YELLOW OASIS: RECLAIMING THE STREETS

by Pui Mun Lee

Street vendors are the heartbeat of Vietnam’s culture and are integral to the visual fabric of Hanoi. These vendors are mostly women travelled from surrounding rural villages. With just baskets and shoulder poles on hand, they walked miles to sell their goods so they can support their families. In 2008, the government implemented a new policy on restrictions of side-walk based commerce on 62 streets of the city. This policy is a strategy towards modernizing the city’s image, making Hanoi another generic global city. Yellow Oasis investigates ways to embed street vendors into the urban fabric of Hanoi. The project intends to bring a voice to the women of the city and make their presence more visible. While the vendors are a staple infrastructure in providing to the community, this project emphasizes on how the city can serve them back by reclaiming the city as a new city of traders.