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Vietnam’s skyscraper boom poses safety risks
“It’s worrisome,” says land use expert Dang Hung Vo. “If real estate developers do not have parcels of sufficient size to build safely, they should not think of building skyscrapers.”
Professor Vo is a well known land use expert in Vietnam, and a former deputy minister of Natural Resources and the Environment. He’s currently Chairman of the Land Survey Faculty under the Hanoi National University.
In the interview given to VnEconomy, Vo said that where land is expensive, tall buildings are a natural solution for businesses. Indeed, they should be encouraged to make most efficient use of land. However, building skyscrapers is not a good solution in all cases.
Thoi bao Kinh te Vietnam: When you say that building skyscrapers in Hanoi is not always a good solution, are you referring to their safety?
Dr. Dang Hung Vo: Not only in Vietnam, but also in every other countries, safety is always the top priority when people design buildings. The buildings must be safe in the event of geological calamities, landslides, volcanic eruption, or especially terrorism.
In Vietnam, especially, the quality of construction work has always been a hot topic. Even when building small bridges, contractors often try to cheat by using low quality materials or reducing the volume of materials used. The risks aren’t too great if it’s a building of only a few stories that’s constructed.
However, if the project is a multistory building, the consequences will be very big even with minor mistakes in design or bad judgment by a contractor.
Vietnamese engineers and architects still have not got used to building skyscrapers. Nor do our people have experience living in such sky-high buildings, including the experience of evacuating in case of a fire or other accident.
Building skyscrapers is a good policy, but the work must be very carefully planned. Skyscrapers should be built only when people can be sure that they are absolutely safe.
TBKTVN: Are the geological conditions in Hanoi and HCM City safe for skyscrapers?
Vo: The conditions in Hanoi and HCM City make it more costly to build safe skyscrapers there than in other places. What scares me is the possibility that real estate developers or contractors, in order to save money, will try to cut down expenses and ignore necessary design features and sound construction techniques. If so, the quality of the skyscrapers will be low.
We have had multistory buildings already and we have learned what’s necessary to build a good foundation. However, we still do not have a comprehensive report about the subsurface geology. I think we should have thorough studies on the necessary depths of building foundations in different areas of the Red River Delta and Hanoi itself.
TBKTVN: Does it bother you that businesses nowadays are rushing to build skyscrapers in order to polish their images and brands?
Vo: It seems inevitable. Many enterprises think it helps their business – structures like the Petronas twin tower in Malaysia help advertise for the group. Dramatic architecture ‘says’ to the world that a company is very advanced.
However, there are many ways to brand a business. Building skyscrapers is not the only way, and certainly not the cheapest! If businesses do not have a parcel of land that’s big enough to build safely, they should not rush after other companies to build skyscrapers.
TBKTVN: Have the authorities been too easy in granting licenses to build skyscrapers?
Vo: We should be more cautious until we have met basic infrastructure requirements. At present, electricity and water supply, transport infrastructure and social infrastructure conditions still do not meet the requirements of skyscraper construction. Unlike in other countries, licenses are too often granted here even when no perfect solution is found.
TBKTVN: It seems that the trend is toward restricting development of sky-high buildings in many places, while Vietnam has entered the race to build skyscrapers. Why is that?
Vo: Other countries are indeed reconsidering the specifications for multistory buildings. The growing tendency is to require that 1/3 of the height of buildings be under the ground, and only 2/3 above ground level.
Vietnam has experienced earthquakes measured at four on Richter scale, so we must be cautious with multistory buildings.
Building multi-level basements is the solution being applied in some Vietnamese cities. However, that’s more of a problem in Hanoi and HCM City because of the complexity of the underground water system (Hydrology) of the two cities.
vietnamnet, VnEconomy
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