Another stunning research paper. In July 2019 we had chance to visit 17 of the old KTT neighbourhoods in Hanoi. The KTT were socialist apartments built with prefabrication techniques introduced by Soviet and North Korean advisors (NK was quite good at it) that evoke the classic USSR khrushchevka apartments. However, after the 90s reforms, a self-construction frenzy spread through Vietnamese homeowners (mostly, elite members of party, army and government), who added cages and all short of illegal extensions to their units.
The streetscapes of the KTT neighbourhoods, same as the Urban Villages in China, are truly remarkable, and often provide community spaces of unexpected comfort and humanity, which would have been almost unachievable to any central planner.
So I spent my birthday strolling and photographing these unique streets. You can read the article here (EN/ES).
Now working to get the visual archives we built during the process properly published, so please stay tunned…
Visitantes examinan una maqueta de un bloque de viviendas prefabricadas en la exposición ´Los Logros de la Ciencia, la Tecnología y Cultura Soviéticas en Nueva York. 1959. Fuente: Time Magazine.