19/03/2026
FIELD-WORKSHOP - HO CHI MINH CITY FUTURES: TYPOLOGIES TO OVERCOME
✨University of Architecture Ho Chi Minh City (UAH)
✨University of Hong Kong (HKU)
✒️Instructors: MA. Vu Hoang Kim Qui (IIE-UAH) + MLA. Francisco Cevallos Barragan (DLA-HKU)
✒️Special Thank: NQH Architects, Arch. Ngô Quan Hiền, Arch. Trần Minh Tiến
✒️Student Participation:
🔥UD Student: Phạm Phú Duy, Nguyễn Khánh Hà, Đặng Ngọc Hải, Nguyễn Trọng Khang, Huỳnh Nhật Khởi, Trần Minh Mẫn, Võ Ngọc Kim Ngân, Lê Thị Khánh Ngọc, Lê Thái Thông, Trương Thúy Văn, Võ Ngọc Bảo Hân, Nguyễn Ánh Dương, Hoàng Phương Uyên
🔥MLA Student: Chen Xiaoying Eleanore, Huang Siyuan Liam, Lai Tim Yu Natalie, Li Ning Demi, Li Ruiqi Anny, Lo Cho Yan Minnie, Scanlon Patrick Sean, Tang Hang Lam Laurie, Thomas Ines Laurette, Zhu Yuwei Vera
DAY 3: PHU MY HUNG – WETLAND TO URBANITY: LANDSCAPE TRANSFORMATIONS IN SOUTHERN SAIGON
🔎Day 3 continues with a site visit to the Phu My Hung new urban area in Southern Saigon, one of the earliest and most systematically planned urban developments in Ho Chi Minh City, built on former low-lying and wetland terrain.
🔎The group was warmly welcomed at the NQH Architects office, where Arch. Ngo Quan Hien (Principal Architect) led a thematic session on the urban development of Southern Saigon in general and Phu My Hung in particular. The presentation focused on long-term planning strategies, especially the integrated approach between technical infrastructure, hydrological systems, and spatial landscape organization. It highlighted the role of master planning and urban design in controlling urban growth, as well as how public space structures—including parks, water bodies, and pedestrian axes—are conceived as a backbone shaping urban life.
🔎In addition, the session offered practical insights into landscape transformation processes in the context of rapid urbanization, from soil stabilization and canal rehabilitation to the creation of spatial identity through landscape design. This provided participants with direct exposure to professional expertise, while deepening their understanding of the relationships between planning, design, and urban operation in one of Ho Chi Minh City’s most representative development projects.
🔎Continuing the fieldwork component, with guidance from Arch. Tran Minh Tien (NQH Architects), the visit focused on how this urban area has transformed wetlands into a contemporary living environment through integrated strategies of infrastructure, landscape, and public space. Participants explored various public space typologies, including green spaces within the Riverside Residence neighborhood, Nam Vien Park, Sakura Park, Crescent Lake Park, and the Ton Dat Tien Boulevard. Here, the natural canal system has been reconfigured and integrated with artificial lakes, functioning as ecological infrastructure that regulates water, improves microclimate conditions, and contributes to spatial identity.
🔎Notably, areas such as Crescent Lake and Starlight Bridge clearly demonstrate the central role of landscape in urban design—where water, lighting, and open space are orchestrated to create distinctive spatial experiences and attract public activities. This is articulated through urban design guidelines addressing architectural form and spatial organization; pedestrian connectivity; and the seamless transition between different public landscape typologies—from within the Crescent complex, around Crescent Lake, through Starlight Park, to Ton Dat Tien Street, where an artificial canal integrated into pedestrian space replaces a former natural waterway.
🔎Through this site visit, participants are invited to observe and analyze public space typologies within a comprehensively planned urban area, while critically assessing how landscape functions as a tool for environmental control, spatial organization, and urban development direction. Compared to more adaptive development areas such as Nha Be, Phu My Hung presents a prototypical case of a top-down approach, where planning and urban design play a dominant role in shaping both the living environment and urban morphology.