Architecture
Ideas competition
Hà Nội
2022

This is our winning submission of 86 for Hanoi Ad-Hoc and Unesco's "72H International Idea Competition: (Re)Thinking the modern dream of Recent past".

Developed over one weekend only, our entry is generic and utopian, a loose-fit vision of the potential of Hanoi's ex-industrial land as heavy industry moves to the suburbs. The urban grain of Hanoi beyond the city centre is based on workers' communes each centred around a factory. While many (but not all) of these factory sites are no longer in use, the communities are often still very local, and tight-knit.

However, these villages suffer from a lack of daylight and overcrowding. The factory lands offer a contrast and respite. We propose a maximum-density mixed-use perimeter building around the site, owned by the commune through a trust, which also owns the enclosed factory. Rent payments go toward retrofitting and management of the site, with the factory land freed from commercial demands and put into community ownership.

The factory becomes a renewed village heart, fit for a post-industrial city centre.