Finding solutions that harmonize with heritage

Many passionate ideas

The contest “Design ideas for a pedestrian bridge across the Citadel moat connecting the Upper Citadel” was organized by the Hue Monuments Conservation Center to seek unique and creative ideas from designers and architects, creating an architecture suitable for the heritage space and solving the urban traffic congestion at Cua Ngan, ensuring safety and convenience for visitors, while creating a unique architecture that attracts tourists.

This is the initial step to implement Conclusion No. 47/TB-UBND dated February 15, 2023 of the Provincial People's Committee Chairman Nguyen Van Phuong on assigning the Hue Monuments Conservation Center to preside over and coordinate with the Hue City People's Committee and relevant agencies and units to study and propose a plan for site clearance and investment in expanding the traffic connection route serving pedestrians from Nguyen Hoang bus station to Tran Huy Lieu street and the river bridge across the Upper Citadel to enter the Imperial City.

After one month of launching, the contest received 64 proposals from 59 authors and groups of authors with many unique ideas, expressing passion and love for heritage, wanting to create highlights but limit the impact on the heritage space.

Mr. Nguyen Van Cao, Chairman of Thua Thien Hue Construction Association, a member of the jury, said: “In a short time, 64 options are a great effort. All ideas want to come up with the best options. Many ideas are very good, researched from routes, materials, construction methods, the Law on Cultural Heritage... to come up with suitable and feasible options. Good ideas but conflict with heritage, affecting heritage are not selected.”

Conservation and development

Mr. Hoang Viet Trung, Director of the Hue Monuments Conservation Center, said that although Hue is a tourist attraction that attracts many groups of tourists, traffic in the Imperial City area still has many shortcomings. Access to the heritage is very limited. The number of vehicles participating in traffic is increasing, leading to congestion, affecting tourism activities when tourists have to travel with a lot of vehicles on narrow paths. In the near future, the number of visitors to Hue is expected to be over 5 million people. If there is no synchronous and fundamental solution, conflicts will occur, negatively affecting the image of Hue tourism. Therefore, it is necessary to find a solution for tourists to access the heritage conveniently and safely.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Cao, 5-7 years ago, the authorities researched and found many solutions to solve the traffic congestion problem at Cua Ngan, with many options: traffic diversion, tourists traveling by motor vehicles, building a bridge across... but could not implement them. "Any option must serve the most convenience for tourists, serve the local people and not affect the heritage", Mr. Cao emphasized.

An architect living in the Citadel area expressed: “In the past, people in the citadel were very miserable. Every time they got off work, when it was time to pick up their children, they often got stuck in traffic jams, while the living standards were getting higher and the number of cars was increasing. We welcome Hue’s bold idea of building this bridge, because architecture also serves people.”

Journalist Pham Huu Thu, a citizen of the Citadel, shared: “We live in the heritage but we cannot do whatever we want, that is a disadvantage for the people. If this project can be done, it will be extremely humane, first of all, it will improve traffic for the people and ensure the safety of tourists. The problem is that the provincial leaders have the idea and implement it in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Cultural Heritage.”

Careful, scientific

From this competition, many people are concerned about whether the construction of a pedestrian bridge across the Citadel Moat connecting the Upper Citadel will affect the heritage. Some opinions expressed concern that building a bridge at this location would violate the heritage protection convention. Historically, the German city of Dresden was removed from the list of world heritage sites in 2009 when it built a bridge across the Elbe River, despite UNESCO's previous disagreement.

The location of the bridge is in Area 1 of the relic. According to the Law on Cultural Heritage, this area must preserve the original state of the ground and space. In special cases where it is necessary to build a structure directly serving the relic, it must have the approval of the competent authority to recognize that relic. For the Complex of Hue Monuments, it must be approved by the Prime Minister (special national relic) and UNESCO (world heritage).

Before organizing the contest, the Hue Monuments Conservation Center carefully studied similar cases around the world. “In reality, heritage works that are hundreds or thousands of years old are facing practical requirements of life and need adaptive solutions. Many countries, such as China, Singapore, Malaysia, and France, have implemented walking approaches that do not affect heritage. The Law on Cultural Heritage clearly states that works can still be built to protect and promote heritage values, but they must be done correctly,” said Director of the Hue Monuments Conservation Center Hoang Viet Trung.

From this competition, the organizing committee will select the most feasible ideas that are most suitable to the regulations on heritage conservation; at the same time, synthesize and compile all evaluation opinions, including opinions on social networks, to report to the competent authorities. The implementation of restoration, conservation and construction related to heritage is strictly regulated, carried out in order with the approval of the competent authorities. To realize the idea into a traffic project put into use, there are many processes and must be agreed upon by the management levels, UNESCO as well as the social community.

Mr. Hoang Viet Trung said: “From idea to reality is a long story with many systematic, scientific and careful processes. Through this story, we also want to send a message about the practical issues of people's lives to the competent authorities in heritage management, including UNESCO. UNESCO is not a rigid organization but a very humane one, all for the people. We propose, if there is no agreement, we will not do it. We hope to continue to receive contributions from the community.”

The story of resolving the conflict between meeting development needs and preserving heritage has never been easy. Even this idea contest was a difficult topic. However, this is the first step in finding the most optimal solution to solve the traffic problem at Cua Ngan in accordance with the prescribed order.

Source