Urban space production in transition : the cases of the new urban areas of Hanoi

In recent decades, hundreds of master-planned new urban areas (NUAs) have developed on the urban fringes of expanding cities in Vietnam. They are promoted as a new urban planning concept in the post-reform policies. This paper discusses the NUAs’ planning concepts based on qualitative case studies of four NUAs in Hanoi, and on an examination of the 1990-2000 urban policies. It sheds light on transitional planning and urban space production processes in Vietnam and discusses urban quality in a rapidly urbanising Asian context. The paper argues that NUAs are products of a transitional system where the predominant role of the state in urban space production is changing, and that of corporate actors is on the rise. NUAs are hybrid products of government-led, entrepreneur-driven planning and self-organising space production by the residents. The self-organising space production activities contribute to the urban quality of these new urban spaces, while the production of privatised, commodified spaces by corporate actors poses a threat to community life