Aniq Anas

Background: Student at Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia

Project: Embara: Saigon's youth arcadia

Project statement:

"Gentrification and segregation are the two most polemic terms in urban discourse today. In a climate shaped by rapid globalisation and multinational corporations, widespread sameness is evident in any cosmopolitan hub. Conversely, each city has its own local, vernacular traditions. Considered to be the heart of Ho Chi Minh City, District 1 is the centre for all financial, commercial and administrative activity. Although it is still Vietnamese in character, this district has felt the effects of secularisation and modernisation most heavily. In order to confront the challenge of wider cultural amalgamation, the need to reform urban typologies for living, knowledge sharing, and profit making is paramount. Drawing ideas from hypothetical theories and cultural imperative of the scene, new strategies will be introduced to embrace the relationship of the human subject and urban environment. Embara is an attempt to articulate a sound and measure response through urban acupuncture. The mechanism which centres at building connection includes sequence of events that will become a catalyst to a chain of reaction in rejuvenating Ho Chi Minh City through new contextualisation of programs, targeted at the most critical group of citizens in the country, the youth.

This theoretical city seek to promote interaction amongst stranger. Stranger interaction is the wilful engagement between people who have no previous relationship. This act of spontaneity can have significant effects by interrupting the expected narratives of daily life, shifting perspective, and forming unexpected connections. This unexpected connections or “urban spontaneity” refers to the importance of occasionally engaging in unpredictable events in our cities, as opposed to moving through them with expected, predictable patterns of behaviour. The element of surprise is an important one in discovering new ways of seeing our streets. This study is nothing more than a humble attempt to draws on theory but focused on real-world problem in search of authentic future living."