Research Collaborators

Chu Kim Đức, Nguyễn Huệ Phương, Trần Thu Trang, Nguyễn Minh Anh (Think Playgrounds) and Vũ Hải Nguyễn

1. Introduction

Socially Engaged Practice: Planting Trees at the Red River in Hanoi (2025) constitutes a core component of the preliminary research phase of Song of the Wind, a translocal initiative exploring site-specific, socially engaged art practices concerning ecological transformation and community-based knowledge systems (cf. Kester 2011). Implemented in collaboration with the Hanoi-based social enterprise Think Playgrounds (TPG) and urban ecology researcher Nguyen Vu Hai, the initiative centres on a collective tree planting programme along the Red River – an ecologically and culturally significant site currently undergoing intensified urbanisation and environmental stress. Through collaborative fieldwork and dialogues with local residents and environmental practitioners, the project investigates how ecological rehabilitation and social participation can be interwoven to reimagine the river’s relational landscape within Hanoi’s shifting urban ecology.¹

Video 1. Interview with Vu Hai Nguyen on the shifting ecology of the Red River under urban transformation. Video © Song of the Wind Project and Vu Hai Nguyen.

Historically, the Red River has served as a vital artery for Hanoi, shaping its ecological rhythms, agricultural practices and cultural imaginaries (cf. Ingold 1993). In recent decades, however, the river has become a contested landscape—subject to erosion, pollution, sediment displacement and state-led urban redevelopment (Chapman 2019). These processes have disrupted ecological continuity and marginalised the presence and agency of local communities whose lives have long been entangled with the river (Swyngedouw 2004). This project engages with these layered challenges by foregrounding community collaboration and environmental care as practices of both resistance and renewal (cf. Rose 2011).

More specifically, the initiative interrogates the colonial legacy of landscape planning, which introduced non-native tree species, thereby disrupting local biodiversity and hydrological flows (Anh 2021). Simultaneously, it critically examines current urban beautification and infrastructure policies that prioritise rapid development over ecological resilience and inclusive public space (Robinson 2006). In response, this project reframes tree planting not merely as a tool of environmental remediation, but as an affective, political and artistic act of reclaiming ecological futures (Puig de la Bellcasa 2017).

A series of participatory activities—including cutting propagation, nursery cultivation, riverbank slope planting and post-planting care—were carried out with the involvement of local residents, environmental activists, schoolchildren and artists. These activities facilitated acts of collective labour and intergenerational knowledge sharing. Each phase was designed to foster relational responsibility across human and nonhuman participants, grounding stewardship in lived experience and place-based memory (Rose 2004). The emphasis on native and ecologically resilient species was both a pragmatic and symbolic gesture—rooting the project in cultural continuity and future adaptability (Heise 2016).

Importantly, the project draws on TPG’s longstanding experience in inclusive urban design and the creation of child-friendly public spaces, integrating their participatory methodologies with site-specific artistic strategies (UN-Habitat 2021). This approach redefines ‘urban greening’ as a socio-cultural and ethical process, rather than a top-down aesthetic intervention (cf. Lefebvre 1991). It raises urgent questions: Who has the right to plant? Who is entitled to care for land? And who gets to imagine the future of shared urban landscapes? (cf. Ostrom 1990)

Rather than aiming for a finalised artistic product, the initiative cultivates an evolving framework for collaborative research and ethical co-creation (Kester 2004). Drawing on three interrelated methodological strands — participant observation, dialogical inquiry, and sensory fieldwork — the project integrates documentation, reflection, and interpretation into the collaborative process itself. This process-oriented approach reflects the broader ethos of Song of the Wind, which, taking inspiration from Salome Voegelin (2010), values slow engagement, unfinished rhythms, and situated imagination across multiple geographies.

Ultimately, this project posits tree planting as a socially engaged practice that bridges ecological urgency and collective meaning-making. It offers an alternative ecological imagination – rooted not in spectacle or symbolic greening, but in the quiet, sustained and contextually attuned practices of care, memory and resistance (cf. Haraway 2016). 

2. Context of the Red River Bank (Hanoi)

The Red River bank in Hong Ha Ward—formerly part of Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem District—has long been a marginalised, flood-prone zone shaped by seasonal inundation and sedimentation across its expansive alluvial plain. Beginning in the 1980s, the area experienced rapid informal urbanisation as low-income and migrant households settled there in makeshift housing. Lacking public infrastructure, sanitation systems and municipal oversight, the area was neglected for decades, functioning as an informal dumpsite, sewage discharge zone and site of illegal landfills (Nguyễn 2019).

However, the absence of major floods since 2005 has allowed the natural ecology to begin reclaiming parts of the landscape. Native vegetation has re-emerged, and spontaneous ecological processes have enabled increased biodiversity to take root. A 2023 TPG report finds that today, this riverside area is home to more than 140 migratory bird species and over 200 native plant species, positioning it as a vital biodiversity corridor within the urban fabric of Hanoi. In addition to documenting ecological recovery, the report also outlines strategic directions for sustaining and expanding this regeneration, serving as a basis for future community-led action.

Since 2021, TPG, in collaboration with local authorities, NGOs and residents, has initiated a long-term effort to restore ecological health and to reclaim the erosion-prone riverbank as an inclusive public space. Through participatory planning, the organisation has helped to transform formerly polluted and degraded areas into safe, biodiverse and accessible common lands. Among the most visible outcomes of this transformation are two forest parks—Chuong Duong Park and Phuc Tan Park—and a two-kilometre ecological trail that links them along the riverbank. These interventions not only enhance ecological resilience but also symbolise a shift in how urban riverscapes are imagined and inhabited (Think Playgrounds and UN-Habitat 2024).

3. Implementing the report

By the end of July 2025, all proposed activities for restoring ecological rhythms and strengthening collective agency along the Red River were successfully completed through the joint efforts of TPG, the local Women’s Union and community members. In total, 1,300 native plants—comprising nine species selected for their suitability to slope planting—were cultivated and installed across two erosion-prone slopes in Phuc Tan Forest Park. Within the first month, over 90% of the planted cuttings exhibited signs of healthy development, indicating strong early-stage survival and the potential for long-term ecological stability.

More than 20 community members from Chuong Duong and Phuc Tan Forest Parks, including a significant number of women participants, engaged in all phases of the process—from branch cutting and nursery care to planting and post-planting maintenance. This collaborative effort exemplifies a successful model of community-based stewardship and environmental co-creation (cf. Krasny and Tidball 2009). The following outlines the different stages of the project.

3.1. Site Assessment and Co-Design (April 2025)

In April 2025, curator Sunyoung Oh (Project 7½) and the Think Playgrounds team conducted an on-site assessment along the bank of the Red River. The team held informal consultations with local residents to better understand community needs and to gauge the public’s perception of recent ecological improvements. Most residents expressed appreciation for the transformation of the area since 2023, particularly the emergence of accessible public green spaces, while also suggesting further enhancements such as expanded vegetation and routine maintenance activities.

Following the assessment, two steep slopes adjacent to the Travelling Rings system at Phuc Tan Forest Park were identified as priority intervention sites. A co-design process was initiated to develop a concept plan encompassing the spatial layout, selection of native plant species, erosion control strategies and pathways for sustained community engagement (Manzini 2015). The collaboration between TPG, Sunyoung Oh and local residents embedded both ecological logic and aesthetic sensibility, laying the foundation for a landscape that integrates environmental function with social meaning.

3.2. Vegetative Propagation and Nursery Management (May–June 2025)

Upon finalising the design, the project entered its implementation phase in May 2025. Drawing upon their prior experience with the Chuong Duong community garden, a ten-member management group—including members of the Phuc Tan Women’s Union—took the lead in cutting branches from mature native species and transporting them to the Phuc Tan nursery (Figures 1 & 2). Under the coordination of Ms. Trang (Women’s Union), these cuttings were prepared for vegetative propagation using methods tailored to the riverside’s ecological conditions (Figures 3 & 4).

TPG’s technical staff provided close monitoring and guidance throughout the propagation process—from rooting cuttings in soil-filled propagation bags to acclimatisation procedures. Over 1,300 viable plantlets were successfully cultivated. This phase also catalysed inter-neighbourhood collaboration, fostering knowledge exchange and a shared sense of ecological responsibility.

3.3. Slope Afforestation Based on Final Site Plan

On July 1, 2025, a planting day was held at Phuc Tan Forest Park, led by Think Playgrounds with participation from 10 residents and volunteers. Despite summer rainfall and uneven terrain, the group worked collectively to plant the nursery-grown trees across two steep slopes (Figures 5-7). The effort enhanced slope stabilisation, increased green coverage and established a visible ecological buffer zone—demonstrating the capacity of grassroots collective action to shape meaningful environmental change (Labbé 2009).

3.4. Post-Planting Maintenance Programme (July 2025 onward)

Immediately following the planting, a community-led maintenance rota was established to ensure plant survival and ecosystem resilience. Responsibilities included (1) regular watering and mulching during the critical first weeks (Figure 8) and (2) routine monitoring and reporting to TPG staff. In turn, TPG committed to providing biweekly technical support and on-site training in maintenance techniques.

After one month, the survival rate of the newly planted trees was 90%, suggesting the success of the post-planting strategy. More importantly, the programme has helped to embed long-term care practices and strengthen local environmental stewardship, ensuring that ecological restoration continues beyond the initial intervention phase (cf. DiGregorio 2007).

Ethical Considerations in Communication Strategy

The project’s communication strategy was carefully designed not only to enhance visibility but also to uphold ethical standards in representing collaborative efforts and local stakeholders. Given the community-based nature of the project, particular attention was paid to informed consent, the respectful portrayal of participants and the avoidance of extractive documentation practices.

All visual materials, including photographs and video clips shared on public platforms were captured with the informed consent of those featured. Think Playgrounds and Sunyoung Oh ensured that images highlighted the dignity, agency and collective spirit of participants —especially women, children and elder residents—rather than reducing them to passive beneficiaries of external aid (Tuck and Yang 2012).

Efforts were also made to foreground local voices and labour in the narrative framing of posts and captions, emphasising the role of residents as co-creators and caretakers of the newly restored ecological spaces (cf. Kester 2004). Social media posts were written in both Vietnamese and English where appropriate, ensuring accessibility for both local and international audiences while maintaining context sensitivity.

Importantly, the team was mindful of the potential risks of overexposure or instrumentalisation of community identity in public-facing content. Thus, communication outputs were reviewed internally by both Think Playgrounds staff and local collaborators to ensure they accurately reflected the project’s collaborative ethos and long-term commitments.

This approach reflects an ethics of care in visual storytelling—one that resists the spectacle of transformation in favour of slow, situated visibility rooted in trust, transparency and mutual respect (Azoulay 2008).

5. Conclusion: Reclaiming the Right to Plant, Care and Imagine Together

This project set out by asking: Who has the right to plant? Who is entitled to care for land? Who gets to imagine the future of shared urban landscapes? Through the process of collaborative tree planting along the Red River, these questions were not only posed but actively inhabited, negotiated and transformed.

Rather than framing local residents as passive recipients of externally driven aid, the project foregrounded their role as co-creators, stewards and bearers of place-based knowledge. Their voluntary labour, intergenerational memory and enduring commitment enabled the project to take root—both literally and symbolically. Tree planting was approached not as a symbolic gesture or one-time event, but as part of a sustained, slow and community-driven process of ecological restoration rooted in care and relational ethics (Kester 2011).

Over several months, participants propagated, planted, and learned how to care for more than 1,300 native trees — not for ceremonial display, but as part of a living and evolving ecosystem. In this way, the project intentionally rejected the spectacle of rapid, state-led greening initiatives (McElwee 2016) and instead embraced modest visibility, ecological attunement, and long-term interdependence.

This redefinition of who has the right to plant shifted its basis from ownership, expertise, or speed toward values of participation, proximity, and responsibility. Planting thus became a form of shared authorship, while the labour of care came to constitute an ecological social contract among human and nonhuman actors (cf. Ingold 1993). The riverbank, in turn, was reimagined not as vacant land awaiting development but as a collective space shaped through historical layers and speculative futures.

In the course of this work, three methodological strands—participant observation, dialogical inquiry and sensory fieldwork—emerged as complementary and iterative approaches to understanding site, community and more-than-human entanglements. Through sustained presence and involvement in field activities, participant observation allowed for close tracking of material practices and interpersonal dynamics. Dialogical inquiry, grounded in ongoing conversations with residents, collaborators and organisers, offered deep insights into local knowledge, aspirations and tensions. While only initial steps were taken in the realm of sensory fieldwork—attuning to auditory, olfactory and tactile dimensions of the site —this embodied line of inquiry will be further developed in future research phases.

Ultimately, this project proposes an alternative model of urban ecological engagement – one grounded in situated ethics, collective care and the political potential of slow transformation (Tsing 2015). In reclaiming the right to plant and to care, participants also reclaimed the right to imagine and inhabit the future of their urban environment – together.

6. Situating the Author: Artistic Responsibility and Situated Ethics

This project emerged from an ongoing inquiry into the ethical responsibilities of artistic practice at the intersection of ecological vulnerability and spatial marginality (cf. Butler 2004). As a curator and researcher working across translocal and community-based environments, I approach art not as an autonomous object of individual creativity, but as a situated and relational process—shaped through acts of care, coexistence and dialogue among human and more-than-human actors (Haraway 2016).

The 2025 tree-planting initiative along the Red River in Hanoi should not be understood as a one-off artistic intervention, but as a long-term, community-rooted process of environmental stewardship. Building on previous curatorial experiences with postcolonial urban landscapes, participatory spatial design and the recovery of public commons (cf. Kwon 2002), this project centres the act of planting as a materially and symbolically significant artistic gesture. It aims not merely to initiate planting but to support a sustained, participatory process in which local communities are engaged in the care and monitoring of ecological restoration over time. Here, socially engaged art becomes a practice of shared imagination, intergenerational knowledge exchange and ecological memory (Rose 2004).

In this context, my role was not that of an external expert or detached observer, but that of a co-participant embedded within a network of relationships involving residents, practitioners and collaborators. At the same time, I acknowledge the limitations of my position as a non-Vietnamese practitioner. Rather than attempting to overcome these through externally authored solutions, I sought to engage with local facilitators in co-constructing a process grounded in mutual learning and ethical collaboration. This involved ongoing dialogue, shared authorship and a sensitivity to asymmetries in visibility, access and voice (Kester 2012).

By framing this approach within the broader conceptual frameworks of artistic responsibility (Kester 2004), sensory ethics of listening (Voegelin 2010), and situated ecological ethics (Haraway 2016), the project affirms the potential of socially engaged art as a mode of imagining alternative urban and ecological futures. The Red River project demonstrates that when artistic practices are attuned to local rhythms and unfold over time, they contribute not only to environmental regeneration but also to practices of collective care, resistance and future-making.

Author Contributions

This research report was co-authored by a team of collaborators who contributed in distinct but interrelated ways:

• Dr. Sunyoung Oh (Curator, Song of the Wind Project): Led the conceptual framing, curatorial design, conducted field assessment and documentation in April 2025 in collaboration with Think Playgrounds and produced the primary draft of this report.
• Vũ Hải Nguyễn (Cultural Activist): A Hanoi-based cultural activist whose practice focuses on urban ecology, memory, and spatial politics. He led the field research along the Red Riverbank in Hanoi, contributing critical insights into the historical, ecological, and social dimensions of the site.
• Chu Kim Đức (Executive Director, Think Playgrounds): Provided strategic consultation for the overall project and supported the dissemination of public communications.
• Nguyễn Huệ Phương (Project Coordinator, Think Playgrounds): Oversaw the implementation of the project on behalf of Think Playgrounds; coordinated communication with local stakeholders, supported on-site logistics and evaluation and wrote the project report.
• Trần Thu Trang (Community Garden Specialist, Think Playgrounds) and Nguyễn Thị Quỳnh Trang (Local Gardener, Phúc Tân Women’s Union): Offered technical expertise in vegetative propagation and nursery care; managed the community nursery and facilitated local training and plant management.
• Nguyễn Minh Anh (Field Documentation, Think Playgrounds): Documented key moments through photography, conducted informal interviews with participants and assisted in curating communication materials.

 

All contributors reviewed and approved the final version of the report. The collaborative nature of this project reflects a shared commitment to socially engaged ecological practice and the co-production of knowledge rooted in community participation.

Endnotes

 

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