Joseph Gobin Photographer

Hanoi has reached saturation point. Population is booming and cars are mushrooming. Given the density of the city, enlarging streets or creating new crossroads often implies destruction, tinkering, piling, stacking up but also skirting from time to time. This series is a testimony of a rapidly changing city –focusing on the infrastructures put forward to accommodate the growing need of mobility among its population.

Since September 2016, the banks of Lake Hoan Kiem are closed to traffic from Friday till Sunday night. Located right in the heart of Hanoi, the pedestrianized space is filled with passerby of all kinds enjoying one of the rare traffic-free promenade of the capital. Hip-Hop dancing, skipping rope, karaoke and much more is taking place in a collective feel good atmosphere. Each and everyone can please themselves and children are having a blast amidst this joyful cacophony with party balloons on their wrist or at the wheel of a kid’s jeep.