Reclaim the riverside! EXO award winner creates family-friendly green spaces in Hanoi

Think Play­grounds (TPG) is pro­tect­ing the unique biod­iversity of the Red River through the cre­ation of inclus­ive meet­ing places on the edge of deprived neigh­bour­hoods in Hanoi, Vietnam. 

TPG is an EXO Found­a­tion Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Award win­ner. This post is based on a longer art­icle (PDF) writ­ten by former TPG intern Lucija Wićaz. 

A growing need for green spaces in Hanoi

Ima­gine a city where every child can run, play, and dream in lush green parks. For Hanoi’s 8 mil­lion res­id­ents, this is still a far-off vis­ion. With under two square meters of green space per cap­ita in 2023—far below the WHO-recom­men­ded nine—chil­dren lack nat­ur­al play areas, while adults and the eld­erly face lim­ited options for recreation. 

This short­age isn’t just an incon­veni­ence; it’s a crisis. Rising rates of child­hood obesity and men­tal health issues are linked to the absence of nat­ur­al play areas. Adults and the eld­erly also face lim­ited options for recre­ation, while urb­an heat, poor air qual­ity, and flood­ing threaten the city’s future.

Though green spaces have trans­form­at­ive poten­tial and can tackle many of these prob­lems, Hanoi’s urb­an plan­ning has often over­looked their bene­fits, focus­ing instead on devel­op­ing large green spaces out­side the city.

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Think Playgrounds’ vision

Think Play­grounds (TPG), a Hanoi-based social enter­prise, is tack­ling these issues head-on. Since 2014, TPG has been pion­eer­ing inclus­ive and sus­tain­able pub­lic spaces to cham­pi­on children’s right to play and foster eco­lo­gic­al trans­form­a­tion. Their most ambi­tious effort: reclaim­ing the under­u­til­ised Red River banks.

Phuc Tan Park and Chuong Duong Park: Green oases on the banks of the Red River

The banks of the Red River were once lit­ter-strewn and over­looked, with inform­al neigh­bor­hoods hous­ing migrant work­ers who had few recre­ation­al spaces. Waste piled high, and poor water cir­cu­la­tion from typhoon floods exacer­bated pol­lu­tion.

Des­pite these chal­lenges, TPG saw oppor­tun­ity. Work­ing along­side loc­al res­id­ents and experts, they’ve trans­formed this once-waste­land into a net­work of vibrant pub­lic spaces, including:

• Play­grounds and fit­ness areas craf­ted from recycled materials.
• A sens­ory garden using Japan’s ‘omni­scape design’ to stim­u­late senses through diverse plant spe­cies, aid­ing children’s cog­nit­ive and emo­tion­al development.
• Nature trails and com­munity gar­dens, fos­ter­ing envir­on­ment­al edu­ca­tion and biodiversity.

Sustainability through commitment: Many hands maintain green meeting spaces!

TPG draws from the pro­ceeds of com­mer­cial pro­jects and uses 50% of their profits to put into com­munity-ori­ented projects. 

Although volun­teer­ing is very wide­spread in Viet­namese soci­ety, this mod­el is quite unique for Viet­nam, with vari­ous fun­drais­ing cam­paigns launched to raise money for the ongo­ing costs. Craft work­shops, dona­tion-based cafes, and oth­er cre­at­ive efforts fund ongo­ing main­ten­ance while strength­en­ing com­munity bonds.

How­ever, none of this would have been pos­sible without the vast net­work of TPG’s sup­port­ers. TPG’s mod­el relies on grass­roots volun­teer­ing, com­munity engage­ment, and cre­at­ive fun­drais­ing. Here’s how they’re mak­ing it work:

• Com­munity Engage­ment: Loc­al res­id­ents, NGOs, and volun­teers act­ively main­tain and pro­tect the parks.
• Innov­at­ive Solu­tions: A banana-tree-circle sys­tem, inspired by per­ma­cul­ture, was intro­duced to treat wastewa­ter sustainably.
• Edu­ca­tion­al Pro­grams: In part­ner­ship with schools and organ­isa­tions, TPG raises eco­lo­gic­al aware­ness and mobil­ises stu­dents to com­bat cli­mate change.

Growing support for sustained success

Thanks to TPG’s efforts, Hanoi’s muni­cip­al author­it­ies are start­ing to take notice. Art install­a­tions along the embank­ments and increased com­munity use are put­ting the Red Riverb­anks back on the map. 

How­ever, the sup­port from neigh­bor­ing dis­tricts remains largely symbolic.

To truly secure the future of these spaces, more diverse stake­hold­ers are needed. Fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tions, in-kind dona­tions, and expert­ise in low-tech solu­tions for energy, waste, and water man­age­ment could amp­li­fy the impact of TPG’s work.

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About Think Playgrounds

Think Play­grounds (TPG) was foun­ded in 2014 with the mis­sion to pro­mote children’s right to play. As a social enter­prise and design organ­isa­tion we col­lab­or­ate with mul­tidiscip­lin­ary part­ners, loc­al gov­ern­ments and com­munity groups, build­ing friendly play­grounds as well as biod­i­verse and sus­tain­able pub­lic spaces.

TPG believes that qual­it­at­ive pub­lic spaces, built along­side com­munit­ies, are fun­da­ment­al to achiev­ing social equity, increas­ing the life qual­ity and com­munity con­nec­tion of urb­an cit­izens, and offer­ing a sus­tain­able and play­ful child­hood for chil­dren liv­ing in Viet­namese cit­ies. TPG is an EXO Found­a­tion Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Award win­ner.

Join the Movement

Want to help make Hanoi green­er, clean­er, and more inclus­ive? Reach out to Think Play­grounds today:

• Chu Kim Đức, Founder: sanchoivietnam2014@gmail.com 
• Quốc Đạt, Cre­at­ive Dir­ect­or: quocdat.tpg@gmail.com 

With your sup­port, Hanoi can become a city where every child has room to dream, every eld­er a place to rest, and every fam­ily a space to bond.

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About the author

This post is based on a longer art­icle (PDF) writ­ten by Lucija Wićaz. Lucija was an intern at Think Play­grounds from Novem­ber — Decem­ber 2025. She’s cur­rently pur­su­ing a Mas­ter­’s pro­gram in ‘Urb­an Geo­graph­ies’ at Hum­boldt Uni­ver­sity of Ber­lin, Ger­many. Edited by Chu Kim Đức, Elise Lương, and Lê Nguyễn Mai Anh.

Featured image (top of post)

On the right, TPG satel­lite image of the flood­plain of the Red River. Lo Bien Bridge is in the north and Chuong Duong Bridge is in the south. Between the bridges is the pro­ject area ini­ti­ated by TPG for the use and enjoy­ment of adja­cent neighbourhoods.

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