ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Vietnam's urban policies and the development of New Urban Areas (NUAs) in the light of the modernization discourse. Modernist planning and architecture have served as important tools in the Vietnamese government's efforts to build a modern, orderly and civilized socialist society. The chapter explores the rationale behind NUA development by local governments, corporate actors, as well as residents, to provide a contextualized interpretation of master-planned developments in Vietnam. It presents the complex path-dependent transitional trajectory of Vietnam's post-reform urban development. The chapter focuses on an analysis of NUA developments in Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam. It includes a study of Vietnam's post-reform urban policies, of promotion materials of Hanoi's NUAs and case studies of four NUAs in Hanoi. Vietnam's housing sector has transformed from a state-allocated system to a market-distributed system with a large number of laws, decrees and resolutions being enacted to create an efficient market system to boost housing production.
