DSpace at VNU: Towards a sustainable view on social housing in HaNoi

T O W A R D S A SUSTAINABLE V I E W
ON SOCIAL HOUSING IN HANOI
Hans Schenk ‘

1. In tro d u c tio n : social housing in Hanoi
Jn 1999, the Vietnamese Ministry o f Construction published a nicely composed
brochure on the preservation o f Hanoi’ s urban built environment. It focused m ainly
on tw o periods o f the over 1000 years history o f the city. First, the pre-colonial
period (the w alled E m peror’ s Citadel and the commoners g u ild lik e quarter o f the
‘ 36 streets’) and second, the French colonial contribution to H an o i’ s urban
development, m ainly South o f the core o f the city: the centra] Hoan Kiem lake. The
wish to preserve these tw o m ajor urban quarters as it was expressed in the brochure
fell in line w ith the in the 1990s strong national and international calls for heritage
conservation o f the city (Hoang Huu Phe & N ishim ura

1992; Logan 2000,

Ch. 1,7,8; Schcnk 2 0 0 5 )'. It was - for example - also expressed in the effective
protests in these years against plans to construct high rise complexes at or near the
borders o f Hoan K ie m lake, that threatened 10 destroy the cherished skyline and
townscape
In this context o f paying respect to Ihe built environm ent o f H a n o i’ s past one
has to notice that hardly any attention has been given in the brochure o f the M in istry
o f Construction to a third period n f urban development: the quarter o f a century
between - roughly * 1960 and IQS'). This period has been described w ith the
Io llo w in g words only: "A fter 1954, development started again and new quarters
were opened in the outskirts o f the city, to the south southwest and west." (1999,
p 11). D uring those years ‘ H anoi’s socialist face’ has been given shape in Logan’ s
words (2000, pp. 183-220). It consisted o f some m ajor public buildings and

* Ph.D. University o f A m sterdam , The Netherlands.

1 The heritage conservation debate was also held on suburban level by Trinh Duy Luan
(2000), who warned for the loss o f social iniegration and cohesion at village level following
the planning o f an luxury hotel and residential complex N orthwest o f the city.
2 Many details are in Logan (2000, pp 237-242).
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VIỆT NAM HỌC - KỶ YÊU HỘI T H À O QUỐC TÉ LẢN T H Ử T U

grotesque town planning arrangements, and a rim o f la w rise and m ulti-storey
housing complexes, a ‘ red b e lt’ according to Pedelahorc de Loddis (2001, p.3021.
Here f shall focus on these residential buildings only.
The M in is try o f C onstruclion was obviously not e x p lic itly interested in
prom oting the preservation o f the socialist period o f H a n o i’ s urban development
Logan slates - explains perhaps - that "the relative significance o f the revolutionary
and Soviet heritage was being downgraded, w hile the gro w th o f internatinnni
tourism to Vietnam gave a new economic value to certain c u ltu ra l heritage
features." (2000, p.225). This lack o f interest is also not remarkable in view o f the
many critical reviews o f the housing construction that was undertaken in the quarter
o f a century between 1960 and 1985. ] shall b rie fly discuss these criticism s here
below, fo llo w in g a summary overview o f what is called ‘ socialist bousing' in
Hanoi, though I prefer to use the broader term social housing, subsidized through
public means1.
The Government o f (N orth) Vietnam did not give a high p rio rity to urban
housing during the 1950s. H ousing shortages in Hanoi were m ainly tackled by the
confiscation o f the large French colonial villas. A fo llo w in g attempt to become
active in public housing was the construction o f so-called ‘ level 4 ’ houses, attached
low rise, barrack like houses that were intended to be o f a temporary nature, and
m ainly b u ilt for displaced persons in the process o f public w orks, such as the layout
o f Lenin Park (Evertsz, 2000). From

1959/60 onwards public housing was

incorporated in a Master Plan for Hanoi. It envisaged the idea that employers (state
institutions, state owned factories) were lo house their employees against heavily
subsidized rents o f 1 to 2 % o f m onthly salaries in employers-managcd apartments7.
This concept took shape in the construction o f residential complexes, se lf contained
neighbourhoods, consisting o f m ainly three to four storeys high apartment blocks
and basic services such as kindergarten, schools, medical services and daily shops.
The blocks were often situated in rows, w ith a generous amount o f sem i-public
open spaces in-between w hich were to be used as playgrounds, social meeting
places, etc. These self-contained neighbourhoods came to be known as Khu Tap The
(collective liv in g quarters, K T T fo r short) and were b u ilt in a sem i-circle in the then
sub-urban zone from South-east to West o f the historic c ity . Between 1960 and the

]. ‘Socialist h ousing ’ in Hanoi is well docum ented. For many details, see e.g. Logan (2000),
Trin Duy Luan & N g uyen Q uang Vinh (2001), Pedelahorc de L oddis (2001), Koh (2006),
Gecrtm an (2007). For fine draw ings o f som e K IT, see Ros ( 2 0 0 ) , pp. 270-278).
2. Som e apartm ents were sold, as in K T T T ruong Dinh, a row o f two storey terraced houses
built in 1972. Prices w ere relatively high.

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TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE V IF W ON SOCIA1

mid 1980s - when Ihc public sociaJ housing programme was abandoned - some 60
large and small K I T have been built, while 400.000 citizens, i.e. 30% o f Ihc urban
population o f the late 1980s were housed in these apartments'
The apartment blocks were most o f the lim e grouped into neighbourhoods,

designed to inhabit in (he order o f magnitude 7,000 t ill
m ik ro ra y o n ' in

the

Soviet

urban

15,000 inhabitants: a

planning term inology.

The

Soviets

were

responsible for Ihc ideological contcxt o f Ihe residential part o f the Master Plan o f
Hanoi (and o f much o f the urban development in the then socialist w orld ). I shall
dw ell on the ideology o f social housing in a later section The apartment blocks
themselves were divided into small apartments. These apartments measured in the
early K I T about 16 to 20 sq. meters and had lo accommodate a household o f - say five to six persons, often o f three generations. Not seldom, apartments were split
into two in order to accommodate more households. This led o f course lo serious
overcrow ding and over-usage o f facilities. K I T

K im Lien, fo r example, was

designed in (he 1960s to house 11,000 inhabitants, but housed 20,000 in 2 0 0 0 \

Apartments in K T T complexes o f the 1970s could measure about 25 sq. meters,
w hile in the 1980s the sizes went up to 40 or even to 65 sq. meters. Sanitary and
other facilities were shared in the K I T o f the early 1960s: six to eight households or
more used one to ile t, one kitchen and one place to bathe. From die 1970s onwards,
these facilities were b u ilt on a private basis. The K T T apartment blocks were b u ilt
in a traditional manner in (he early 1960s, w hile later one pre-fab construction
elements (slabs, the term Plattenbau in German, is often used) were applied, in line
w ith industrial housing in (the socialist regimes in) Europe1.
The first K T T complexes were built w ith foreign technical and financial aid
(from North K orea and other socialist countries). In around 1970, the Vietnamese
M in istry o f C onstruction and Vieinamese architects became responsible for the
design and construction o f the buildings. The public social housing programme in

1. On the olher hand, Trinh Duy Luan & Nguyen Quang Vinh state lhat only 30% of
governm ent officials and w orkers were provided wilh an apartm ent by die end o f the ] 980s,
while the remaining majority had to rind its own way with regard 10 shelter (2001, p.55).
2. I ogan (2000, pp. 206-7) asks attention for the fact lhat the m ikrorayon was actually an
adaptation from the 'n eighbourhood unit' as conceived by ihc A m erican town planner Perry
in 1929. M ore details on P e rr y 's ideas are in Reiner (1963, pp. 60-63). See also section 2.
3. In K I T Than X uan, built in the 1980s, many aparlmcms were split up into two. Designed as
two-room apartm en ts o f over 40 sq meters, single room apartm ents have em erged, with
literally halved kitchens, toilets and bathrooms
4. See W agcnaar & Dings, 2004. passim.
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VIỆT NAM HỌC - KỲ YÉI) HỘI T H Ả O QUỎC TÉ LÀN THỦ T Ư

Vietnam ended almost com pletely in 1986 due to economic problems and the
introduction o f a new more liberal economic regime (d o i m oi) in w hich the

construction o f housing was subsequently privatised from the early J990s onwards.
Management o f the blocks and apartments went gradually transferred from the
respective em ploying units to the Land and Housing Departm ent o f the m unicipality
o f Hanoi from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. From 1994 tenants could buy their
apartment at a substantia] discount (see Koh, 2(106, pp.210-223 for details). The first
apartment blocks were tom down in the early 2000s (K T T K im L ie n ) and replaced
by high rise apartment buildings, w hile in other K I T renovations take placc (see
Geertman, 2007, pp.250-6).
] shall return now to the question how the ‘ socialist face’ o f housing in Hanoi
is appreciated, or rather, w hy it has not been included in the heritage approach by
the M in istry o f Construction. A c tu a lly , the K T T apartment blocks have met w ith
serious criticism s from the last few decades onwards. The critica l comments focus
m ainly on tw o aspects: first, the poor quality o f the apartments and the housing
blocks in a quantitative and qualitative sense, and second, the lack o f what is called
the ‘ freedom to b u ild ’ by H a n o i’ s residents: the straitjacket o f the public housing
programme.
The apartments are small as has been mentioned by several authors, and many
persons had to share a small apartment. K oh notices that though residential space
was supposed to be at least 4 sq. meters per capita, actual space was often not more
lhan half: 2 square meters per person as households had often to share an apartment
(2006, p.2 1 1)'.

Overcrowded

apartments and shared

infrastructural

facilities

contributed to a rapid wear and tear o f the buildings2. This was further acceleratcd
by the general in su fficie n t maintenance1, fa ilin g infrastructural fa cilitie s such as
inadequate water pressure, choked drains and poor construction materials. In a
publication o f the M in is try o f Construction o f 1996, m ention is made o f the
"makeshift m aterials since 1956 (wood, bamboo, plastered wails, etc.). Most o f

1. In som e K T T com plexe s such as Thanh Xuan Bac a higher standard was applied: 6 sq.
meters per person. A distinction has to be m ade between co-called C lass 1 apartm enlbuildings (4 sq. m.) and class II en HI buildings (6 sq. m ).
2. In addition, the constructive elem ents (joints, etc) were not necessarily geared tow ards the
vagaries o f the North V ietnam ese climate.
3. The costs o f m aintenance o f the apartm ent blocks had to be generated by rents that were in
general far too low to cover such costs. Roh mentions that the m unicipal housing authority
o f Hanoi could only com plete 2 0 % o f the w ork needed to m aintain its housing stock
properly (2006, p.215).
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TOW ARDS A SUSTAINABLE VIEW ON SOCIAL

these c o n s tru c tio n ^ ] should have been abandoned since 1970-Ì975 but are s till
used." (p. 33). In addition: the weak soils o f Hanoi cannot carry the K I T blocks
w hich regularly subside and crcatc technical deficiencies. The result is often that o f
"high-storey slum s", concludes T rin T)uy I uan (2000, p.95).
Q ualitative and quantitative deficiencies lead to the second point o f criticism :
the pcrceivcd lack among residents to he allowed to build themselves. This desires
encompasses a w ide Tange o f possible options, from house repairs to (ille ga l)
extensions o f apartments' and to the sub division o f the com m only shared service
areas into privately used ones. As Tran Hoai Anh put the latter:

people cooked

in the c o rrid o r in fr o n t o f th e ir rooms instead o f usin% the collective kitchen.
Several p riva te kitchens were b u ilt on the balconies." (1999, p i 14). The critical
remarks point at the c o n flic t between a socialist ideal o f collective liv in g in a K.TT
in w hich

in d iv id u a lis m ' was considered equal to egoistic" and the desire for

" p riva tis a tio n ’ o f the apartm ent buildings" (Tran Hoai Anh, 1999, pp. 110- J15).
"The s p irit o f collectivism and equality was reflected in the structure o f the fla ts : a il
had equal flo o r area, shared facilities, extensions and a com m unal ’mess h a ll" "
wrote T rinh D uy Luan & Nguyen Quang Vinh, (2001, p.53), and whereby the
apartment blocks could only be

distinguished fro m one another bv code like

numbers such as C4 o r A 7" (Tran Hoai An, 1999, p.l 10)
O bviously, the liberalisation o f the housing regime that resulted in a large
freedom to b u ild en gradually emerged since the late 1980s, was heralded by many
observers. "... the fa m ilia r gray colour preseni during the state-subsidizing p e rio d
have been replaced by the brighter colours o f H a n o i’s housing situation du rin g doỉ
m o/", w rites N guyen Xuan M ai cheerfully (2001. p. 133), w h ile several others herald
a new era in H an o i’ s development. Gcertman’ s claims the birth o f what she coined
the ‘ S elf-O rganizing’ city , in which critical citizens themselves develop their
environment. (2007, pp.217-293). Others w rite about a "modern c ity f o r a modern
identity” (Tran Hoai A nh, 1999, p. 126), characterized by T rin h Duy Luan &
Nguyen Quang V in h by ‘ spontaneity’ , ‘ diversification’ and ‘ irre g u la rity ’ (2001,
pp.87-88). Hoang H uu Phe seems to have mixed feelings about these trends,
however: "The seemingly chaotic character o f the new residential construction
brought home an eclectic m ixture o f different fashions and tastes: the post-m odern,

the nen-classical, the pseudo-classical and simply bizarre experiments o f newly
graduated architects " (2001, p 54), which arc

an exuberant reaction to the

preceding 40 years o f austerity", according to I.ogan (2000, p.235). T rinh Duy T.uan

1. Ill-famous are of course the (hanging) extensions of apartments See e.g. Cerise (2001) and
Koh (2006).
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VIỆT NAM HỌC - KỲ YẾU HỘI T H Ả O QUỎC TẺ LÀN T H Ử T Ư

and Nguyen Quang V in h warn fo r another aspect o f the call fo r a m odem c ity w ith
all its desired ind ividu a l attributes by pointing at those citizens who cannot a ffo rd 10
build or expand their house al w ill. The government should be focused, they add, on
housing for the poor (2001, p.237).
H aving arrived at this assessment o f social housing in Hanoi, one can easily
understand w hy the M in is try o f Construction has not included the period o f
‘ socialist housing’ in Hanoi - as it has taken shape between I9 6 0 and 1985 - in its
wish to preserve the heritage o f the b u ilt environm ent o f the city. Y et, this
assessment - how va lid it may be - should not be the w ho le picture o f the K.TT
neighbourhoods, buildings and apartments and the only way to assess their presence
in Hanoi. There are other yardsticks to measure the co n tribu tio n o f the K T T to
H anoi’ s urban development as w e ll; other yardsticks to assess w hether - at least
some o f - the apartment complexes deserve to be m entioned in a plea fo r the
preservation o f H a n o i’s urban landscape. Logan has asked attention fo r one possible
yardstick: the environm ental, architectural and technical qualities o f the apartment
blocks. He uses the example o f K T T Nguyen Cong T ru that could be reserved as a

monument o f the best o f the Soviet period (2000, p. 235). I shall return to his point
o f view in section 4 o f this paper. In the fo llo w in g sections I discuss tw o more
possible yardsticks in an attempt to give a more sustainable v ie w on social housing
in Hanoi. A firs t one is o f a com parative nature. The argum ent is that - whatever the
quality and the merits o f the ‘ socialist’ housing programme in H anoi may have been
- it is relevant to know w hat happened elsewhere under s u ffic ie n tly sim ilar
circumstances. D id N orth Vietnam and Hanoi do a good jo b - com paratively
speaking - in housing its citizens during the period under consideration, or were
efforts in cities in other developing countries more successful? The second yardstick
is that it is eventually im portant - and even o f ultim ate im portance - to hear the
opinions o f the residents o f the apartments in die K T T neighbourhoods themselves.
Do they share the present-day criticism o f their housing; were they also critical in
the past? In the fo llo w in g section a (lim ite d ) comparative v ie w on social housing in
Hanoi is given, w h ile in section 3 opinions o f a small num ber o f residents are
presented.
2. Social housing in urban In dia - a b rie f comparison w ith Hanoi
An attempt to o ffe r a comparative v ie w on social housing in Hanoi between
1960 and 1985 raises im m ediately the question o f the v a lid ity o f such a comparison.
W hich criteria are/should be used? Here I shall not extensively deal w ith this
important m ethodological question, but make a few remarks only. O bviously, a
developing country w ith very lim ited financial means and enormous p o litica l,

540


TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE VIEW ON SOCIAL

m ilita ry and other problems as was the ease o( North Vietnam during the period
under consideration, cannot he significantly compared w ith

more prosperous

countries. W ith in the range o f developing countries I have chosen to look al India’ s
concern w ith p u blic social housing during the 1960s and 19670s. The choice for
India is to some cxtenl surprising. According to classical M a rxist theory is a
socialist revolution and a subsequent dictatorship o f the proletariat a p re co n d itio n
to solve the ‘ housing question’ successfully. A ny attempt to im prove the liv in g
conditions o f an urban proletariat without such a revolution and fo llo w in g societal
order was therefore to fa il

India - independent sincc 1947 - never went through a

socialist revolution, and neither attained an urban proletariat substantial social,
economic

or p o litic a l

power. In M arxist terms

had

India

therefore to

be

unsuccessful in housing its urban masses. The country tried lo do so, hnwevcr, not
hindered by Engels. A first - and very pragmatic - argument fo r m aking this
comparison in spite o f M a rxist theory is the fact that India has played a prominent

role in the debate on the policies and practice o f housing options fo r poor citizens
in developing countries. The Indian experiences matter, anyhow. There is however
more.
The best basis fo r drawing a comparison between H an o i’ s attempts to house
its citizens and some sim ila r endeavours in some Indian cities lies in the underlying
societal clim ate lowards urban housing, or even in a broader context: the desire to
modernise the Vietnamese and the Indian respective societies. One m ight say in
M arxist term inology that superstructural sim ilarities are at stake. W ith regard to
India, the overw helm ing outlook in its early development endeavours in the 1950s
and early 1960s on every aspect o f its future society can be labelled w ith one or tw o
catchwords: ‘ m o d e rn ity’ and ‘ modernisation’ . Modem industrial development (w ith
a leading role for the public sector) was seen as a necessary pre-condilion in order
to aưivc at the m aterial part o f this future and ‘ better’ society. Independent In d ia ’ s
first p o litica l leader, Jawaharla] Nehru was most outspoken and leading in this
respecl

This outlook

fitted seamless w ith European view s regarding urban

1. I refer o f course to Friedrich Engels (1970). Marx and Engels strongly condemned the 19*
century ‘ Utopian socialists’ such as Richard Owen or Charles Fourier and many others in
Europe. And later on: from enlightened capitalists to non-profit housing associations and
welfare inspired politicians who iried to house urban workers decently, and often designed
an utopian snciclal/urban model. See-among the large number o f studies on these topics, the
excellent anthology o f C hoay (1965) aboul the wide range o f ad vocated housing and urban

solutions that were elaborated since the mid 1800s to the earlv 201h century.
2. Nehru was in particular inspired by the Fabian Socialist movement in Greal RriLain which
was notably important for the development o f (he concept of the welfare stale.

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VIỆT N AM HỌC - KỶ YÊU HỘI T H A O QUỎC TÉ LÀN T H Ử T Ư

planning and housing during the firs t decades o f the 2001 century, inspired by a
‘ m odem ’ welfare society. A lengthy quotation, taken from a governmental study
group in the 1950s on the future o f housing the citizens o f Bom bay (now M um hai)
illusừates this:
"What is o f v ita l importance in the building up o f a Welfare State is to ensure
the provision o f liv in g accommodation o f modern standards w ith the recognised
essential amenities f o r the people in the country We therefore recommend that the
minimum accommodation should provide at least two liv in g rooms and a separate
kitchen w ith sanitary and other essential modern conveniences. C onstruction o f new
houses w ith a low er standard o f accommodation and conveniences w ill be
tantamount to com pelling the people in the country>f o r next three generations or
more to a s u b s ta n d a rd existence denying them the p riv a c y o f fa m ily life. This w ill
re ta rd the development o f a social order essential f o r the b u ild in g o f the Welfare
Stale in New In d ia " (Government o f Bombay, 1959, p. 12).
The ‘m odem ’ W elfare State that Indian leaders tried to realise was inspired by
social democratic ideals originating and expressed in the ‘ W estern’ w orld. The
North

Vietnamese ideas about a better Hanoi were equally

‘ m odernization'

oriented. Tran Hoai Anh quotes a number o f observers d u ring the 1980s on N orth
Vietnam in this respect. The modem N orth Vietnamese society was to be based on a
modem large-scale state-owned industry as w ell as the Indian. H ousing and urban

planning far its citizens were, as she summarizes:
"... instrum ental in the modernisation p ro je ct o f the
p e rio d

'centrally pla n n e d'

Apartment buildings were developed as symbols o f a modern socialist

society: modern (industrialized') construction technique, a modern

c o lle c tiv e ' way

o f livin g suitable f o r the modern socialist people". There was - as in India (IIS ) - "...
a concern about mass housing f o r the people, an issue to ta lly ignored d u rin g the
previous p e rio d ' (1999, pp. 116,117).
O f course Tran H oai Anh referred in this way to a m odern so cia list society
w ith a "new s o c ia lis t way o f liv in g " (.O.C., p .109). H ow ever, le t me recall that in
Ihe fie ld o f architecture, housing and urban planning the S o viet roots w h ic h were
disseminated all over the socialist w o rld and w hich stood m odel lo r H a n o i’ s
housing arrangements in the ‘ red' belt, were rather s im ila r to the W est European
and N orth Am erican ones (P e rry!). And even more, in the fie ld o f architecture,
we should keep in m ind that the modern urban housing blocks in the Soviet
U nion and in other socialist countries were inspired by the breeding place of

542


TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE VIEW ON SOCIAL

modern (fu n c tio n a l) architecture at Ihc (icrm a n Bauhaus in Dessau. Leading

Hauhaus a rchitccts such as M art Stain laughl in the S o v ic l U nion. W c should
n e i t h e r f o r g c l t h a t t h e ‘ m o d e r n . ‘p r o g r e s s i v e ’ s c h o o l s in architecture a n d u r b a n

p la n n in g claim ed to be universal, as expressed by fo r exam ple Le C orbusier O f
even more im portance, Ihc C I A M -group o f Ihc 1930s w h ich m anifested its e lf
through le 'C harte d'A lhenes and Van I estcren's famous extension plan for
Am sterdam o f 1935, had close contacts w ith S oviet colleagues . N ot surprising
therefore lhat Shannon labels ihe K I I blocks as 'C IA M dream s’ (2003, p.4). In
terms o f ‘ fo rm ’ we can summarise sim ilarities by ihe m ore pragm atic and even
dow n-to-earth

slatem enl o f Logan describing the K T T b u ild in g s: " From a

distance, these p re -fa b ric a te d concrete slab bu ild in g s c o u ld be in M oscow
B eijing, o r even New York or M elbourne" He added how ever: "... closer up, the
p o ve rty o f m a te ria ls and workm anship becomes a p p a re n t." (2000, p .204). The
discussion becomes then surprisingly sim ple' V ietnam was at that lim e a poor
co u ntry, Hanoi a po or c ily .
] mentioned here above the differences between the concepts and policy
goals o f modern Indian citizens liv in g in a modern welfare state and their modem
counterparts in Hanoi in a modern socialist society. They were there - but it is
debatable w hether the superstructural differences were sizeable. In the context o f
this paper, I shall, however, not focus on concepts and p o licy goals here, hut turn
to the Indian practice o f ‘ decent

mass housing in the tow ns and cities o f its

aspired w elfare state. A firs l look at urban public housing in India during a
somewhat com parahlc period to that o f H anoi’ s ‘ socialist face’ shows an almost
impenetrable ju n g le o f housing-oriented financial and management institutions at

national, state and local level and a even less accessible ju n g le o f plans, projects,
etc. to house an enormous number o f categories o f e lig ible citizens fo r all sorts o f
accom modation from rental to purchase and to elim inate the sub-human slum s'.
O bviously, most attention was given to low er income groups, or specifications
th e re of and housing was to be provided againsl highly subsidized rates. But even
then, many analysts, such as the regional planner K undu conclude, "... urban
housing schemes, even under extremely favourable circumstances, f a i l to reach

1. C ongres Intcrnationaux
Architecture)..

d'Architccture

M odem e

(IntematiQnal

C ongress

o f M o d em

2. H ow ever, the Soviet planners claimccl the superiority o f t h c i r fully controlled lown planning
and housing a rran g e m e n ts as against the chaotic contradictory con dition s in capitalist cilics.
See e.g. Rimsha, (1976, p 10)

3 Hie best overall account to gel some grip or til is matter is given by Kundu (1993)
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VIỆT NAM HỌC - KỲ YÊU HỘI T H Ả O QUỎC T Ế LÀN T H Ứ T Ư

ỉhe p o o r". A m ong the reasons o f these failures, K undu continues: "The subsidy
given to EWS (E conom ic W eaker Sections, H S) schemes, therefore, flo w s to the
p o pulation in higher income brackets through re g u la r o r irre g u la r transfer o f the
p r o p e r t i e s (1993, p. 124). In other words: K undu portrays India as a soft stale'
The concept o f India as a ‘ s o ft state’ certainly (co-)explains the fa ilu re o f
government activities w ith regard to social housing. A general lack o f funds was
another explanation, and a related one. Though ‘ recovery rates’ o f investments in
housing projects were already lo w in their design, they became even low e r as a
result o f widespread non-paym ent o f rents, etc. This

all made the Indian

government already from the m id 1960s onwards decide that the re sp on sib ility til
house its urban citizens had to s h ift from public authorities to private - persona] efforts. I shall come to this aspect later on, but firs t I give an exam ple o f the fate
o f public housing under Indian societal conditions.
Though in most Indian cities form al subsidized housing programmes faded
away in the course o f the 1960s, the situation was d iffe re n t in Madras (now
Chennai). As in other cities, a sizeable part o f the urban population lived in the
1960s in slums (hutm ent areas) w itho u t serious infrastructural fa c ilitie s such as
water and sanitation. Ramani gives a percentage o f 30% in 1971, i.e. 1.200,000
slum dwellers o f its 4 m illio n inhabitants (1985, p.9). In 1967 a dram atic change o f
the (Tam il Nadu) state power structure took place when the w ith in liv in g memory
governing Congress party - that also ruled at national level - was defeated by what
K o h li calls "... a re gional n a tion a list p a rty w ith a p o pulist s tru c tu re ” (1991, p. 157):
ihe D M K 2. The new D M K government decided in 1970 to tacklc the problem o f suh
standard slums in Madras in one big programme. It promised that the slum problem
would be solved in seven years by re-housing 164,0(10 registered slum households1.
For that purpose 23,400 small apartments o f about 20 sq. meters each, w ith a private

1. Even public and private em p loy ers did not and do not succeed in prov iding sufficient
subsidized houses for Ihcir em ployees. In many cities p ro g ram m e s o f this type o f housing
started how ev er (he colonial period arc ihc earliest proofs o f p ub lic conccrn with housing.
Known arc the ‘colonies' for the m ilitary, police officers, railway siafT, m unicipal sweepers
and scavengers, harbour workers, textile labourers, etc. They s h o w a relative good record for
housing m iddle and high ranking staff, and a w orse one for low er rank ing em plo yees
Housing is m oreover only to som e extent provided for p erm a n en t em plo yees, w h ile m any
workers are life-long kept on a ‘te m p o ra ry ’ list.
2. Dravida M unnctra K a /h a g a m in full. The DM K should not be con fuscd w ilh its olTshoot ir
1972: the A D M K : The A nnadurai, etc.
3. No provisions were m ade for non-registcrcd slum dwellers, w ho w e re m ore or less
considered as illegal dwellers, about 350,000 persons.
544


TOWARDS A SU S TA IN A B LE V IE W ON SOCIAL

kitchen and sanitary arrangcmcnis in mosllv lour storey b u ilding blocks were to be
buili annually (T a m il Nadu Slum Clearance Hoard, n.d.) .
The Madras slum re-housing authorities b u ilt actually 3,000 d w e llin g units on
average per year from 1971-72 onwards, far insufficient even to keep pacc w ith the
increasing number o f households living in slums. The programme was ended in
1^76-77, w ilh

after all

20,326 benefittins households (Madras

Developm ent A u th o rity /A la n

lu rn cr and Associates, 1980, p

M etropolitan

47). What went

wrong? Also here, lack o f funds is the o ffic ia l explanation, and as such this is true.
Out o f the invested Rupees per apartment, not more that 9% was collected in the
form o f m onthly rents, though more than 20% was calculated beforehand (costs o f
maintenance and repairs were not even included in (he cost-benefit calculations).
The Tam il Nadu Slate authorities decided that they could not continue to invest on a
massive scalc in housing in Madras

However, Ihc slate was its e lf responsible for

its failure. It promised a (populist?) solution that made it immensely popular for a
tew years among many urban poor but which was far from viable. Even more
important, il was not able and/or w illin g to enforce its own rules and regulations,
such as collecting rents. Politicians in Madras were highly responsible for this state
o f affairs as they ‘ o ffe re d ’ some sort o f pscudo-legalized ‘ paym ent-holiday’ in
exchange for a vote in one o f the local or stale elections. The relevant authorities
did not dare to withstand this political pressure. M any re-housed slum dwellers
happily co-operated to participate in ihese created vote banks!
Madras is an example o f a city in which rc-housing in apartmenl buildings
fo r low income categories o f the local population was tried deep into the 1970s.
Some other m illio n cities, such as Bangalore continued this housing policy,
though on a very modest and hardly noticeable scale o f 210 annual d w e llin g units
during the 1980s (Schenk 2001, p.265)3 In other large cities the tide turned from
the late 1960s and early 1970s onwards. Formal housing in m iddle rise aparlmenl
blocks o f (hose citizens who were both poor and badly housed gradually gave

I Details o f the p ro g ram m e and its sociL'tal context are given in S chenk (1989). It is perhaps
interesting that the layouts o f the larger re-housing projects (designed to co unt about 10,000
inhabitants) s h o w som e resem blance with ihc characteristics o f the neighbourhood centrcs o f
Perry, the Soviet m ikrorayon, or some K I T in Hanoi, though m ost projects w ere to becom e
much sm aller, bclw een 1,200 and 5.000 inhabitants.
2. The slum clearance and re-housing programme w a s partly
earm arked for rural developm ent

financed with

resources

3. Housing policies and actions in India are formulated, im plem en ted and financed at slate
level, not at local level.
545


VIỆT NAM HỌC - K Ỷ YẾU IIỘI THẢO Q UÒ C TẺ LÀN THÚ T Ư

away and was largely replaced hy a variety o f new policies. The m ost important
were (and

s till

are) on-ihe-spot hut im provem ent (in c lu d in g

environm ertal

upgrading) and site-and-services schcmcs1 A main stream o f experts on lo w cosl

housing in India (as w e ll as in other developing countries) emerged from - say 1970 onwards and explained that it was not feasible any more to expect from ‘:he
state’ to o ffe r the solution o f the ‘ housing question

. To the contrary, it was

argued; the slum dwellers could solve th e ir housing problem s themselves in a
much better way, provided the public authorities fa cilitated th e ir e fforts. A t (his
ju n ctio n , the W o rld Rank started to support ‘ s e lf-h e lp ’ housing projects in
developing countries w ith loans 10 state and local authorities, w h ile it abandoned
the financing o f form al housing schemes. Thus, both on a dom inant ideological
level and on the level o f more and more indispensable fo reign housing loans, it
was advocated that housing should largely be transferred from the p u blic 10 the
private sector. One could also argue thai India stopped pursuing a development
path towards m odernization along outlines o f the w elfa re state in the urban
housing sector.
Let me return to H anoi. A fte r all: Hanoi did b u ild apartments fo r its citizens,
and even on a fa irly large scale, and du rin g a long period. It is w id e ly rccognised
that these apartments were small and poorly equipped. It is true too that the
housing programme catered to workers in the p u b lic sector only, w h ile otters
were not looked after. It is true too that H anoi did not have the problem s c f a
rapidly grow ing m etropolis in a developing country. To the contrary, due to the
war and also due to restrictive policies w ith regard to settling in urban areas (the
household registration system) H a n o i’ s population declined d u ring the late 1950s
and early

1970s. But also its housing stock suffered:

17,000 houses uere

destroyed by IJS bom bings, and N orth V ietnam and H anoi had other, rrore

pressing p rio ritie s than those on even more public housing d u rin g most o f the
quarter o f a century between 1960 and 1985 w hich frame this paper. On the lncian
side, in-m igration is often mentioned as a obstacle to urban developm ent. It A-as
(and s till is) certainly massive in its m ajor cities, hut not in all interm ediate ind
m inor urban centres. The housing conditions fo r the urban poor in those cenres
were however, at least as bad as those in Madras and other m illio n cities ind

1 Have your house built yourself on a hire-purchased plot provided with infrastructural
services The house has to meet ccrtain minimum standards and has to be built wilhn a
specified period o f time.
2. A smaller stream o f planners, social-scientists, economists, etc. continued to point at the role
o f the stale in providing basic amenities and scrviccs such as housing to its citizcns.
546


TOWARDS A S U STAIN ABLE V IF W ON SOCIAL

perhaps even worse. M igrants have often been used as a scapegoat for urban
problems, bul the reasons lie deeper For India (o r for Madras, Bangalore, etc.)
they lie basically in the lack o f commitment among governm ent authorities and
politicians to solve Ihe housing problems o f ihe urban masses. I feel that this
cannot be said o f N o rlh Vietnam and H anoi1 L e i me see now whether this
com m itm ent was recognised by residents in K T T apartments. In the fo llo w in g
section 1 shall present and discuss some data.
3. Voices fro m residents in H anoi’s K T T
"Ten o f fifteen years ago", wrote Trinh Duy Luan & Nguvan Quang V in h in
2 0 0 1, "a fia t on the second f lo o r in a clean and quiet area w o u ld have been ideal
fo r any H an o ian " (p.63) A lso Koh stales lhat {he allotment o f an apartment was
considered good fortune during the 1960s and 1970s (2006, p.210). I shall take
these statements as a fram e o f refcrcncc for some remarks on the voices o f residents

w ith regard to their dw ellings in K T T building then (before - say - 1985) and now
The remarks arc based on a small survey that I conducted in December 2003 and
that included some questions on dwelling histories and residential satisfaction, etc
o f inhabitants o f a few K T T . The results o f ihese discussions are certainly not
representative fo r the population o f all Flanoi’ s K T T o f fo r one K I T in particular.
They focus on the question whether the residents o f K T T apartments agreed w ith
the dominant opinions about their housing which were given in the first section.
Subsequently they result into tentahve answers only.
A ll my respondents who lived in a K T Ĩ apartment before about 1985 agreed
that they were happy to get this place to live at that time 1 did not register - even in
retrospect - com plaints about major deficiencies o f the K T T blocks and its
apartments, allhough it was often stated that the materials o f the blocks b uilt w ith
North Korean or Chinese aid were o f a better quality. Some respondents elaborated

1. Shannon writes in a similar vein:

we can refer to the proclamations, that the slaie (North

Vietnam, HS) acknowledges the rig h t to certain minimum standards o f housing fo r every
family. And, unlike the experience in almost a ll other countries (communist or capitalist
alike) that have included similar statements in their constitution, this right was guaranteed -

though at low standards - in North Vietnam until the late seventies even in the big cities".
(2003, p.6).
2. I held semi-structurcd interviews with (he help o f an interpreter with 27 randomly
chosen residents in the following K IT : Nguyen Cong Tru, Quynh Mai, Kim Lien,
Quynh Loi, Tran Ọuoc Toan, Than Xuan Bac (North) and Phuong Mai, all given oul for
rent, and in Truong Ding (given out for sale). All interviewees were quite willing to talk
on the subjects I raised.
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VIỆT NAM H Ọ C - KỲ YÉU HỘI T H Ả O QUỐC TẾ LÀN T H Ử T Ư

on the satisfaction they expressed by explaining how much tim e and efforts it took
to them to get an apartment assigned.
The retired chairwomen o f the Factory Committee fo r L iv in g C onditions o f
the owning and managing industrial unit o f a K T T w ho was in charge o f the
disừibution o f apartments to workers o f the factory recalled even in 2003 her
sleepless nights and headaches when having to make a decision: one lucky
household against many unlucky ones. She remembers that at lhat tim e desperate
people were lying in fro n t o f her house, begging her fo r help and asking her to
ignore the regular procedures1.
I heard sim ila r observations:

‘drawing a lucky num ber’ , was regularly

mentioned. However, access to a K T T apartment was not always so d iffic u lt and not
for everyone. It took a women in the blocks o f K T T Quynh M a i w hich were
managed by a textile factory nol less than six years to get an apartment, but others
told me that they were fo r three months or a year on a w a itin g list. S till others got ail
apartment im m ediately and could even choose between several offers, as was the
case in K T T Nguyen Cong Tru during the 1960s. T rinh D uy Luan & Nguyen Quang
V in h mention that the selection procedure for the distribution o f apartments among
workers and o ffic ia ls took norm ally 27 months. (2001, p 52). M y data point rather
at a broad range o f the lengths o f w aiting lists.
There were a number o f variables that could influence the draw o f the lucky
number, The length o f the w aitin g lists and hence the period o f w a itin g were both
time-bound and influenced by social position. Repeatedly I was told that it was not
hard to get a fla t in the 1960s (due to the policies o f dispersal o f the urban

population and many urban factories). D uring the 1990s it was much more d iffic u lt
to get an apartment, but then under quite different conditions: that o f an emerging
housing market w ith an increasing number o f residential choices. W ith regard to
social and/or p o litica l rankings, several (retired) high ranking o ffic ia ls told me that
they could very q u ickly get an apartment, such as in K T T Tran Quoc Toan, Quynh
L o i and Phuong M ai (A respondent said: "Since I was a high ranking o ffice r ... Ỉ
could easily get an apartm ent"). In some cases, such as in K I T K im Lien, the
apartments were tailor-m ade according to social status: A -blocks fo r Russian
experts, R -blocks fo r a]] kinds o f state employees and the C -blocks fo r low -level

l . T h e regular criteria she m entioned were: n u m b e r o f w orkers in the household, n um ber of
years working in the factory, achievem ents in the production unit, presenl housing condition.
Priority was given to war veterans, w hile she said lhat m em bership o f the C o m m u n is t Party
played only a m arginal role.
548


TOWARDS A S U S T A IN A B LE V IE W ON SOCIAL

sta ff1. Hlsewhcre Iwo apartments nexl to cach other were dislributed lo a high
ranking o ffic e r ("ju st lower than the minister" as a respondent said). A lic r the
liberalisation o f the housing and construction markets in Hanoi in the 1990s, the
K l I apartments remained popular That means: for some. M any who could afford
it, moved away, possibly to a privately designed and b u ilt house2. Those who siaycd
arc often cider people as w ell as those who prefer the subsidized low rents or cannot
afford higher costs o f accommodation Manv o f the residents o f these categories
praise the nearby facilities and sometimes even the infrastructure, though some have
complaints about the overcrowded K IT blocks. They could have bought their
apartment from the managing Land and Housing Department o f Hanoi since 1994 at
highly concessional rates. Sonic did not as (hey did not see the point in buying

w hile rents were and remained so low. M y impression is lhat relatively poor
residents in re la tive ly poorly located K I T such as K T T Quynh M ai in the extreme
Southeast corner o f the city and far away from C B D form ation, were at that time
less inclined to buy, compared to relatively w ell-to-do residents in ‘ top’ K T T such
as K I T C iang V o and Trung Tu. The situation in K T T Quynh M a i illustrates this.
Many residents in K I T Quynh Mai were m iddle aged or older at the tim e o f
m y survey. The te xtile factory lhat housed a major part o f its workers in 14 o f the
35 apartment blocks in this K I T , started in 1965 and attracted at that time many
young women and men. Forty years later they are pensioners w ith small pensions.
M oreover, the factory has laid down many o f its workers fo llo w in g the opening up
o f the Vietnamese economy to the world markets and the subsequent fading away o f
the erstwhile socialist system o f barter trade (Comecon) in w hich the textile factory
could flourish. Hence, many (m iddle) aged workers became unemployed and had to
live from even sm aller pensions They seem to play ‘ safe’ and do not move.
The K I T apartment blocks house also ncwcomcrs, often those desperately
loo kin g fo r shelter w hich is not available elsewhere in the city. ] met fo r example an
illegal couple w o rkin g in a factory, and a student whose parents (liv in g outside the

1 ] cannot withstand the tem ptation lo give a lengthy quote from a Polish sociologist on the
social features o f socialist urban planning with regard to the neig hbo urh ood concept, written
in 1960. It sh ow s the distance belwecn official and ideologically correct statem ents about
urban planning under socialist regimes, and its realities: The p rin cip le s n f social ju stice in
Polish town pla nn in g are realized bv using Ihe o ffic ia l norms and standards which

determine: per capita living space .. without class distinction. The only basis fa r
differentiation o f available physical environment among urban fa m ilie s arc biological
characteristics o f families ..." .(Quoted in Fisher, 1962. p 253).
2. See the fascinating study o f Tran Hoai Anil (1999) on the newly huilt houses o f Ihe
em erging m iddle class o f Hanoi

549


VIỆT NAM H Ọ C - KỶ YÉU HỘI T H ẢO QUỐC TỶ LÀN T H Ứ T ư

city) had ‘ bought’ 1 an apartment. In view o f the overall shortage o f affordable
and/or accessible housing it is not surprising that I found satisfied dwellers. Some
bought or rented Iheir apartments at h ig h ly reduced rates; others ‘ bought’ or rented
at high costs, but felt that they had no choice and were after all happy as w ell. And,
the drawers o f a lucky number in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s dwelled in the
best apartments in Hanoi, w h ile the residents in the same K T T in the 1900s and
later on lived in the fo r them best available dwellings.
4. Concluding remarks: towards a sustainable view on Hanoi's social housing
Let me be b rie f and straight. In the first section o f this paper Ĩ put the question
whether the preponderant criticism s o f the K T Ĩ blocks and apartments that were
b u ilt between 1% 0 and 1985 could be su fficie ntly convincing in order to ‘ forget’
H anoi’s ‘ socialist face’ , in this case in a Government booklet on H anoi’ s built
heritage. Apparently there were in the late 1990s not many arguments (0 include
these blocks and apartments in a preservation programme, in v ie w o f their technical
deficiencies and lack o f opportunities to express individual desires regarding
housing. And perhaps as w e ll on the inevitable embodiment o f an ideological past
that is not very welcome, as Logan stated (see the quote in section 1). His chapter
on the return o f capitalism in Vietnam fo llo w in g doi m oi contains a m ajor section
under the clear title : *Changing ideology, changing h e rita g e ’, (2000, p.225).
However, Logan continues to suggest to preserve one o f the ‘best’ K T T - Nguyen
Cong Tru - as I mentioned in section 1.
The topics I raised in the sections 2 and 3 o f this paper fo llo w a slightly
different line o f reasoning w ith regard to the K I T and - perhaps - their future.
Whereas Logan rig h tly points at the biased ideology behind the heritage discussion
and subsequently promotes the safeguarding o f some apartment blocks in the

neighbourhood units b u ilt during between 1960 and the mid 1980s, I add two
different - additional perhaps - lines o f reasoning w ith regard to a more balanced
and sustainable view on social housing in the neighbourhood units in H anoi’ s ‘ red
belt’ . First, I look at the K I T from a lim ited comparative perspective; in this case a
perspective from social housing in urban India. This comparison is su fficie ntly
valid, as I wrote in section 2, and it is relevant as housing policies and practices in
India do matter, due to its ‘w e ig h t’ in the kaleidoscope o f developing countries. 1

1. Buying/bought has to be put between parentheses as those citizens w ithout permanent
registration cards cannot buy and legally own an apartm ents that is pari o f the public
housing stock. Those without papers or with only a tem porary registration can go for a rental
contract only and pay a sizeable am ount o f key-money, and are often exploited
550


TOWARDS A S U S TA IN A B LE VIEW ON S O C IA l

conclude subsequently, and I do it with sonic emphasis, that (he housing authorities
in North Vietnam and Hanoi can he satisfied - and perhaps even proud - w ith their
endeavour w ith regard to social housing, in spite o f all deficiencies and lim itations.
Sccond, many inhabitants were happy 1a be housed in an apartment in one o f the
neighbourhood units, as I wrote in scclion 3. O f course, one has to relate this
satisfaction to the housing conditions in Hanoi in terms o f quantity and o f quality
before and after the mid 1980s. Before this

watershed' shortage o f housing in

general made an apartment in a K I T block - as said - a lucky number in a lottery
that was held only among employees and workers in state institutions and factories.
Afterwards such an apartment became increasingly some sort o f refuge fo r those

citizens who could not afford a ‘modern and ccrtainly more spacious, luxurious and
expensive house or apartment in the ‘ self-organizing’ etc. city that Hanoi has
bccome according

to several observers (see section

1).

S im ilarly, the K I T

apartments proved to be semi legal shelter for those w ithout the required papers to
get access to the w hole spectre o f housing in the city. Even then: any city needs to
o ffe r this accommodation.
Sum m arizing: a more sustainable perspective on H an o i’ s Khu l ap The may
includc criticism

on the technical and related qualitative deficiencies o f the

apartments, l i may include critical comments on the Jack o f a pursued freedom to
build. But it should also include - as Logan does - a proper appraisal o f the culture
01 town planning and architecture o f the Soviet period o f urban planning and

housing in Hanoi and other cities in North Vietnam. It should certainly include the
awareness that H anoi and North Vietnam did not do a had job , com paratively
speaking, in housing many o f its citizens. And fin a lly, a sustainable view on social
housing should include the knowledge that so many inhabitants o f Hanoi were
happy to liv e in one o f the K I T at ihe lime, w hile many others are satisfied to live
there now.
The mentioned aspects o f a sustainable view o f H anoi's social housing w ould
in my opinion lead to conservation and renovation o f several apartment blocks as a

guiding p rinciple in the tow n planning o f the city. And ... does H an o i’ s history o f
over 1000 years not deserve a museum o f its Khu Kap The, based in one o f the
K T T , such as Nguyen Cong Tru, Tning Tu or Giang Vo.

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