Mapping the Emerging Forms of Informality: A Comparative Morphogenesis of Villages-in-the-City in Vietnam

Village settlements in peri-urban areas have largely been transformed into dense neighbourhoods in the process of rapid urbanisation and become Villages-in-the-City (ViCs). Although ViCs may appear chaotic and haphazard, they are not entirely unplanned as they have generally emerged and become consolidated through complex incremental adaptations, which have remained understudied. In this article, we explore the morphogenesis of ViCs by drawing on evidence from multiple case studies in three Vietnamese cities, including Hanoi, Danang, and Ho Chi Minh City. Adopting a comparative case study research design and using multiscale urban mapping, we analyse the formal/informal morphologies at the metropolitan scale and investigate the process of morphogenesis at the neighbourhood scale. The findings of this research provide a better understanding of the spatiality of ViCs at different scales, which can effectively inform the development of contextually responsive and spatially grounded planning and design interventions.