Antidote to Burnout

Constant construction in the hẻms of HCMC

Kevin over at SaigonNezumi.com often posts about the constant construction around his house in a hẻm (lane) on the other side of the Phu Nhuan District from where I live.  He is usually concerned about the dust, mud, and noise brought into his house by the nearby construction, not to mention the holes that have been knocked into his walls from the house construction next door.

Constant construction seems to the normal condition of all neighborhoods in Ho Chi Minh City today.  It is a mark of the vitality and upward economy of the country that everyone who owns a house is usually in a position at this time to remodel their house, add a floor, redo the plumbing, replace a roof, add a terrace trellis, or tear down a small house and build a taller house in its place.  It may be [I have no means at this time to substantiate this] that people would rather improve the land plot handed down to them by their ancestors within the city than relocate to the new urban areas.  The local newspapers keep stating that the real estate market for existing homes is stagnant, and it very well may be (judging from the many nhà bán (house for sale) signs I see around), but this is definitely not restraining the urge to improve one's residential property.

Everyday, I hear hammering, sawing, and machinery sounds entering my home office, but I have learned to tune them out.  And certainly I do love construction anyway.  Here is a current sampling (all photos taken from my roof terrace) of the visible construction going on around my house (nonvisible meaning interior work that I can hear but not see):

An existing house that was gutted and thoroughly remodeled, including a new roof.

A roof being replaced (in addition to a full-gut remodel below), and a new house beyond that.

A large building being demolished.

and a new building off in the distance.

Although it is a few kilometers away downtown, it has been interesting to watch this new TV tower under construction off in the distance:

The tower is only half-way up so far.

Certainly the construction industry in Vietnam is thriving -- for both large companies and the small neighborhood companies working on the projects in the hẻm.

Telecommunications infrastructure in HCMC

Back on 10 Ocotober, we complained about the slow internet bandwidth here in Ho Chi Minh City.  At that time, many of us bloggers commiserated with each other about the slowing to a crawl evident at that time.  Immediately thereafter, service perked up to its usual mediocre level and has remained consistent over the past couple of weeks.  So I suppose we should be thankful.  On the other hand, what passes for normal bandwidth service here does not allow much for  radio-streaming or video.

The following photos illustrate the standard condition of the telecommunications infrastructure along the lanes and streets of Saigon.

I am not sure how the various internet providers and telephone companies sort all this stuff out.

Neighborhoood new houses...

There is construction work going on everywhere in all of the neighborhoods of Ho Chi Minh City.  While there are a fair number of high-rise buildings, bridges, highways, and housing subdivisions under construction, the bulk of work being done here is small-scale residential improvements along the small lanes within the large city blocks of Saigon.  My posting on 19 April 2007 described these neighborhoods as part of the urban fabric of the city.

Where home-owners are not tearing down their smaller houses and building much taller homes, they are constantly remodeling to add new features to their existing homes, or to raise the rooftop by another story.

Down the hẻm from me, an old villa was torn down over a couple of days and construction begun on five new 4-story houses at the same time, each on 4-meter wide by 12-meter long lots.  Three of the new houses were of a pop style using historicist (architectural styles adapted from the past) design elements:

The remaining two houses around the corner are of excellent modernist design:

These two modernist houses are now my favorites, and I need to return to them on a sunny day (rather rare around HCMC this month) to catch some better photos of them.

I am not sure whether one land owner decided to build three pop traditional design houses and two modernist houses for sale, or he sold the lots and the new owners made their own choices.  I will try to find out.

Retail stores come and go...

You may recognize where my banner photo above comes from -- the photo of this restaurant building off Phan Xích Long Street in the Phú Nhuận District of Hồ Chí Minh City was taken a year ago when the building was fairly new.

The restaurant has now been closed (perhaps temporarily) and the second level has had its large openings blocked up with hollow-clay tile blocks (hopefully temporarily).

I don't know if the infill was placed to keep out intruders for awhile until the building is rented again, or if the owner is preparing for a new tenant who wanted the openings blocked up.  This was one of my favorite modernist buildings in Saigon, so I will be coming by regularly to see how what the results of this renovation will be.

Neighborhoods in HCMC are not static at this time -- they are constantly changing.  You can walk along a lane one day, and then come back a couple of days later to find your favorite house demolished and a new house under construction.

Sliced-off house...

Last year, I posted this photo of a house along Nguyễn Văn Trỗi Street in the Phú Nhuận District.

The front half or two-thirds of the house had been sliced off to accommodate the widening of the street.  As streets are widened, the government takes back land use rights and compensates the rights-holders, who can then sell the remaining property or fix up what is left.

Here is the final result of the cut-back.

Not well done architecturally, in my opinion.  But it would up being a highly-visible location for a large advertising sign.

More on slow internet connections in Vietnam

Here is a link to an article on Vietnam.net Bridge about the pervasive internet bandwidth lack in Vietnam:
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/tech/2007/07/718231/

We all seem to have the same problem -- here is a quotation from the article:

"Most internet subscribers are very disappointed when ISPs’ customer service departments blame PC viruses, modems, poor PC system configurations or even broken cables for the slow broadband.

 

"Toan said he has given up because “all internet services in Vietnam have the same problem”."

FPT's bandwidth limitations in Vietnam

Vietnam's economic growth is clearly outpacing its ability to get supporting infrastructure in place.  The increasing traffic jams are evidence of the lack of highways and the need for mass transit alternatives.  New housing developments and industrial parks are located out of the city along narrow country lanes that can't support the increased car and truck traffic.

Closer to home, the bandwidth available from our internet service provider, FPT, has been steadily decreasing over the past couple of months.   I notice that a few of my neighbors now have computers, and they have probably hooked onto the network.  As more and more neighbors buy computers and internet hookups, the service will continue to decline unless the service providers increase capacity.  FPT seems to be slow in doing so.

Kevin over at the blog SaigonNezumi.com just wrote about his frustrations at the the lack of bandwidth in the same neighborhood over the past couple of days.  I am thankful for his voice here because I was beginning to believe this was my problem.  We had called FPT for service, and they came over and were mystified why we clearly had a connection to the internet, but could not bring up a webpage.  They suggested that we needed to buy a new modem.  If they are having widespread bandwidth problems, and I assume their other customers call for service, wouldn't they have the smarts to figure out they had a problem and were honest with their customers about the problem and what FPT planned to do about it?  They either lack the smarts or are dishonest with their customers.  Neither reason speaks well of the future of this company in a country that is becoming increasingly sophisticated about good service.

Modernist design ideas in Việt Nam

I have often expressed my respect for the modernist tradition practiced by Vietnamese architects in urban houses.  I believe that Vietnamese architects have explored a long history of modernist design ideas, and produce very interesting, well-designed houses.  They constantly try out new original ideas using color and layering of the structural frame skillfully.  This house in my neighborhood illustrates the basic modernist design principals used by good Vietnamese architects in houses throughout Ho Chi Minh City.

This house exhibits a spare but well-chosen use of color as well as layering of the structural planes with void elements (holes)  to provide a balanced composition.

What I cannot understand is why Vietnamese architects have not often been able to scale this ability up to larger buildings.  More often than not, Vietnamese architecture for larger buildings is heavy-handed and displays none of the inventiveness and fresh ideas designed into new houses everyday here in HCMC.  This building is a new example (just finishing construction on Nguyễn Trãi Street in District 5).

The heavy base of the building is a very dark color with no relationship whatsoever to the curtain wall of the middle floors.  The facade is bland and is devoid of any ideas.

This residential building, newly constructed on Cao Thắng Street in District 3, is also a bland building, but explores some basic modernist ideas that give it design touches to offset the blandness..

Accent colors are skillfully used around the windows to emphasize the openings and give interest to a facade that is otherwise the most common expression of this kind of construction in Viet Nam.  Layers have been added to the facade to further give depth and interest to the building.  These are very simple ideas, but are not used often enough in the larger buildings designed by Vietnamese architects.

Thin Building

Vietnamese developers in TP. Hồ Chí Minh will build on any minimal lot if they can gain approval of their project from the City.  In this case, the lot on Trần Hưng Đạo Blvd. is only four meters wide at the end, and the developer was able to achieve approval for an 11-story building.

The Urban Fabric of HCMC

This article is the second in a series on urban planning of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).  The first article presented my image of the existing city.

The colonial French laid out the old city of Saigon, beyond the grid of downtown streets, with wide boulevards radiating at angles from monumental roundabouts.

As a result, most areas of TP. Hồ Chí Minh have very large blocks with long distances between cross-streets.

The street-front lots have much greater commercial value, so streets are lined with taller buildings featuring shops and restaurants at every ground floor opening.

The vast interiors of the large blocks are accessed by very narrow 1-to-4 meter-wide lanes, called hẻm in Vietnamese.

Smaller houses are arrayed along the narrow lanes,

and these houses also often feature shops or food stands at their ground floor openings.

Therefore Ho Chi Minh City, with 6.12 million people in 2004, is one of the densest cities in the world, at 10,608 people per square kilometer in its 19 inner-city districts, with 45,001 people per square kilometer in its densest district, Chợ Lơn in District 5.  By comparison, Hong Kong has a population density of 6,206 people per sq. km with 55,000 people/sq. km. in its densest district.  Manila has 41,014/sq. km., Cairo 36,618/sq. km., Mumbai 29,434/sq. km., New York City 10,292/sq. km. (25,849/sq. km. in Manhattan), 24,775/sq. km. in Paris, and 16,391/sq. km. in Seoul [all statistics from Wikipedia].  Given the density of some of these cities, HCMC cannot be considered overpopulated.  And there are many undeveloped areas within the city that can grow to increase the density of the city safely.

Although this density may seem high and unlivable to an American suburban dweller, the streets and lanes are actually very interesting and provide many varied experiences.

Many of Saigon's streets are tree-lined shady avenues.

In the heat of the day, people tend to stay indoors, so the density is not as apparent as it might be.

But the busy streets hold many relaxing venues and get-aways.

as well as parks spread around the city.

The high density of potential customers also allows for many varied restaurants and coffee shops along the streets.

These dense blocks are highly sustainable since they carry almost every activity and commodity necessary for urban life, including street-side markets.

Since automobiles cannot enter the narrow lanes of the block, these residents will not be tempted to buy automobiles and contribute to the air pollution and traffic congestion in the city.  And since many of the residents are secure in the blocks and have everything that they need, they rarely venture outside the block and require transportation to other parts of the city.  Those that have jobs outside the blocks commute via bus or motorbike.

The traffic congestion is becoming a critical problem since the city has delayed implementation of plans for subway or freeway systems.  This is the view from a bus during the rush hour:

Parking for automobiles on the streets is nonexistent, although there is often overnight parking available in some neighborhoods.

Nevertheless, there are indications that the HCMC government will begin to address its infrastructure issues soon.  How the government regulates future development, however, will greatly impact the existing urban fabric of the city.  More about that later.

My Image of Ho Chi Mnh City

In order to prepare one's personal vision for the urban design and development of a city, one must have a good sense of what his/her city currently is.  The description of one's personal image of his/her city is important as a means to determine differences in perceptions of images.  While I might find TP. Hồ Chí Minh to be a very stimulating intensive environment, my neighbor might think that TPHCM is currently too messy and chaotic.  It is these differences in perceptions that are important to lay out and explore in order to determine the basis for change in the environment that people can agree upon and make happen.

This is my image of Ho Chi Minh City at this time, tempered by my memories (and photographs) of Saigon past in 1971-1972.

To me, the inner-city HCMC is a very vibrant busy commercial center overlain directly on family houses, villas, and apartment buildings.

As a result of this mixed use, HCMC to me is an extremely intensive urban city -- intensive with people, smells, sound, color and light that is unmatched in most modern cities of the world.  Yet HCMC is a modern city, with most of the amenities we usually associate with modern cities, such as department stores, shopping centers, high-rise office buildings, and transit systems.

And HCMC has so far avoided ripping out its past of old colonial buildings that set the urban fabric for the downtown districts of Saigon.

Over time, people found plenty of holes in the fabric to insert small houses and commercial stores.  Then over the past couple of decades, developers have found holes in this fabric or cleared enough small houses to allow them to place higher-rise buildings.  But the mix of people living and working and shopping together in one place remains.

Although there are several 20-to-40-story high-rise buildings spread around the city, the city on the whole is primarily composed of buildings from 3-to-8 floors.

It is interesting to me that the skyline of Ho Chi Minh City has not changed that much from its war-time Saigon days.  This aerial photograph taken by me in 1972 shows somewhat the same scale of development existing today.

Contrast the old photo with this recent photograph posted by Jaroslaw on the online skyscrapercity.com Vietnam forum:

Rather than a large increase of high-rise towers, the density of the overall fabric has been increased -- the average height may have increased from two or three stories to five stories.

The more recent high-rise buildings are spread around the city and have not been clustered in one area, except for the downtown hotels between Hai Bà Trưng and Đồng Khởi Streets.

So for me, my image of Ho Chi Minh City of the past, present, and future, is a mixture of uses within a fabric of commercial and residential structures that is constantly evolving rather than replacing itself wholesale.  This results in neighborhoods of mixed uses and types, styles, and sizes of buildings.

The results may be a little jarring sometimes,

but that provides visual interest and energy that is highly stimulating and provides places for the differing needs of people.  To me, that is the measure of a vital creative city.

Visions for downtown HCMC

Jon over at The final Word...in Saigon just posted a very comprehensive and thoroughly researched description of current and planned development projects in TP. Hồ Chí Minh.  He is looking forward 13 years to a dream of "gleaming highways and sleek Japanese style bullet trains" by the year 2020.

I agree with Jon's vision of infrastructure development by 2020.  But there seems to be a current malaise within the TPHCM government at this time.  Jon alluded to the delays in getting subway lines under construction.  Current infrastructure projects including canal cleaning and sewage infrastructure are delayed due to inadequate financing by construction contractors, and other infrastructure projects have failed, such as the bridge across Rach (canal) Van Thanh on Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh Street, which has subsided unevenly.

And while there are several high-rise office and condominium towers under construction, there are many more planned that could be constructed but are currently held up by the City's lack of vision for its own development.  Those that are under construction now were approved for planning years ago, and it takes a couple years after project planning  approval to arrange financing, complete design documents and secure construction approvals.

Việt Nam's Construction Law requires city governments to be clear with its citizens what the master plan is for their neighborhoods.  But TPHCM has not been able to complete its master plan for the downtown areas of District 1 and portions of Districts 3 and 4.  Therefore developers find it very difficult to obtain information from the City about parameters for development, and those submitting plans for large projects are finding the City unable to approve them until the City can complete its zoning vision for downtown.

Does the City want to maintain the urban environment downtown at somewhat the same heights and density of development?  Or does it want to build a vibrant dense international commercial center to rival Hong Kong and Shanghai?  Or does it really want to shift the commercial center of TPHCM across the river to Thủ Thiêm in District 2?  If it does, there are several years of infrastructure to complete before that can happen.  Until the City can answer these questions and agree on its vision for development, development will slow to a snail's pace regardless of the increasing pent-up demand for office space and apartments as new investors crowd into TPHCM.

Maybe this delay to agree on its vision will be a good thing for the people of TPHCM in the long run.  But Việt Nam needs growth in investment, and it can only be delayed so long until investment goes elsewhere.  Assuming the City comes to grips with its development over the next year or two, and improves its leadership to equal the energetic and visionary leadership currently provided by the national leaders, then the people of TPHCM can achieve their dreams similar to the dream described by Jon.

I had the good fortune to visit Shanghai and Beijing in the early 90s on business trips, and I would place TPHCM at about the level of development of those two cities in those days.  Since then, those cities, as well as most cities in China, have made unbelievable progress in development.  Shanghai built an extensive subway system, a complete freeway system, a new international airport, and 500 high-rise buildings in ten years time.  So the people of TPHCM can reach their vision for 2020 if they develop a similar will to do so.

The question is:  What kind of living and working environment will result alongside the freeways and subways that will be built?  I personally hope that the City will not decide to demolish whole areas of the City in preparation for development.  That is what both Beijing and Shanghai have done, and it is the Chinese model for development, which follows an old discredited American urban-renewal model.  And Chinese cities have often become the worse for their people with commercial areas bleak and empty at night and the people crammed into soulless monotonous housing towers away from the center of the city.

I hope that the people of TPHCM will decide to increase the city's urbanity by letting development proceed on individual lots all around the city in accordance with morket forces.  That seems to be current model, and it retains city life around the clock in neighborhoods mixed with housing, shops, and commercial offices.  There are those that say this environment is messy and chaotic, and it will be for a time.  But in the long term, all areas of mixed neighborhoods develop and improve over time as market forces drive up values and allow improvements by the people themselves.

Back in Ho Chi Minh City

We are back in Viet Nam -- have been for 10 days now.  I am very happy to be back in HCMC, where I am much more relaxed.  It is not that I wasn't happy at home -- I was just itching to get back to Viet Nam and get my daily fix of intensive sensory stimulation.

San Francisco was cold as usual, and our hundred-year-old house is too drafty.  The cold goes to my bones.  In HCMC, I love the heat.  Actually it isn't that hot at this time in HCMC -- 80s every day instead of 90s, and a cooling breeze in the afternoon and evening.

I haven't been in the mood to contribute to the blog lately, though.  Although I am happy to be back in Viet Nam, I am unhappy about the slow pace of our real estate development business growth.  My three American partners came back to HCMC at the same time, and we have been very busy.  But the business is not yet paying off.

Real estate development to me is a form of gambling.  But I would prefer not to be gambling.  I am sure most developers would say that their skills and good judgments lift their activities beyond gambling.  But our American skills seem to have less impact here for us here in Viet Nam, and our judgments have seen mixed results.  Actually there haven't been any results.  We are back to square-one in appraising potential properties and uses at this time.

Everyday we seem to be dealt a new hand, even if the previous day's hand of cards has not yet been fully played out.  Some days the cards bring us what appears to be bright prospects -- the next day the hand of cards mysteriously changes and we lose.  Most of what we wager and lose is precious time.  It is a good thing we don't have any money to wager, or it might be much worse.  Our job at this point is to get other people to wager the money, or the land.  And that is where the cards constantly change.  Over time, we should hone our skills and knowledge of doing business in Viet Nam, but it is clear that we have a long ways to go to lift ourselves above the common playing table.

We do seem to have picked some better playing teammates at this time, though, so we hope we have increased our odds.  As soon as good results happen (achieving issuance of an investment license on a project), then I will let you know and try to pass on some of the lessons learned.  Of course, the investment license just increases the stakes and risks substantially.

Real gambling is actually our biggest problem is at this time.  There have been indications that the Vietnamese national government will eventually issue several gambling licenses to real estate developers aligned with gaming operators and land owners.  [No one actually owns land in Viet Nam -- one owns the right to use land].  No one seems to be able to agree on how many licenses will be issued, or when, or where.  Our prospective lenders and land owners for resort projects are wanting to chase the big prizes, so we have had to turn resort projects into larger casino projects.  This has diverted precious attention from less risky potential projects.  But the prizes for the winners are going to be substantial, so we have caught the gambling bug and are thoroughly addicted at this time.

On a more worthwhile note, it is good to see Virtual-Doug back in Hue and blogging daily with fresh insights and beautiful photographs.  He is here in Viet Nam for a month or so to visit his ailing friend (a friend indeed to many).

Parking problems....

I was relaxing at my favorite cafe watching the scene in the neighborhood square when this car pulled up and stopped.

It seemed as if the driver was looking for a place to park, but there isn't any place to park cars here or in most neighborhoods of TP. Hồ Chí Minh.  The car then moved on.  There are plenty of spaces for motorbike parking parking in the middle of the square, however.  Where there isn't a square for parking, motorbikes  are parked by an attendant on the sidewalk in front of the cafe or business.

Even though you take the bike key with you, the business attendant is responsible the the security of the bike when parked at the business.  You are given a numbered tag that must match the number chalked on the bike seat when you return.

Sometimes the motorbike parking is at the rear of the establishment,

so motorbikes roar through the restaurant to and from the street behind your seat at the table.

Large establishments or public buildings may have very large parking lots for motorbikes.

Employees in a neighborhood are often serviced by parking lots on the sidewalks.

At home, motorbikes are parked inside on the ground floor (usually the sitting room or house business).  As more and more people buy cars however, they also park the car inside the house.

You can tell that this homeowner parks a car inside using the ramps on each side of the usual motorbike ramp in the center.  Can you imagine an SUV parked in your living room?

Over the past six months, I have noticed that many new houses are now digging a meter deep into the ground to provide semi-basement parking for cars.

Otherwise new car owners have to find off-street parking elsewhere in the neighborhood wherever land owners with extra space rent out parking spaces.

Sites like this one are now prime building sites for new development, however, so this solution is short-term.

HCMC Buiding 1

Posting a house every day is too much.  Let's try a building once in a while.

Building new commercial structures in the middle of a block is not a strategy that most American developers will pursue.  In Viet Nam, there are several examples in TP. Hồ Chí Minh of new developer office buildings built mid-block with meager access from the main streets.  This new small building on Pasteur Street (between Nguyễn Đình Chiểu and Điện Biên Phủ Streets) is set back from Pasteur Street behind two older structures.

A small alley leads to the building, named Pasteur Tower.

The building entry is crammed in behind the older structures.

I thought that the older structure adjacent to the access alley might be torn down, but they are now renovating it.

As an international style composition, however, I think it is very well designed.  The facade facing Pasteur Street is purely compositional.  The opaque band rising up through the right side of the facade appears to have no functional use.  The windows remaining on the right edge have no real use since they are largely blocked by the corner structural column of the building.

Whereas most modernist design bows to functional rationality, this composition is purely intellectual and inventive.

Whereas most western buildings look the same all around the building, this building is typical of many newer buildings in HCMC where the back and side facades have entirely different materials and styles.

Learning from others....

I have been a funk for the past month about the lack of progress in our Vietnam business.  Hence the lack of postings here.  But the break to this funk might just lie in writing some posts about business, which might help me to see a way through the morass we seem to find ourselves in.

It makes sense that other countries in Asia might offer a model for what is now happening in Viet Nam business.  Certainly, Viet Nam's neighbor, China, is undoubtedly the best model since it is also a Communist political system, has had tremendous influence on Vietnamese culture over the centuries, and is about 15 years ahead of Viet Nam in its development as an emerging industrial nation.

Therefore I have started reading a variety of blogs focused on China recently, and will try to draw some parallels to China and apply them to Viet Nam.

One of the blogs I have been reading every day is the China Law Blog, written by Dan Harris, an attorney from Seattle who travels extensively in Asia.  He posts two or three times daily on his blog, and the posts aren't just simple references to other internet items -- they are always very well researched and thoughtful with original analysis and thinking.  Judging from the time stamps on many of his posts, he must be one of those rare people who don't waste much time sleeping, which is probably a good trait to have when you are constantly traversing time zones.

In one of his posts today, he gets to the heart of my current angst here in Vietnam business -- the impossibility of participating fully in the business networks here (as in China).  Dan quotes the conventional wisdom, espoused in this case by Janet Carmosky of China Prospects, Inc., offering market research and network referrals to foreign businesses wanting to enter the Chinese market.  One of her business principles states that the key to dealing with China is to get into a network of connections, called Quanxi in China.

Dan counters that participating fully in the local business networks is impossible for foreigners to achieve.  He states that "I also think that Westerners who actually believe they are in a Chinese network are, almost without exception, operating under a potentially dangerous illusion."  Then quoting his attorney partner, Steve Dickenson, who has been involved in China for 30 years and lives there: "How can I compete with people who are from the same hometown, have the same uncle, went to the same high school, the same college, have the same culture?  I can't."

On the other hand, I understand Ms. Carmosky's point that you can use business connections to better acquire "the knowledge and skills needed to work effectively with Chinese organizations and individuals."  But we have learned that we have to guard our own identity and not become trapped by these connections.

My American business partner and I have been laboring under the assumption that we have been truly accepted by those in the network in which we have operating.  It has become painfully clear over the past weeks that this is not the case.  This has lead to much time wasted in many blind alleys and mazes of tangled relationships that kept us from our real goals.  I have come around to the conclusion that we just need to follow our own inclinations, watch out for and advocate our own interests, and work with as many different partners as we need to in order to further our own business goals.

We may retain our primary partnership with a local Vietnamese network, but we have learned that we cannot wait for them to hand us business, and we need to find our own business both within the partnership as well as outside the partnership.