Dao Viet Vietnam
International Competition: 2011, first prize
Team:
Architects:
. T studio, Rome: Guendalina Salimei (chief architect)
. -malearc, Berlin: Christiano Lepratti, Vera Martinez (sustainable by design)
Engineers:
. Transsolar, Stuttgart: Thomas Auer, Friedemann Kik, Markus Krauss
Monika Schulz (clima engineering)
. Studio Maione, Milan: Beatrice Maione, Ugo Maione (Hydraulic engineering)
Client: Petrovietnam
Realization:2020
Background
The new city will span over a 788 Hectares land comprised in the wider Ha Long Ecological-Cultural Special Zone, in the delta of the Red River, in front of the Ha Long Bay, UNESCO Natural World Heritage.
Philosophy
Low tech and high performances
Remodel natural cultural context, involve typological and technological advances, evolve local vernacular architectures
Sustainable design strategy
The project involves building a completely self-sufficient city in terms of energy that can accommodate up to twenty thousand people. The five islands that will be built in front of the Ha Long Bay in Vietnam as part of the project will be patterned after the landscape of the local natural context. The project is modeled according to the Vietnamese rural landscape, with gently sloping and terraced slopes due to absorbe rain water while the excavation of streets within the terraced landscape is developed according to natural ventilation principles.
Planning has focused primarily on self-sufficient energy production by targeting the waste system and mobility aspects of the project.
Within this context, the urban planning and architectural solutions respond to the following sustainable design criteria:
• Zero energy (self-sufficient in renewable power)
• Zero carbon
• Zero waste
Purpose
To respect the cultural differences and the specific characteristics of the context
Dao Viet is a town facing one of the most beautiful bays in the world, the environment is a lagoon, and water is the dominant factor. The new Dao Viet Town must compare and enhance the extraordinary uniqueness of the surrounding panorama, must elaborate in an harmonious way the relationship between constructions and water and must respect the local building and technological solutions of the area developed through the centuries in search of comfort Vis a Vis of the local climate and social traditions.
A town in search of „happiness“ for its inhabitants
Based on the Happy Planet index published in 2010, as an alternate indicator to the GDP in measuring the development level of a Country, Vietnam is ranked 5th (while Germany is 8th and the USA 19th). This index is measured by the life expectancy, the level of citizens’ satisfaction about their living conditions, the ecological imprint and the use of the territory.
To maintain and improve this result the Dao Viet Eco-City is planned:
- to limit the ecological imprint by containing the surface dedicated to the constructions and concentrating them,
- to propose a system of collective urban transportation,
- to eliminate the air and water pollution,
- to guarantee a high level of cultural offer and social complexity.