Should Quang Trung multi-storey house model be preserved as a tourist attraction?

(Baonghean)- Quang Trung apartment complex is not only a place of residence for many generations of Vinh city residents but also a testament to a difficult period and the good Vietnam-Germany relationship.

However, for many years now, due to serious degradation, the government has decided to relocate this apartment complex to make way for a new high-rise building project. This project started in 2013 and to date, some blocks of the apartment complex have been demolished to build new high-rise buildings.

The demolition of old houses and the massive construction of high-rise buildings in urban areas make people pay less attention to the fact that Quang Trung residential area is not simply a construction project, but also a cultural heritage project of a residential organization model during the subsidy period, a part of Vinh city's history.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Construction Do Muoi laid the first brick at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Quang Trung residential area (May 1, 1974). Photo: internet

As we know, from 1974 to 1975, in the context of economic difficulties, after emerging from two fierce wars, the emergence of high-rise buildings in the Northern provinces was no different from the castles in fairy tales. Quang Trung collective housing area was born and became a typical example in the living space of Vinh city during the subsidy period. This is also a symbol of the spirit of friendship between Vietnam and the Federal Republic of Germany during the period of building socialism. And above all, this is a residential area associated with the lives of many people who have lived there over the past few decades. Most of them are civil servants and officials, not only having high positions but also having many achievements to be able to live in these collective buildings.

We cannot deny that having a room in these apartment buildings was once the dream of many people. It had such a great attraction that many families, even though they had large and stable land and houses in the middle of the city, sold them to move to the apartment buildings. And there was a generation that was born and raised here, for whom these apartment buildings were no different from a village of traditional rural people. They were people with many experiences of urban collective life during the subsidy period - the time of queuing to get water, waiting for each other to go to the toilet, or fencing off balconies to raise chickens, blocking off bathrooms to raise pigs...

But also in that collective life, the community spirit, the sharing of joys and sorrows is extremely close. It is a life with many hardships and many joys and sorrows. Nowadays, although the rows of houses have degraded and must be demolished to rebuild, but for some people, they will not help but miss and reminisce about the time they lived in these rows of houses, a time of working tirelessly for their ideals, for their country.

Time flies, the high-rise buildings that a generation had to look up to and dream of have now become old and degraded. The walls have become yellowed and peeling, the railings are rusty, and the mortar does not want to stick to the walls. The small rooms that were once ideal have now become too narrow, no longer suitable for the lives of current families. The lives of people in these collective areas have also become insecure due to many different reasons from the narrowness and degradation of the buildings. Meanwhile, renovation and repair are extremely difficult because the architecture is attached to each other and some families cannot decide on this due to the related relationships with other households.

Therefore, the demolition of degraded apartment buildings to ensure the life and safety of the people is a necessary task. Removing unsafe houses and replacing them with new, more beautiful, larger and safer buildings is a progress, a positive change in the city.

Quang Trung residential area while still under construction (1974). Photo courtesy

However, any progress needs its foundation from the old, because that is the past, is history. That makes us think and consider whether it is necessary to erase everything, and then consider that Vinh city has never had a symbolic architectural form of the subsidy period? A type of architecture that, as Mr. Luong Ba Quang, Chairman of the Nghe An Architects Association, assessed: "It is a type of architecture that takes people as the center, it is different from the current apartment buildings that take profit as the center".

Let’s put it in perspective that Quang Trung housing complex is a cultural heritage, so how can we preserve it? Keeping the housing complex intact is certainly not the answer. However, there are still many other ways to preserve this heritage.

First of all, it is necessary to retain documents related to the construction and use of this apartment complex, from blueprints, contracts or certificates for households living here, documents related to repairs and renovations in the past and documents related to the process of clearing and demolishing the buildings.

A corner of the building in Quang Trung apartment complex today. Photo courtesy

It is also necessary to re-model the whole area of ​​this apartment complex to a certain scale in order to preserve it so that when needed, it can be re-located in Vinh city in a certain period. And it would be great to keep a part, maybe a building or a part of a building where many households lived as a historical space of the subsidy period.

In which, not only keep the house frame, but also try to keep as much as possible the layout and interior of the rooms. Collect artifacts from many different families who lived here, to keep a collective space as it was before. Like a small museum of the subsidy period, which also has tools, typical artifacts such as rice books, purchase vouchers, tools, and living utensils that many people still keep.

Perhaps in the future, this space will attract more visitors, when they want to know more about the subsidy period in Vinh.

Sy Hao