Hanoi West Lake West (Tây Hồ Tây) Masterplan
Core idea
Diplomatic quarter and mixed-use
Why it matters
Key planned district in capital
Description
The Tây Hồ Tây (West Lake West) masterplan, initiated from 2006, is a Korean-invested new urban district on the western side of West Lake in Hanoi, developed by Daewoo Engineering and Construction in cooperation with the Hanoi city government. The plan lays out a formal, axial district intended to host government functions, a diplomatic quarter, corporate headquarters and high-density housing, forming part of Hanoi's westward expansion of its administrative and business core. It is one of several large foreign-invested khu do thi moi, or new urban areas, reshaping the Vietnamese capital.
Significance
The project is significant as an instance of transnational, developer-led city-building in reform-era Vietnam, where Korean and other East Asian capital and planning models have been imported into a socialist land regime. It reflects the state's use of showcase districts to modernise the capital's image, and it features in scholarship on new urban areas as vehicles of both national ambition and real-estate speculation in Hanoi.
What shaped it
- The master plan (early 20th c.)
- Neoliberalism (1970s–1990s)