Architect Christian Pedelahore spent much of his childhood in Viet Nam and wrote a thesis, "Ha Noi, objets, acteurs et metamorphoses d'un espace singulier: syncretisrne architectural et pluralite urbaine (1873 - 2000)," in which he characterised the French influences on Ha Noi's contemporary architecture. His analysis has been a major source for the summary that follows:
The Beginnings - From Military to Civil, 1873-1910
In 1873, Francis Garnier dismantled the Ha Noi Citadel, which was to have been restored the following year in exchange for an allotment of land on the Red River banks at Đồn Thủy near the end of Tran Hung Dao Street. French officers designed plain, unadorned buildings with verandas on all four sides. In 1882, Henri Riviere took over the citadel project. A year later, armed troops built a road joining the citadel and the concession. The French drew up plans for a cathedral, the first colonial houses south of the city, and the clearing of land surrounding Hoan Kiem Lake. In 1885, they began building military quarters inside the citadel, where royal and mandarin buildings had once stood.
The French Public Works Section of the Civil Service began its first large-scale construction projects with the arrival of the first French governors in the 1880s. These projects changed the face of Ha Noi. A broad boulevard, Rue Paul Bert (formerly Pho Hang Khay, now Trang Tien Street), expanded the French Quarter to the east on land gained by filling in ponds between Hoan Kiem Lake and the Red River. Construction continued with the creation of three more boulevards: Rollandes (now Pho Hai Ba Trung), Carreau (now Ly Thuong Kiet), and Gambetta (now Tran Hung Dao).
Between 1880 and 1890, Western rationalism mixed with Eastern philosophy to create a hybrid culture in which Ha Noi's architecture foreshadowed the Indochinese Architectural School of the 1930s.
A second stage of urban development emphasized construction of State buildings no longer randomly set in different neighborhoods but, instead, built in specific areas, giving the city shape and harmony. Arch itect Auguste-Henri Vildieu, as designer for a colonial regime anxious to assert its power, renounced the utilitarian rationalism of the 1880s. He relied on the solidity and decorative vocabulary of neoclassical architecture to demand attention from the Vietnamese masses.
Between 1892 and 1906, Vildieu designed the Post Office, (1 Le Thach completed in 1896) the French Army Division Headquarters (28 Ly Nam De, finished in 1897); and the Hoa Lo Prison (better known internationally as the "Hanoi Hilton" at 1 Hoa Lo, finished in 1899).
He designed his more grandiose buildings after 1900, including the Supreme Court (48 Ly Thuong Kiet, 1900-1906), the French Governor General's Palace (Hung Vuong Street, 1901¬1906), and the Residence of the French Resident Superior of Tonkin (12 Ngo Quyen, completed in 1911). Colonial construction reached its peak with construction of Ha Noi Municipal Theatre, a neo-classical palace, which encumbered the French budget for more than ten years.
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