PROJECT: THE REFLECTION UPON ANCIENT AND MODERN – design public places with 15-minute life cycle for people.
Location: Le Loi Boulevard, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam.
The location is the main street of District 1, Ho Chi Minh city. Before the construction of Metro system, this boulevard used to be lined with beautiful landscapes, the mixture of ancient and modern in architecture. In the future, this boulevard is predicted to be the magnificent place of Ho Chi Minh city.
Connecting ancient with modern of Le Loi boulevard.
A public space allows people not only to walk but also to enjoy the meaning of each street corner around them. Therefore, the necessary conditions for the solution of creating public space such as sidewalk on Le Loi street will include 3 main elements
Firstly, the old features such as forgotten cultural values is revived. In order to achieve this, for the existing ancient architectural forms on one side of the road, the function inside will be restructured but the ancient beauty of the façade will still be retained. This allows the façade of the street to be suitable for the economic development of the city but still ensures the classic character of old Saigon.
Secondly, it is necessary to exploit all the performance of each function when creating sidewalk space, as well as arranging types of "dynamic - static" activities so that the space use is optimized thoroughly in order to match and meet the third factor
Last but not least, the third element is ensuring the time of space use takes place seamlessly, without interruption during the day.
The mentioned factors will optimize the sidewalk space of Le Loi Street’s efficiency - in terms of time and space - for all ages to connect with each other easily. At the same time, it will be a place of the interference between ancient and modern, creating a very specific character for this area.
Design process
Encourage pedestrians and biking: Expand pavement for inserting zone for walking and biking friendly and convenient
Friendly cycle lane: In order to encourage people to walk and using bike, besides expanding the pavement for inserting cycle lane, we put on bike parking on this street.
Pavements: Inspired from image “The reflection upon ancient and modern”. To the site of modern space, we decide to use materials which have cold color. By contrast, we use tiles which has warm color for the opposite zone.
Create serial image: Le Loi boulevard is the place consisting of ancient with old socialist era apartments building and modern with massive shopping center. Therefore, many designs should exploit view on this street.
The elements of landscape: Arrange the tree stratification so as to ensure the visibility of pedestrians and insert a rain garden.
Culture on the street: Street hawkers are the special culture of Vietnam. However, there is no space enough for the street hawkers so we suggest designing the pavements with various activities and there has the zone for the street trades.