The recent development of the two special economic and processing zones and the Da Nang Hi-tech Park (DHTP) in Da Nang, Vietnam, have resulted in the dramatic transformation of the region. The zones vociferously consume and reclaim vast areas of agricultural land as well as seek cheap domestic and migrant labour to run their operations. The contemporaneous decision of the political regime to deregulate the real estate market has resulted in the vast expansion of the city’s administrative boundaries with rudimentary infrastructure. Thousands of hectares of subdivided land in the periphery of the city remain in the hands of land speculators while smallholders are being displaced and migrant workers seek a place to stay. This is a paradigmatic case of how the extra-state-craft operations of the zones have immediate implications in the adjacent communities and environments.

Working alongside local NGOs, we have been employing both legislative and architectural means for the creation of cooperative incremental housing models for migrant workers and displaced smallholders. The project conforms to the existing subdivisions in order to disguise itself and be granted official permits. At the same time, it consolidates resources, provides a low-budget method of construction, safeguards and protects public areas, improves common infrastructure, and remediates the land. Simple regulating protocols define easements, setbacks, positions of wet infrastructure, while we provide an increasing array of different housing units – frameworks of co-habitation – that could be adapted and expanded through time.