Sustainable settlement, preserving traditional crafts.

The Zara weaving village community (Nam Giang) has maintained stable production recently thanks to support in accessing the tourism market for its products. Photo: QT

The resilience of traditional craft villages.

Sustainable settlement, simply put, is about ensuring the long-term survival of core values ​​by preserving traditions while not hindering people's need to improve their quality of life.

A crucial factor challenging the survival of traditional craft villages is the lack of enthusiasm among young people to continue the trade. The most important reason is that the income from traditional crafts is not equal to, or at least not relatively comparable to, the income from common occupations today.

According to experts, traditional craft villages have unique histories of existence and development, but in general, their potential for preservation and development can be assessed through the following criteria: physical infrastructure, natural resources, historical relics, raw materials, human resources, technical infrastructure, management policies, cooperation and networking, and community participation.

The more criteria a craft village meets, the greater its "resilience" to adapt to the demands of modern development.

Of course, craft villages near major tourist centers like Hoi An will have many advantages when compared against the above criteria. However, according to the Quang Nam Tourism Association, not only craft villages in Hoi An, but many craft villages in Quang Nam have the advantage of meeting several important criteria that can promote tourism development.

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Most commonly, the craft villages possess historical relics intertwined with unique natural landscapes. To capitalize on this, well-planned strategies and appropriate management policies are essential, along with promoting connections with partners and customer markets to enhance the vitality of these villages.

Appropriate solutions are needed to enable young people to access and further enhance the value of traditional craft villages. Photo: QT

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Architect Nguyen Van Nguyen, the founder of the Thanh Ha Terracotta Park project, believes that for the sustainable development of the craft village, in addition to the three pillars currently in vogue—social sustainability, economic sustainability, and environmental sustainability—a fourth pillar, sustainability of human resources, needs to be added.

Specifically in the case of Hoi An, sustainable development requires organizing and supplementing functional spaces; organizing points into clusters of residential areas and service centers; renovating and linking cultural, community, and religious structures, tourist attractions, and improving the landscape system, maintaining the traditional structure of the villages as well as connecting with the city's tourist routes.

Along with architectural spatial planning, Mr. Nguyen also raised the issue of digitizing data on traditional craft villages. This digital data can be exploited and used to serve management, research, and the exchange of experiences in preserving and promoting the value of traditional craft village heritage.

Architect Ngo Viet Nam Son - Chairman of NgoViet Architects & Planners - believes that in order to sustainably preserve craft village complexes and their cultural identity, it must be linked to promoting economic development.

"Each region has different communities that have established different craft villages. In the past, our ancestors developed craft villages to make a living, but in the current context, we need reasonable solutions to help young people access and further enhance the value of these craft villages."

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"The value of traditional craft villages is no longer simply about products for daily life as before. We need to increase the value of craft villages through tourism or, further, think about a development strategy so that craft village products are geared towards industrial and handicraft production with high standards that can be exported, bringing sustainable income. Only then can we attract the next generation to continue the work of their predecessors," Mr. Ngo Viet Nam Son shared.

In fact, thanks to good management policies, effective external connections, and active community participation, many traditional craft villages that were once facing the risk of extinction have turned the tide and created new vitality right in their hometowns.

The cassava noodle making village (Que Son) or the Zara brocade weaving village (Nam Giang), through commercialization and industrial production for cassava noodles or becoming souvenirs for tourists from near and far with Zara brocade… are typical examples of this transformation.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/dinh-cu-ben-vung-tiep-noi-lang-nghe-3140972.html