ABSTRACT

Ho Chi Minh City, the historic Vietnamese city formerly known as Saigon, has long been a dynamic centre of human habitation. The historic downtown area features grand public boulevards and narrow tree-lined streets, French-influenced architecture and throngs of citizens and tourists on motorbikes and on foot. Today, this character and the city’s sustainability are threatened by over-sized office and commercial development and population growth that is expected to increase from six million in 2010 to ten million by 2020. Rapid urbanization is also placing significant development pressure on the city’s historic core, which sits on the west bank of the great Saigon River.