We have made a photo essay on the Lo Gom canal urban upgrading project in cooperation with photographer Wytske van Keulen and AsiaLIFE magazine. The project aimed at improving living conditions in the outskirts of the city, as well as restructuring the canal.

© Photos by Wytske van Keulen

Mekong Metropolis participates in INTI’s research project “New Towns in Asia after 1990“.

Photographer Wytske van Keulen has joined the Mekong Metropolis team in 2010.

Dutch canal houses near Batavia.

Source: Nationaal Archief, Listingh Gead:rt Landm:tr, Onrust, 1654, in: Knaap, G., Grote Atlas van de Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie / Comprehensive Atlas of the Dutch United East India Company : II Java en Madoera / Java and Madura, Voorburg, 2007.

In 2009 the Danish architectural firm Dissing+Weitling made a design for Gia Lam New Town. The project is part of the Great Hanoi masterplan, made by PPJ.

Read more on Dissing+Weitling.

After the damaging floods that hit the Mekong Delta in 2000, the Government introduced a program for sustainable improvements of the communities. The program was based on the idea of ‘living with floods’ to protect poor people’s lives, properties and crops. The Government built flood control structures like dams, dykes, water reservoirs and canals. In cooperation with Care International the Government also constructed residential clusters. These regions are protected by a dyke and the ground level is backfilled up to 60 centimeter above the highest flood line.

Source: Barbieri, U., de Heer, J. and Oldewarris, H., Carel Weeber ‘ex’ architect, Rotterdam, Uitgeverij 010, 2003, pp.59.

The Dutch architect Carel Weeber has built a hospital in Vietnam during the 1970s. He cooperated with the Delft University of Technology and the Medical Committee Netherlands - Vietnam (MCNV). In 1975 Carel Weeber travelled from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City and visited the construction site in Dong Ha in Quang Tri province. I asked him about his experiences during that trip.

Printed manuscript funded by Netherlands Foundation for visual arts, design and architecture.