City authorities are collecting feedback from district authorities on designs of nearly 500 buildings in need of upgrade in the 2017-20 period. — Photo HRAP

HÀ NỘI — The headquarter buildings of Hà Nội Party committees, people’s councils and people’s committees at commune/ward and district levels must follow design standards in terms of area and height, said the municipal People’s Committee Chairman Nguyễn Đức Chung.

City authorities are collecting feedback from district authorities on designs of nearly 500 buildings in need of upgrade in the 2017-20 period.

He rejected the requirement of all headquarters having similar architectural structures.

So far, 73 people’s committees at commune/ward level in the city do not yet have headquarter buildings. The investment proposed by each local authority is different, ranging fromVNĐ13 billion (US$565,200) up to 50 billion ($2.2 million), according to the chairman.

The building’s total footprint should depend on the number of personnel to make sure that rooms are not too big, causing waste, he said.

Materials selected for the construction of these buildings must be sustainable, durable and cost-efficient, he said.

Director of the city’s Department of Planning and Architecture Lê Vinh confirmed existing local headquarters would not be demolished and replaced with new buildings.

According to the proposed design, buildings in the inner city must cover an area of 300 to 2,000 sq.m and have a maximum of six floors.

Buildings located in satellite urban areas and areas with high population densities must have areas of 880 to 3,900 sq.m and a maximum of five floors.

In sparsely populated areas, office buildings must be between 1,530 to 4,100 sq.m and not higher than three floors.

Hà Nội currently has 548 local headquarter buildings, including 386 commune headquarters, 177 ward buildings and 21 town-level headquarters.

As many as 290 commune office buildings were renovated or newly built between 2011 and 2015. The total investment was nearly VNĐ1.64 trillion ($71.3 million). — VNS