The Ecological Turn of Urbanism in Times of Global Warming

Worldwide, the consequences of global warming are becoming ever more apparent. Higher temperatures, and more severe floods (and droughts) are wreaking havoc on settlements, productive landscapes, infrastructure, ecological systems, and the health (of human and non-human species). In Vietnam, concurrent with the climate crisis are a cascade of other crises—socio-cultural, ecological, and spatial—that stem from its accelerating development boom. The tried-and-true imported system of master planning based on monofunctional land use planning in Vietnam might seem very appropriate to accommodate and canalize development. However, it is incapable of critically responding to the contemporary context, which is embroiled in a major socio-ecological crisis. A paradigm shift, where ecology and landscape systems are the framework for urbanization, is needed. The contribution will focus on distilling lessons from design strategies from the Đồng Nai - Sài Gòn - Vàm Cỏ Estuary that focus on the conceptualization of a Ho Chi Minh City metropolitan park. It will reveal an inherent intelligence in the longue durée of the ‘as found’ territory where nature was the structure of settlements embedded in the landscape. It will highlight the capacity of design research to formulate context-responsive bold visions and feasible strategies to create neo-natural structures that re-capitalize on locational assets and regenerate qualitative human and non-human relationships across scales.