In a small corner of a once magnificent villa in the heart of Hanoi, Nguyen Manh Tri visits the house he has loved since childhood but is now giving up as its foundation breaks, the roof crumbles and the stairs bend.
Tri, 47, lives in three rooms in the subdivided house, one of around 1,200 French-style villas in the city that are on a list of protected houses published this year.
Most villas are almost a century old, were built during French colonial rule and were damaged by age and humidity. The families that live there are faced with tight, humid and noisy conditions.
Despite their protected status, the future of these houses — and their residents — is at stake, architects say, as residents struggle to afford their upkeep and the state is considering how best to preserve the Vietnamese capital’s crumbling heritage.
“When I was a child, I remember that this was a beautiful house,” Tri said of the 1930s villa where he was born, which combines local design with elements of the Art Deco movement.
“It was romantic. I could hear the bell from the post office and the sound of the train at Hanoi train station.”
But since then, the outer shell of his house has begun to crumble.
“The structure of the house was deformed as families built makeshift additions and tried to create a bit more space,” said Tri.
Cracks spread across walls, ceilings, and balconies, and clay tiles fall from the wide, overhanging roof, causing his family to decide to move out.
Damage and collapse
The listed villas, which are now often hidden behind cafés, noodle shops and fashion boutiques, were built by both French and Vietnamese architects for their wealthy compatriots who worked under colonial power.
When the French left the country in 1954, thousands of these houses were taken over by the communist government and converted into offices, while the authorities required all owners still living in Vietnam to divide up their property and distribute parts to poor Vietnamese.
Some private owners, such as Tri, are now keen to escape villas for modern apartments, but others prefer to stay despite the poor conditions and not knowing whether their homes will survive the coming decades.
“I’ve lived here all my life, so I don’t want to move anywhere else,” said 65-year-old Hoang Chung Thuy, who shares her three-story villa with 10 other households, a seafood restaurant, a clothing store, and a tea stand.
She can’t repair the crumbling walls without the approval and money of her upstairs neighbors, but she is determined not to leave the house that her grandparents built.
According to Tran Huy Anh from the Hanoi Architect Association, without proper maintenance, these buildings “run the risk of being damaged and collapsing.”
“The ones built at the beginning of the 20th century… need continuous renovation and maintenance every 20 to 30 years, it shouldn’t take any longer.”
In 2015, two people died when a villa built in 1905, in which around 20 people lived, collapsed.
Restoration worth 1 million euros
The authorities issued regulations to protect villas for the first time in 2013, but have examined the way forward for the houses back and forth.
A large proportion of the villas have already been razed to the ground, says Anh, and in April, the city announced a plan to sell 600 villas owned by the state before withdrawing the idea just a few days later.
Now Hanoi says it wants to renovate 60 by 2025, but faces lengthy negotiations to convince every single resident to move.
It took a decade before the first project — the restoration of an old villa worth €1 million — began.
But now the city is determined to restore the house to its former glory, says Pham Tuan Long, architect and chairman of the Hoan Kiem district, where this villa and Tri’s are located.
“We try to preserve the original elements and architectural values as much as possible by using traditional materials and traditional renovation techniques,” Long said.
But just a few blocks away, Tri packs up his home as he isn’t sure of his future. Moving out is difficult, he says, but it is even more difficult to imagine a time when the house is no longer standing.
In a small corner of a once magnificent villa in the heart of Hanoi, Nguyen Manh Tri visits the house he has loved since childhood but is now giving up as its foundation breaks, the roof crumbles and the stairs bend.
Tri, 47, lives in three rooms in the subdivided house, one of around 1,200 French-style villas in the city that are on a list of protected houses published this year.
Most villas are almost a century old, were built during French colonial rule and were damaged by age and humidity. The families that live there are faced with tight, humid and noisy conditions.
Despite their protected status, the future of these houses — and their residents — is at stake, architects say, as residents struggle to afford their upkeep and the state is considering how best to preserve the Vietnamese capital’s crumbling heritage.
“When I was a child, I remember that this was a beautiful house,” Tri said of the 1930s villa where he was born, which combines local design with elements of the Art Deco movement.
“It was romantic. I could hear the bell from the post office and the sound of the train at Hanoi train station.”
But since then, the outer shell of his house has begun to crumble.
“The structure of the house was deformed as families built makeshift additions and tried to create a bit more space,” said Tri.
Cracks spread across walls, ceilings, and balconies, and clay tiles fall from the wide, overhanging roof, causing his family to decide to move out.
Damage and collapse
The listed villas, which are now often hidden behind cafés, noodle shops and fashion boutiques, were built by both French and Vietnamese architects for their wealthy compatriots who worked under colonial power.
When the French left the country in 1954, thousands of these houses were taken over by the communist government and converted into offices, while the authorities required all owners still living in Vietnam to divide up their property and distribute parts to poor Vietnamese.
Some private owners, such as Tri, are now keen to escape villas for modern apartments, but others prefer to stay despite the poor conditions and not knowing whether their homes will survive the coming decades.
“I’ve lived here all my life, so I don’t want to move anywhere else,” said 65-year-old Hoang Chung Thuy, who shares her three-story villa with 10 other households, a seafood restaurant, a clothing store, and a tea stand.
She can’t repair the crumbling walls without the approval and money of her upstairs neighbors, but she is determined not to leave the house that her grandparents built.
According to Tran Huy Anh from the Hanoi Architect Association, without proper maintenance, these buildings “run the risk of being damaged and collapsing.”
“The ones built at the beginning of the 20th century… need continuous renovation and maintenance every 20 to 30 years, it shouldn’t take any longer.”
In 2015, two people died when a villa built in 1905, in which around 20 people lived, collapsed.
Restoration worth 1 million euros
The authorities issued regulations to protect villas for the first time in 2013, but have examined the way forward for the houses back and forth.
A large proportion of the villas have already been razed to the ground, says Anh, and in April, the city announced a plan to sell 600 villas owned by the state before withdrawing the idea just a few days later.
Now Hanoi says it wants to renovate 60 by 2025, but faces lengthy negotiations to convince every single resident to move.
It took a decade before the first project — the restoration of an old villa worth €1 million — began.
But now the city is determined to restore the house to its former glory, says Pham Tuan Long, architect and chairman of the Hoan Kiem district, where this villa and Tri’s are located.
“We try to preserve the original elements and architectural values as much as possible by using traditional materials and traditional renovation techniques,” Long said.
But just a few blocks away, Tri packs up his home as he isn’t sure of his future. Moving out is difficult, he says, but it is even more difficult to imagine a time when the house is no longer standing.