The number of green construction works remains modest

In late 2017, Deutsches Haus, an A-class office building in the central area of HCM City, was inaugurated, providing 25,303 square meters of floor space. 

The building was awarded a LEED Platinum (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design), the highest level certificate on green works.

A series of other construction works in HCM City are also expecting green certificates, including the office building Etown Central in district 4.

According to JLL Vietnam, a real estate consultancy firm, of four office buildings completed in 2018, three projects are striving for green work certificates.

Not only office buildings, but apartment blocks have also gone green, including Diamond Lotus Riverside developed by Phuc Khang Group.

Most recently, Phuc Khang Group joined forces with Japanese Mitsubishi Corporation to set up a joint venture to develop housing projects in accordance with US green standards.

River City in district 7, Saigon Royal, Icon 56 and The Gold View in district 4 are also creating a chain of green works.

Meanwhile, two Vietnamese architects Hoang Thuc Hao and Vo Trong Nghia have been internationally recognized for their original and environmentally friendly designs.

Problems

Maintaining greeneries in the ‘whirlwind of urbanization’ is a headache for urban development programmers.

Tran Ngoc Chinh, chair of the Vietnam Urban Development Planning Association, said at a workshop on sustainable urban development recently that a conflict exists between developing urban areas and preserving natural and cultural heritage . 

Under the process of developing infrastructure in Da Lat and Sa Pa, forests have been devastated and architecture works cannot be properly preserved. The two cities have become noisy cities with many concrete houses.

Many cities in Vietnam are being threatened by commercialization in urban architecture programming, with which cultural and historical values may be sacrificed for commercial value.

Green map 

According to the US Green Building Council (USGBC), by the end of 2017, Vietnam had 87 construction projects registering to pursue LEED, of which 37 have been officially recognized.

In 2017, 18 projects in Vietnam got a LEED certificate, four times higher than in 2016.

The number of green works would be higher, over 40, if counting other green certificates available in Vietnam, such as LOTUS (Vietnam), BCA Green Mark (Singapore) and EDGE (World Bank). There were only two green projects in 2011.

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Chi Mai