TP. Hồ Chí Minh: MEGA City Book Launch Event

Saigoneer is proud to be the media sponsor of the TP. Hồ Chí Minh: MEGA City Photo Book. On Sunday, February 23, there will be launch event for the book at Highland's Coffee on Phạm Ngọc Thạch Street. You can hear more about this book from interviews we've done with the book's creators here and here.

Here's information about Sunday's event:

Ho Chi Minh City, the economic hub and biggest urban agglomeration of Vietnam has recently emerged as the country’s first mega city. The vibrant metropolis is rapidly changing against the backdrop of globalization, but has preserved an almost rural character in many of its small alleys. For many people, the mega city is a place of hope for a better future. Can these dreams be fulfilled if the number of inhabitants continues to rise by millions and climate change is flooding entire city districts?

Michael Waibel is a senior researcher and project leader in urbanism at the Department for Geography of the University of Hamburg, Henning Hilbert is a scientific coordinatorat the Vietnamese-German University of HCMC. Their book invites the reader on a fascinating journey through the familiar and lesser-known aspects of this bustling city to witness its vibrancy and dynamism from a comprehensive perspective.

The large-sized publication with an attractive format contains over 600 photos targeting a wide audience. It is based on many years of academic work among other funded by the German National Ministry of Education and Research within the initiative “Research for Sustainable Megacities of Tomorrow”. Further, a series of conferences in cooperation with Goethe-Institut have been organized in the recent past, which dealt with sustainable urban development, green housing or green growth.

During the launching event the editors Michael Waibel and Henning Hilbert will highlight the rationale behind their photo book. A more academic input will be provided by the Dean of the Faculty of Urban Planning of Ho Chi Minh University of Architecture, Dr. Hung Do Phu, who will give a talk about challenges of sustainable urban development in Vietnam. The photo book can be purchased after the talk, and there will be three complimentary copies disbursed to the lucky winners of a draw. A series of select photos illustrating the recent urban development of Vietnam’s first mega city will be exhibited.

Event Schedule:

• Short Movie: brief introduction about the photo book.
• Introduction & Greeting: Sebastian Kraft, Director of Goethe-Institut HCMC.
• Ho Chi Minh City: Challenges of sustainable urban development of Vietnam’s mega city, Talk by Dr. Hung Do Phu, Dean of the Faculty of Urban Planning, Ho Chi Minh University of Architecture.
• The Rationale behind the photo book, the editors Dr. Michael Waibel, Department of Geography, Hamburg University 
• Lottery drawing of three complimentary copies of the photo book.
• Photo exhibition “TP. Ho Chi Minh MEGA City”

Total duration: about 90 minutes.  Languages: English / Vietnamese.