University towns usually have an interesting mix of academic facilities and services supporting student life that provide an energy not common to most areas of cities or towns. The neighborhoods around the University of Wisconsin in Madison and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor are some of the best examples in America that I have experienced. The advantage of these locales in smaller towns is the intensity engendered by the single-purpose nature of the village surrounding the university. Nevertheless, university neighborhoods in cities often achieve the same critical mass of intensity, such as around Harvard University in Cambridge (Boston) or the University of California at Berkeley, California.
The energy and intensity arises from a high density of students in dormitories as well as students renting apartments in the neighborhood, converging on the restaurants, bars, bookstores, and coffee houses to exchange ideas and socialize. I know that I learned as much from interactions with fellow students at the universities I attended as I did in the classroom. Thus my undergraduate days at Montana State University in Bozeman, and graduate school days at UC Berkeley remain peak years in my life.
As I visit cities and live in them, I look for the university neighborhoods as a source for the youthful energy I crave, and as a place to find relaxing venues for intellectual stimulation or introspection. However, the neighborhoods around the major universities in Ho Chi Minh City do not provide the critical mass of students in proportion to city residents that makes for this kind of energy. This city certainly has a much higher degree of energy and intensity than most places I have visited or lived in, but the university neighborhoods do not provide that special intellectual energy that is the nature of university towns.
This is partly a result of the specialty nature of the universities in Saigon -- they are usually single-purpose universities and are spread all around the inner city. For example, the HCMC University of Architecture is in the midst of District 3, while the Engineering University is far out in District 11. This is unfortunate, because engineering and architectural students and faculty members could benefit from the communication engendered by closer proximity, as at most general universities. In addition, these HCMC universities do not usually have dormitories, so their students are spread all around the city wherever they can rent cheap rooms. The neighborhoods around these universities are not single-purpose neighborhoods -- the universities are just another institution among many in these neighborhoods, and the faculty members come from all over the city. Therefore the restaurants and other businesses around these universities need not specialize in serving the university community.
Therefore I was thrilled when my colleague architect Trà Giang introduced me to the University Village in the suburban district of Thủ Đức in the northern region of HCMC. Since 1995, the city has resolved to centralize the universities in this university village and not allow growth of the existing universities in the inner city. The major universities, such as the universities of Technology, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences and Humanities, have been combined into the Vietnam National University, HCMC, with 49,000 students. Other universities are also being established in this area. This is about a 45-minute motorbike ride from downtown Saigon, leading over the Saigon Bridge on the Hanoi Highway.
The neighborhood around the university village has not yet coalesced around the campus, partly because of ongoing construction and lack of clarity in the master plan. The main campus is also cut off from neighborhoods to the east and south by freeways. Unlike most university students, however, Vietnamese students have motorbikes which allow them ready access to neighborhoods in the vicinity. Thus a neighborhood of coffee houses or cafés has evolved about a kilometer away from the campuses in a low-density neighborhood with lots of room for large garden cafes.
Since most Vietnamese university students live in rooms shared by many students, these cafes with free wifi networks provide a much more comfortable place to bring their laptop computers and study. Unlike western cafes, patrons of coffee houses in Vietnam can stay for several hours on one coffee.
There were probably 25 cafés in this neighborhood, and this is just one example of the garden cafes.
The seating was comfortable and the service and coffee was equal to the inner city cafes I frequent.
The other cafe we visited was a modernist masterpiece.
Trăm Café was not a garden cafe, but rather a darkened room that accommodated laptop computer use very well. The library atmosphere was very conducive to conversation and intellectual energy. The audio system was superb in this cafe, although the sound level was kept down to a very reasonable level.
