determined to be along the west and south boundary to take advantage of the economic vitality of Binh Duong - Bien Hoa industrial belt and existing regional thoroughfares. This strategy also helps to reserve the most productive agricultural lands as well as to protect the environment and the water quality upstream of the Dong Nai River;

Lighthouse/Observation Tower Green Connector

Waterfront Theatre

Central Market

Reservoir Dong Nai Nai river river Dong Vinh Hiep rice field

Growth Area 4 image credit: Thanh Binh Consulting Create a desirable micro-climate : the street Provide good mobility & accessibility: the street network is laid out in a grid pattern and a multi-modal network is laid out to follow wind patterns, transit system is integrated into the urban fabric. enhancing ventilation and avoid sunlight approaching buildings at right angles.

Stormwater management: beside building canals and retention ponds to mitigate flood risk, on-site infil-tration is emphasized through design and develop-ment code to reduce run-off quantity.

Connect & nurture public spaces: green spaces and public plazas are linked to enhance the walking experience. Buildings are required to integrated with and frame public spaces.

Flood zones 500-year 100-year 50-year

Site In nature, every drop of water is part of a hydrolic cycle. In the city, modern engineering manages to drain stormwater as waste then import, treat and deliver tap water from other sources. We have seperated water spatially, organizationally and temporally. Using GIS as a measuring tool, I

estimated water demand in Downtown Atlanta’s one-sqm watershed, mapped the area’s water system dynamics in meta-diagram format, and quantified run-off flows in time and volume. Results: Total daily demand is 3,459,000 gal/day, 85% serving as non-residential use. The area also receives 2,494,000 gal/day of precipitation in average, equaling to 47% of its demand.

Building footprints + Topography Only 35% of this clean resource becomes useful as it fall into greenery. The rest flows to lower elevations and may cause flooding along I-85/I-75 Highway as we observed in November in 2010. Using USGS’ regression models plus ArcHydro and spatial analysis tools in ArcGIS, I calculated and graphed peak-flow volumes and time lags for different storm

Surface + Flood risk events (2-, 10-, 25-, and 50-year). Design implications: One flooding alieviation scenario is developed to reduce run-off by 36% and turn a 25-year stormevent into a 2-year one. In this scenario: - Every building can catch and store (green roof/cistern) one-inch rainfall (24 hours) or 517,000 gal/day; - ‘Green street’ design is applied for 25% of total road length to remove one-inch rainfall from drainage system; - Develope a 16-acre constructed wetland on vacant lots along I-75/I-85 highway to store and filter 62,000 gal/day. Hydrograph

In the Kallang River project, context- and watersensititve urban design and landscape framework were combined to accomplishes high-density urban delopement while maintaining Singaporeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s last historic coastal park and its stormwater retention capacity.

Planning Parameters

In this complex design challenge, programming comes first. I built a mathematic model that demonstrate all planning parameters: small developable land, a maximum overall site coverage of 25%, a provision of 3800 housing units and 3000 hotel rooms plus 1.1 space/unit parking requirement. In this ambitious development assignment, different design disciplines should be interwoven at different scales. The role of a planner like me thus was expended to urban design and building design dimension to test the compatibility, the integration and the functionality of each design attribute to the entire site.

Kallang River Site Design Competition image credit: Atelier Dreiseitl & CPG Consulting

Circulation Plan

Landscape Plan

Building Stormwater System Prototype 1. Green Roof 2. Garden Terrace 3. Planter Box System Treat greywater from sinks 4. Bio-retention Swales 5. Bio-retention Basin 6. Cleansing Biotope 7. Cistern 8. Hybrid Node Discharge Integrate discharge gate with landscape features

MRT Connector Green Spine Promenade Biotope Urban Beach Floating Plaza

Client: N/A [Academic work] | Location: Atlanta [US] | Scale: 20,000 km2 | Complete year: 2012 | Theme: Landuse - Transportation Interaction, Urban Design | Skill: Statistics, Research | Role: Researcher Atlanta is nationally infamous for its low density and high per capita vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Based on a 2002 travel survey for Metro Atlanta, I conduct a study on the relationship between population density (people/acre - independent variable) and two-day non-transit VMT (dependent variable) using a linear multiple regression model. To control the impact of other built-environment's attributes on travel behavior, I also included following variables: household income, access to vehicle, access to job, access to transit, quality of pedestrian environment. Results: After aggregating data from SMARTRAQ to get personal daily travel length, I have 14,461 records with a mean VMT of 49.24 miles/two-day period (St.D = 46.87) and an average density of 4.8 people/acre (St.D = 3.75), which is very low.

The regression model has a low prediction power with an adjusted R2 = 0.098, which is nearly mirrors a previous study by Chapman et al. (2004). The correlation between VMT and population density is statistically significant at 99% with a coefficient value of -1.727. The elasticity of density in respect to VMT is -0.34, which is greater than most other findings in the country (national average: -0.04). These numbers, the coefficient and elasticity of density, illustrate that for one more unit increased in density, VMT will be reduced by 1.727 miles, or 3.5%, of total travel length. The regression model also notify us the importance of job-housing balance at a regional level. Providing jobs with close proximity to housing can reduce VMT by 20.59 miles, or by 42%. This finding is consistent with the overall literature, which confirms that an increase in density makes insignificant difference to travel behavior for regions having below-8-person-per-acre densities.

Model Summary Model R R Square Adjusted R Std. Error of the Square Estimate a 1 .315 .099 .098 48.786 a. Predictors: (Constant), HH_income, easywalk, traffic, newde closejob, lowcrime, neartran

a Coefficients Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized t Sig. Coefficients B Std. Error Beta (Constant) 74.213 2.750 26.987 .000 newden -1.727 .195 -.142 -8.836 .000 easywalk 5.255 1.580 .050 3.327 .001 closejob -20.590 1.566 -.200 -13.145 .000 1 neartran -9.519 1.753 -.090 -5.429 .000 lowcrime 2.663 1.807 .023 1.474 .141 traffic -3.140 1.530 -.030 -2.052 .040 HH_income .000 .000 .084 5.617 .000 a. Dependent Variable: SumOfNDISTANCE

Teenagers’ design team

A volunteer working on a 3D model

Brainstorming Day Let vote for what matters!

Presentation to the community

Client: Actions for the City [NGO] | Location: Hoi An [Vietnam] Scale: 2,000 m2 Complete year: 2012 Theme: Community Participation Skill: Charrette Coordination Role: Charrette Team Leader Status: Completed Neither graphics nor numbers, but collaboration makes a design great. In summer 2012, I ran a 3-day Charrette to design a playground serving multigenerations for a rural community outside Hoi An, South Central Vietnam. Time was short, budget was limited, but ideas flourished as the whole community joined the design team. The Charrette was began with a 30-people focus group brainstorming to identify issues and desires. Next step was to get people involving in the design process and generate design ideas. To create interactive and understandable plans, no pencil was used and no blue print was made. Instead, we cut papers to display different design programs and built 3-D models to exhibit different design concepts so that people can touch, imagine, modify and select the preferred plan.

The “Master Plan”

Completed An My Commune Playground Judgement Day: people voting for the community’s future playground design proposals.

The sensed form of the environment defines one placeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legibility and quality. In this study, the sensed form is explored in two formats: vertical mapping and visibility mapping. Vertical mapping aims to uncover the interlacement between natural topography, parks/open spaces, streets, and buildings. This interlacement created a new artificial topography of the city that affects human and ecological flows [pedestrian, traffic, hydrologic, and wind flows, etc.].

Artificial Topography

Location: San Francisco [US] Scale: 37 sqkm | Complete year: 2012 | Theme: Environment simulation& analysis | Skill: 3-Dimenion GIS | Role: GIS specialist/Cartographer (in collaboration with Susannah Lee)

Based on the artificial topography, the visibility study maps all locations in San Francisco, at both ground level and top floors, that offer at least a glimpse to the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most significant landmarks. This study attempts to reveal where in the city the sense of place can be best maintained through visual connection. The study can also be used to test the visual impact of new developments.

vertical mapping of topographic layers

visible [& invisible] SAN FRANCISCO

Coit Tower

Twin Peaks

Downtown Skyline Visibility

San Francisco Visibility Mapping

Invisible

Where you can and cannot see SF’s landmarks: Golden Gate Bridge, Twin Peaks, Pacific Ocean, Downtown Skyline, Coit Tower & Ferry Building Golden Gate Promenade

[See none]

Less visible [See 1 or 2]

More visible [See 3 or 4]

Most visible [See 5 or 6]

“Hot spots”

Russian Hill

Twin Peaks

Ferry Bldg

Saigon River Basin

250

200

Hours >1.3m level

Percent impervious surface

Changes of impervious surface percentage and hydrologic performance in Saigon River Basin during 1990 - 2010 period.

150

Land cover in 1990

14.00% 12.00% 10.00% 8.00% 6.00%

100

4.00% 50

0 1990

2.00%

1995

2000 Year

2005

0.00% 2010

Saigon River Basin boundary

Phu An Hydro-station

Nha Be Hydro-station

Saigon River Basin is the land of a sophisticated interlacement between human settlements, interconnected watercourses, wetlands and crop lands. From 1990 to 2010, while urban development aggresively expanded into low and wetlands, one can also observe a rapid increase of peak water level of the River in downtown Ho Chi Minh City [formerly Saigon] at average annual rate of 1.6 cm, causing inundation to 35 sqkm of urban area and affecting over 2 million people.

This research is the first attempt to measure the change of urban form at basin level throughout 1990-2010 period and their relationship with hydrologic conditions. Nine variables are used to meausre the change of urban form in term of size, shape and connectivity of developed patches [impervious surface]. Due to the lack of run-off volume, hydrologic perfomance is measured by the ratio between rainfall depth and the water elevation difference between the Phu An hydro-

Land cover in 2000

-station near the outlet of Saigon River Basin and Nha Be hydro-station downstream. Within the 20-year period, in Ho Chi Minh City only, the settlement area below 1.3-meter flooding alarm rate III (equivalent to 9-year floodplain) had increased by an additional 40 sqkm or almost 400%. At the basin scale, 246 sqkm of agricultural and wet land were converted into impervious surface within that period, and increased the

Land cover in 2010

percentage of impervious surface from 3% in 1990 to 12% in 2010. Concurrently, the compactness of urban areas had been reduced from the score of 0.043 in 1990 to 0.026 in 2010 due to, perhaps, both in the fringe areas of existing urban centers and along major roads and arterials. On the other hand, urban areas were transformed from a more clustered to more dispersed distribution in the basin. In contrast, the connectivity of these urban areas

Image classification testing

increased overtime, but less explicitly, compared to the trend in compactness and distribution. The results inform that total urban patch area, number of patches, change rate of the number of patches, landscape percentage of urban patches, and their cohesion has converse relationship with the hydrologic ratio. In contrast, compactness, fractal, and contag scores of urban patches have inverse with the hydrologic ratio.

Planned landuses in flood-prone areas

Central Market Binh Luc Village Tan Trieu River

Landmark Tower

Waterfront Theatre

A rendering of Growth Area 4, Phuoc Giang Region, Dong Nai, South Vietnam

Dzung Do Nguyen Senior planner/urban designer, Fulbright Fellow Vinh Hiep Field

Motivated professional planner and urban designer with solid background in township development, and strongly committed to stakeholders engagement and eco-sensitive planning to achieve high-performed integrated communities. Interested in comprehensive township planning, Transit-Oriented Development and water-sensitive urban design. E : nguyen.do@gmail.com | W : dothivietnam.org C : +84 943 647 000 (Vietnam) / +65 8350 4404 (Singapore)

Dong Nai River

Cai River

Fishermanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pier

Central Park Church

Market

dzung do nguyenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s portfolio planning + urban design + hydrology + cartography

Conceptual sketch of Ngoc Thao Island Redevelopment Plan, Nha Trang, South Central Vietnam