Local integration experiments in the new urban areas of Hanoi

In the peri-urban zones of many South East Asian cities, capital has flowed into the development of new, middle class urban enclaves. A significant body of scholarship sees these places as embodying some of the worst elements of American-style suburban, gated communities: sterile, disconnected from their surroundings, isolating wealthy people from the surrounding urban life, etc. While it is no doubt true that such a negative view is frequently warranted, through a closer examination of two projects in peri-urban Hanoi, the authors show that Vietnam's new urban enclaves can hardly be assimilated into the hermetically sealed enclaves described in much of the critical literature. The study cases from Hanoi reveal much more porosity: a strong influence of traditional modes of housing production and allocation, a mixing of built forms and the integration of the new enclaves into the surrounding communities.