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BENEFITS

The use of public spaces brings multiple benefits to youths:

PHYSICAL HEALTH

Physical Activity
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Fresh Air

MENTAL HEALTH

Contact with Nature – Peer Support – Counter Isolation and Loneliness – Lifts Mood

SOCIALIZATION

Socialization Space – Relaxation Space – Urban Integration for Rural Migrants

AESTHETIC

Enjoy Natural Scenery – Place to Take Pictures

ECONOMIC

Free Recreation Space

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RECOMMENDATIONS

Short term design interventions:

Integrating small, hard-surfaced areas in public gardens and on the shores of bodies of water that can accommodate active uses.

Creating more tree-shaded areas and installing more benches in public gardens and on the city’s lakeshores.

Longer term design actions:

Accessibility: removing entrance fees, creating more entry points located near the street, and making sure that there is at least one park located at a reasonable walking distance from each of the city’s residential areas.

Physical setting: In designing or redesigning parks design, aiming for a balance between the provision of flat, open, and hard surfaces to support unstructured sports activities, and quieter zones that are safe for even the most vulnerable users.

Users: favouring the diversity of users, rather than developing youth-only parks.

Detailed design guidelines: formulating a specific document to spell out design standards for each type of public space (parks, public gardens, and lakeshores) in order to maximize use, accessibility, security and conviviality of these places.

City-scale planning of public spaces:

Clarifying the target ratios of ‘public use greenery land’ for Hanoi (and other “special cities”) found in different policy documents.

Complementing the requirement to meet specific target ratios of public space (currently expressed in sq.m. in policy document) with geographic criteria related to the distribution, types, and quality of public spaces.

Acknowledging that different types of public spaces play different roles in city life and developing a network of public spaces that tap unto these complementarities.

Monitoring system (by local authorities):

Establishing policy measures requiring that formal permission from competent authorities be delivered before any physical or functional alteration to an existing lakeshore, park, or public garden takes place.

Establishing a monitoring system for bodies of water, parks and public gardens, i.e., maps of city-wide spaces, and detailed aerial photographs of each space.

Management of public spaces:

Private guards: Setting up mechanisms to ensure that guards protect all users and do not engage in practices that enhance their personal finances.

Vendors: Setting up rules and guidelines to structure vending activities (where they may set up, the maintenance of their facilities, and protect users from potentially harmful behaviours).

Parking: Establishing a flexible system of parking in different contexts.

Large parks (12 hectares and above) should be equipped with dedicated, guarded parking facilities, either on-site, or in the immediate vicinity of the park.
Smaller parks (less than 12 hectares), public gardens, and lakeshores should only provide users with access to off-site parking spaces.
Parking fees for bicycles should be waived in all dedicated parking spaces (on- and off-site) while fees should be maintained for motorbikes. In the medium- to long-term, plans should be made to better connect public spaces to the city’s public transit network and, potentially, to a bike lane network.

Research and development agenda:

Concerting efforts gather the opinions of different actors, such as youths, citizens belonging to other age groups, local authorities at the commune, district, and city levels, and urban planner and academics.

Focusing on suitable design guidelines and evidence-based policies: typology of public spaces, climate-sensitive design, publicness, and management.

LINKS & DOCS

COMPLETE RESEARCH REPORT
Youth-friendly public spaces in Hanoi

Complete report for this collaborative research project between the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS, Canada), the Institute of Sociology of the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences (IoS-VASS, Vietnam), and HealthBridge (Vietnam and Canada)

Principal Investigator and co-investigators: Julie-Anne Boudreau, Laurence Charton, Stephanie Geertman, Danielle Labbé, Pham Thi Thanh Hien, Dang Nguyen Anh

Research assistance: Doan Phuong Thuy, Mélissa Côté-Douyon, Olivier Jacques, Alice Miquet, Étienne Pelletier, Trinh Thai Quang, Tran Thi Huong Giang, Sylvain Rodrigue, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Ha, Nguyen Thi Xuan, Nguyen Vu Cuong, Nghiem Thi Thuy, Pham Ngoc Tan.

May 2015

DOWNLOAD

POLICY BRIEF
PUBLIC SPACE AND HANOIAN YOUTH:
Access to public parks and the use and preferences of young park users.

Supervised Research Project by Étienne Pelletier
Master’s in Urban Planning Université de Montréal,
May – 2015
CONFORMITY AND RESISTANCE:
Being a girl in Hanoi’s public spaces (in french).

Article in L’Asie en 1000 mots, by Mélissa Côté-Douyon.
April – 2015
THE NETWORK PUBLIC SPACES:
Trung Hoa Nhan Chinh Area, Analysis and Intervention.

Urban Design project by Giang Tran , Huyen Chu & Linh Pham
August – 2014
PORTRAIT OF 34T
(video)

Observation study-film, by Alice Niangu
2014
CAPSTONE PROJECT
The case of youths in Lenin Square (in french).

Final report, undergrad work by Léa Rochette Brunelle
Baccalaureate in Urbanism Université de Montréal
Winter – 2015
VIUP - QUY HOẠCH XÂY DỰNG số 74:

– How far is the park? Mapping the distribution and accessibility of Hanoi’s public spaces (in Vietnamese).

Article by Pham Thi Thanh Hien, Danielle Labbé and Étienne Pelletier
VIUP no 74, 2015
Access here…

– Youth-friendly public spaces in Hanoi (in Vietnamese).

Article by Stephanie Geertman
VIUP no 74, 2015
Access here…

– Former village, new streets and stories about public spaces in Trung Hoa Nhan Chinh – Research and recommendations. (in Vietnamese).

Article by Tran Thi Huong Giang.
VIUP no 74, 2015
Access here…