THE CITY OF EXUBERANCE

by Taraneh Joorabchian

Hanoi's supercharged frontages are engaged in a celebration of livehood and habitation. The Old Quarter area, has been framed by a substrate of natural self-forms due to high land corruptions matters that shapes a ‘second’ architectural skin. Aesthetic encounters with this skin is built on the spontaneous placement and layering add-ons which protrude and transform the urban edge into an exuberant plane. Old quarter streets pronounced by a variety of experiences supercharged arterial routes that captivate, overwhelm and absorb visitors into a visually thrilling sensorial realm, a realm of theatricalized streetscapes an exuberant urban canyons.
Exuberance is simulated through the varied forms, sizes and arrangements of the frontages as they project from building edifices and texturize the streetscape, making it more ‘intense’ on the lower (shopping) level. The idea of the project forms an enclosure for flexible open spaces by elevating the Old Quarter's area from a cultural standpoint without interfering with the conventional access or causing any negative result in existing situation. The following strategy can manifest by in bridging and breathing a new life to the area or by using highline instead of sprawling on the ground and eating up natural infrastructures.