THỪA THIÊN- HUẾ — Huế city authorities have banned the construction of tall buildings near the city’s garden houses, considered an architectural legacy of the former imperial capital.

The city has given detailed regulations for the construction of homes and business structures in the garden house locality. Homes built on land plots here must be lower than 11m and have a maximum of two storeys.

Each home is allowed to occupy 20 per cent of the total 1,000sq.m. land plot or 25 per cent of a 2,000sq. m, land plot or 30 per cent of a 3,000sq.m. land plot.

No modern structures are allowed. Homes must be built with wooden frames and covered by two tile roofs meeting at a common top. Dark, multi-coloured, glass or stone walls are also prohibited.

Maximum permitted height of fencing is 2.1m, and plant-based fencing is advisable.

Business establishments such as restaurants or souvenir stands must be lower than 7.5m and they must ensure no harm comes to the perennial trees in the gardens.

Huế garden houses, or nhà vườn, are houses built with many carved beams and pillars and with fish skin tile roofs. No steel nails are used to nail wooden parts of the structure and the whole structure can stand on its own on a plain surface without any anchor or concrete foundation.

The structure is placed inside a garden with perennial trees, flowers, ornamental fish ponds and manmade streams, all strictly adhering to the Oriental fengshui concept.

Last year, the city made its first move to protect the garden houses from deterioration due to time by funding 40 owners to undertake urgent repairs of the houses. — VNS