In its time as the capital of Vietnam, the luxurious villas have even claimed human lives. Still, some residents do not want to move from their homes.
Nguyen Manh Dr looks at his home in the heart of Hanoi, which was once a luxurious villa. He has loved his home since he was a child, but is now giving up the villa as its foundations are cracking, the roof is decaying and the stairs are warping.
Tri, 47, occupies three rooms in a house shared by five families, one of the city’s approximately 1,200 villas on the 2022 list of protected homes. Most of the villas are almost a century old and were built during the French colonial period. They decay due to age and humidity. Five families live in cramped, damp and noisy conditions.
Despite the protection, the future of these homes and their residents is at stake. Residents are struggling to find money to maintain their homes while the government considers how best to preserve the decaying cultural heritage of Vietnam’s capital.
“I remember how beautiful this house was when I was a child,” says Tri about the 1930s villa where she was born, which combines local style and art deco elements.
“It was romantic. I could hear the post office bell and the sounds of the train from Hanoi station.”
Nguyen Manh Tri at the door of his home in Hanoi in November 2022.
Since those times, the outer shell of the house has deteriorated and its structure has changed shape, as families have built temporary extensions to try to get a little more space, says Tri. Cracks spreading to the walls, ceilings and balconies and clay bricks falling from the overhanging roof finally led to Tri’s family deciding to move out.
French fries and Vietnamese architects built villas for their rich countrymen during colonial rule. After the French left the country in 1954, the communist regime took over thousands of these homes and turned them into offices. At the same time, the authorities forced the owners who remained in the country to divide their properties and give parts of them to poor Vietnamese.
Several of the protected villas are now hidden behind cafes, noodle stalls and fashion stores.
Like Tri, some of the private owners are now interested in escaping from villas to more modern apartments. However, some want to stay despite the poor conditions and the uncertainty as to whether the houses will survive the coming decades.
Hanoi has decided to aim for 60 of the villas to be renovated by 2025. However, it is not certain yet.
“I’ve lived here all my life, so I don’t want to move anywhere else,” says the 65-year-old Hoang Chung Thuywhich shares a three-story villa with ten other households, a seafood restaurant, clothing stores, and a tea stall.
He can’t fix the crumbling walls without approval and money from his upstairs neighbors, but is determined not to leave the house his grandparents built.
Hanoi Association of Architects Tran Huy Anh says the buildings are at risk of destruction and collapse without the necessary maintenance.
“Houses built at the beginning of the 20th century need renovation and maintenance at least every 20-30 years,” says Anh.
In 2015, two people died when a villa built in 1905 and inhabited by 20 people fell apart.
Authorities drafted regulations to protect the villas in 2013, but have since gone back and forth on how to proceed with the houses.
A large number of villas have already been demolished, Anh says. The city announced in April that it would sell 600 state-owned villas, but reversed the decision a couple of days later.
Now Hanoi has decided to aim for 60 of the villas to be renovated by 2025. However, it faces long negotiations in persuading each of the current residents to move. It took a decade to get the previous renovation project started. The price tag for the renovation of the villa was one million dollars.
A worker repaired an old villa in Hanoi in November 2022.
Pham Tuan Long is an architect and chairman of the Hoan Kiem District, who believes the city is now determined to restore the villas to their former glory.
“We try to preserve as many original elements and architectural values as possible, using traditional materials and construction techniques,” says Long.
Just a few streets away, Tri is packing up her home, unsure of her future. He says that it’s hard to move out, but it’s even harder to imagine the time when the house no longer exists.
“It has been a part of my life. This house is where I was born, married and had children,” he says.
“But there is no way out of this situation,” he continues.
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