Ho Chi Minh City, Superblocks

The current urban development trends in Ho Chi Minh City can be considered representative for many metropolises in Southeast Asia: rapidly advancing gentrification processes threaten the continued existence of historical urban structures, which in many cases still form the basic substance of inner-city living space.

The project consists in the manipulation and control of logic, not in its rejection. A dual strategy is intended to provide answers to the previously formulated questions and to serve as a „guide for investors“, or rather for the densification of the street districts.\n1. In order to ensure socially acceptable densification of alley quarters, any intervention in the existing structure must be minimally invasive. Therefore, the living space remains basically untouched. \n2. instead, areas are mapped and made available as a first step, which are either still completely undeveloped, used by parks, green spaces or parking lots, or occupied by building blocks such as warehouses or production halls. \n3. in case of the development of these areas, the investor must integrate, replace and upgrade the current program (green space, sports facility, warehouse, production site, etc.) in the future project, so that the alleyways and their inhabitants do not suffer infrastructural loss. \n4. the often relatively small footprint of the mapped areas can be compensated for, if necessary, by the purchase of air rights by the investor. This arrangement allows the new building to be thickened and cantilevered over the outline of its core and thus over the roofs of the existing structure. For this purpose, a minimum distance will be defined, which will allow the assumption of sufficient illumination of the alley-houses. \n5. the ground floor zone shall be designed in such a way that the building has a minimum footprint and still allows unrestricted access to public space when it is built over. The development is to be integrated into the alley structure. \n6. additional investment in the infrastructure of the alleys, such as direct connection of the new project and its public programs (sports centre, storage areas, recreational areas, etc.) to nearby courtyards in the alley structure, should give the intervention an additional integrative character.