The transformation of urban form in the center of Ho Chi Minh City

The Center of Ho Chi Minh City has a history of more than 300 years of establishment and development. The area has the function as a traffic hub, location of many socio-economic activities and the most important landmark of the city. At present, the urban center form is in the process of strongly transforming under the effects of many factors such as: socio-economic development, high-rise building development or urban public transport development projects. Currently, there are several heritage architecture with high values in history, art or socio-culture that are in need of conservation research. Public spaces are for socio-cultural activities as well as daily activities. The identity of places such as Ben Thanh Market, Nguyen Hue Walking Street or Saigon riverbank, etc. attract a huge amout of tourist. However, these spaces are being affected by urban development projects for example: building, metro station, bridges, etc. which cause the development trend of spatial morphology to both positive and negative impacts. For the purpose of examining the impacts from the urban context on the transformation of urban spatial morphology, this article focuses on the following contents: (1) analysis of spatial morphology of some typical areas in the center of HCMC; (2) assessing the impacts of the urban development context on the center spatial form and (3) analyzing the trend of transforming urban spatial morphology of the city center. Key words: urban form, urban transformation, architecture typology