Project - The Living Room

THE LIVING ROOM

THE REVfTALIZATION OF NGUYEN THIEN THUAT APARTMENTS

DESIGN COMPETITION I TEAMWORK I JAN 2014 HCMC I VIETNAM

United Nation Mass Housing by United Nation & UIA

Project Location I Nguyen Thien Thuat Apartments, District 3, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam

Other Members I Tran Tan Phuc, Phan Xuan Thien, Do Kim Chung

My Duty I Conceptual Design: Phase 1, Proposed Sustainabie Strategies for Facade, Visualization, Conducted Study.

This project is initially a social study in my university, my team developed further in order to submit it to the competition by UN-Habitat: UN Mass Housing, which aims to propose solutions for urban slum across the world.

In the process of searching for the architecture and urban planning solution for mass housing issues in HCMC populous city in Vietnam, with chosen site of Nguyen Thien Thuat apartment buildings, we re-create a public space called “The Living Room” (Room for living) for local residents, enhance the connection between rise complex and renewed existing low rise buildings, foster the vibrant lifestyle of the whole neighborhood by sustainable public green roof and landscape.

To rennovate aging apartment buildings and maximize building value in the central urban area, each existing be restructure as much flexible as : a workplace, a start-up office, a bedroom, a living room and constantly change to residents’ demands.

Social competition hosted - the most communal between new high by providing unit would change due

Vietnam has one of the fastest rates of urbanization in the world, with almost half of the country’s population expected to be liv ing in cities by 2030. And Ho Chi Minh City, formerly named Saigon, is the largest urban area in Vietnam. It is the economic and financial hub of Vietnam and continues to attract migrants from the provinces, resulting in rapid population growth.

Ho Chi Minh City exploded from an urban designed for 0.5 million to 8 million people today. From the central area of District 1 and 3, it was mainly expanded to the North and West in the past, later South, and now toward East. Most of mass housing downtown was built to fulfill an immediate need, to provide large numbers of low cost- dwelling units in a short period of time.

FAMILY SIZE LIVING AREA TRANSPORTATION

PEOPLE ORIGINS

OVER POPULATED

Many families living here for a long time grow in size, but was not able to find other living place in short of finance. Some of the unit once was designed for 2 people now somehow inhabited more than 10.

DIVERSED BACKGROUND

People in the society comes from different origins and regions from all over Vietnam. Beside origina l dwellers (about 46%), most of them migrated from rural area in the ‘75‘86 of unplanned urban development. Since 2000, many young people with high profile begin to settle in the apartments, in search of minimum-quality dwellings near the city center.

SOCIETY OF MOTORBIKES

Like any other regions in Ho Chi Minh City, the streets was flooded with motorbikes. A scheme was proposed to prohibit motorbike in the city by 2020, however. was believed to be too optimistic.

URBAN ANALYSIS

Large parcels of high-valued land in the central area (District 1, 3, S & 1O) are fil led with degrading low-rise apartment buildings built before 1975.

SITE ANALYSIS

PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND INFRASTRUCTURES

In Ward l, District 3 there is a hospital,some preschools and primary schools. There are also other administration at Ward level The infrastructure includes water towers and substations.

OPEN SPACES

Open spaces are only private yards and courtyards. There is zero open communal l space in this area. which means no park, no playground, Nearly no trees except ones planted by the inhabitants.

The central area is currently massively overloading. This is the results of years of poor urban planning, especia lly key roads focusing.

MASS HOUSINGS APARTMENTS IN THE AREA

There are 11 blocks in the Nguyen Thien Thuat Apartments and also 2 blocks of Cu Xa Duong Sat Apartments (not include in the research area)

The Nguyen Thien mass housing apartments is located in Ward 1, District 3, one part of the economic and social center of Ho Chi Minh City.

TRANSPORTATION

30% of the whole ward is land use for transportation although mostly are small alleys. The streets are isolated from nearby roads and have low transporting speed.

Population density is overwhelmingly high in the centra l districts, putting pressure on the aged infrastructure.

RETAILS AND OTHER SERVICES

There are many household economy taking advantages of all the busy streets of this downtown area. Ground floor of apartments also become spaces for shops, food stalls and other varied services

2 is the popular number of motorbikes per family

3.7 m2 the average area of transportation land for each motorbike/ bike in the area.

$230 per year is the price of motorbike parking at the ground floor, which is 2-3 times higher than usual.

VIBRANT STREETLIFE

Many of the dwellers earn their living by trading and other ordinary services right at the ground floor, nearby areas or even at their own apartment. 82% of asked people don’t want to change their current place being afraid of losing their established informal career and prosperous services here.

ROW HOUSES FOR DWELLING ONLY

Row houses filled all the space with orientation o small st reets or alleys. These estates are clearly developed not according to any plan and are include in the city’s project to renovate this mass Housing

HOUSEHOLD EXPENSE

SASTISFYING IN WORRYING

People have managed to live in narrow spaces with no lighting, ventilation or green space for years. Satisfying attitude and absolutely no maintenance leads to many threads including the degradation of structure, environment and infrastructure system. Should people now be worrying about their mass housing future, especially how it is going to be disposed according to the city plan.

WET BOXES

Use modular steel frames and waterproofing plasterboards to create the box. Void shafts between 2 -4 boxes helps improve natural ventilation and lighting for the back of the apartments.

DOUBLE GREEN FACADE

Green facade hanging on corridor’s structural columns is the system of laminated wood louvers and vegetation. The living louvers system uses Water Drip System to save wate r.

RECYCLE BIN

Used for sorting waste into dry waste (wood, plastic, metal. ..) and wet waste (organic waste ...)

UPGRADING EXISTING BLOCKS

Wet areas are space containing sanitary fixtures and appliances, including kitchen and toilets. In the existing old buildings, these poorly damaged areas are increasing safety risks for occupants, es pecially, they result in damage on buildings’ structures.

PHASE 1: REFURBISHMENT

In Phase 1, We aim to rennovate aging apartment buildings by restructuring each existing unit with prefabrciated patitions and the addition of “Wet Box” - a fully furnished prefabricated toilet module, in order to replace all degraded parts in old existing apartments. The whole unit will be developed to be as much flexible as : a workplace, a start-up office, a bedroom, a living room and constantly change due to residents’ demands.

STAGE 0

PLANNING AND LAND USE SOLUTIONS

SITE CONTEXT

Area: 5.23 ha

Residential density: HIGH

Community services: NOT enough to provide for local

GREEN SPACE AND FARMING AREAS

Green spaces, including green roofs, parks, vertical gardens ..., are responsible for connecting building

LOCAL URBAN CONTEXT

High Residential density. Damaged houses, degraded WCs. Lack of parking spaces, community spaces.

UPGRADING AND CONSTRUCTING

Upgrading

Constructing

COMMUNITY SERVICES

Three new-construction areas provide and improve public services for local resident occupants.

COMMERCIAL SERVICES

Mix-used podiums connecting with pedestrian spaces create vernacularly commercial complex for local area named MARKET ALLEY.

STAGE 1: MIX-USED TOWER 1 AND PUBLIC SERVICES (People’s commitee + Primary school + Minihospital)

STAGE 2: MIX-USED TOWER

SOLUTIONS

PHASE 2: RENOVATION

SOLUTIONS FOR RESIDENTIAL DENSITY

In Phase 2, we want to develop a public “room for living” (not surviving) at the center of housing area. That space means to improve the quality of people’s lives with a variety of amenities, leisure and outdoor activities. It acts as a “living room” for the whole area, a connection of low-rise and high-rise, street life and rooftop green spaces. It is where people can meet an dinteract with each other, fostering the vibrant lifestyle and enhance value of this mass housing to a new higher level. With the “living room”, existing housing units can become more flexible to function as workplace, houses, office for lease. We suggest this method as a typology for revitalizaing low-rise apartment building in general.

In order to maximize the potential of available resources, other pre-fabricated construction should be implemented, including:

• Construction of high-rise building, which offers more spaces for

• inhabitants.

• Commercial podiums connecting with pedestrian walkway, create featured

• commercial alley.

• Sky bridges create the unity of open spaces in residential area.

AND CENTRAL PARK

STAGE 3: BRIDGES OF CONNECTION

STAGE 4: BUILDING HEIGHT’S DEVELOPMENT

spaces.

Construction of 2 high-rise mix-used buildings is to reduce residential density and to profit from public services.

named

GREEN SPACES play a role on community connections