Vietnam: Hue Urban Planning & Environmental Design Winter 2020 – Institute For Field Research

Location: Huế, Vietnam

Season: January 5, 2020 to February 1, 2020

Application Deadline: December 1, 2019

Deadline Type: Rolling

Website: https://ifrglobal.org/program/vietnamhue/

Program Type:
Field School

RPA Certified:
No

Affiliation:
Institute for Field Research, KU Leuven Belgium, Connecticut College

Project Director:
Prof. Bruno De Meulder & Prof. Kelly Shannon

Project Description:

The field school will build upon several decades of design research by the directors in close collaboration with Vietnamese partners (academic, professional and governmental). Vietnam, in general, and Thua Thien Hue, in particular, offer a unique living laboratory for contemporary urbanism—with regards to ever-growing, but surely nowadays fast urbanization and necessary response to the consequences of climate change. The intensive field school intertwines the building up an understanding of the specific socio-cultural appropriation of urban and rural territories, and the unique ecological qualities of the province. As well there will be a projective and design scenario component made in collaboration with local experts and professionals, to create more resilient, adaptive and socially- and ecologically-just settlements and environments. Thua Thien Hue Province hosts a wide variety of ecologies in extremely close proximity to one another.

The majestic geography stretches from the Truong Son Mountains bordering Laos (with large national parks like the well-known Back Ma National Park), to the broad Perfume River plain and its tributaries culminating in the Tam Gian Cau Hai Lagoon (the largest lagoon system in Southeast Asia) and finally the East Sea. It hosts the UNECSO listed Hue Imperial City and a number of royal mausoleums nestled in the landscape. The design research focus will be in the mountains and the lagoon. The Vietnamese Institute of Urban Planning (based in Hanoi and under the Ministry of Construction) will be a primary partner, together with University of Architecture Ho Chi Minh (UAH), Hue University of Forestry, and Thua Thien Department of Construction, in order to ground the investigations in on-going projects and discussions with various relevant stakeholders. Participants in the field school will partner with Vietnamese colleagues and learn hands on fieldwork methods of urbanism (including state-of-the-art mapping techniques of landscape urbanism), become acquainted with urban design strategies (while learning how to develop them in a learning-by-doing situation) and gain, through an intense process of cooperation, a substantial urban design experience.

Period(s) of Occupation: Contemporary

Project Size: 1-24 participants

Minimum Length of Stay for Volunteers: Participants are required to stay for the full duration of the field school.

Minimum Age: 18

Experience Required: No prior experience is required to participate in this field school.

Room and Board Arrangements:
There will be three sites of accommodation: 1) in the Truong Son Mountains: a homestay for 2 nights with the local ethnic population; 2) in Hue, a local small-scale hotel with all necessary services and within a lively central environment; 3) in the Tam Giang-Cau Hai lagoon: a local small-scale hotel. During the 2 days in the mountains, the local hosts will be responsible for our food: they are used to hosting national and international guests. In Hue, breakfast is provided by the accommodation. For lunch and dinner, there are ample small-scale restaurants available (catering to national and international tourists), that usually are very flexible in addressing dietary requests. In the lagoon, there are a number of small-scale beachside restaurants that have great seafood and other local fare. Students will be warned to only drink bottled water and to be careful with ice in drinks.

Academic Credit:
8 Semester Credits credits offered by Connecticut College. Tuition is $4,440.