A study on Hanoi ancient quarter conservation - A link between sense of place and social capital

Abstract

Located in the east of the citadel, Hanoi Old Quarter had been a collection of craft villages, which were manufacturing, trading, and living places of craftsmen, to serve the noble class. Until the 1990s, Hanoi Old Quarter was rated as the best-preserved area in Southeast Asia in terms of physical objects. However, the transition to socialist-oriented market economy from the 1990s onwards, the strong growth of trade activities after 2000, due to the lifting of the US’s embargo, the boom from 2007 after joining WTO and the weak urban management, has led to a drastic transformation in Hanoi Old Quarter in terms of architectural space, landscape, and function. However, the historic urban landscape is still identified as existing by maintaining the sense of place, which comes from the multi-functionality, the coexistence of various activities in the compact space. Through the analysis of a trading and crafting street - Lan Ong street specializing in traditional Chinese medicine, the article has identified the connection between social capital and the sense of place, and how this connection manifests through space. Flexible, adaptive, and compact spaces, rooted in the unique social capitals of Asian cities, create a distinctive character, contributing to the uniqueness of the historic urban landscape.

Key words: Sense of place; social capital; conservation; crafting street; Hanoi ancient quarter.