Colonization

The French colonial period influenced both the urban structure and architecture of Hanoi. Contrary to the vernacular and irregular layout of the pre-colonial city, the new developments were laid out following an orthogonal grid plan. The addition of the villa introduced a new residential typology: the colonial house, ringed by a garden and rising two storeys high, exhibited a modern or Beaux-Arts architectural design (Jaupitre and Yong-Hak, 2001).