Attractiveness and Livability in New Urban Areas of Hanoi: When Their Public Spaces Are 'Socialized'

Abstract

After 1986, by economic reform institution and the end of State subsidization in housing development, the model of KDTMs (Khu Do Thi Moi-new urban area) is the result of transferring the housing supply part to the private sector, referred to as 'socialization', which has come to imply the individualization of responsibilities and the privatization of public goods. This model has shown a marked change in the ideology of creating neighborhood-level public spaces, in order to increase the attractiveness and competition in the real estate market. Perhaps this transfer is justified in the context of restricting the government's public funding to establish and maintain urban public spaces as well as the real need to create the attractiveness and livability of the KDTM project. Public spaces in KDTMs bear the additional economic role, creating a trinary political-economic-social system. The KDTM project owner has the role of promoting the creation of the public space system but has also given additional forms of ownership and management. The use of public spaces is divided into different levels bringing many identity creative imprints according to the context of each project. The process of socializing public spaces in KDTMs redefined the nature of public spaces in Vietnam's urban residential areas.