Why are Vietnamese houses so narrow

When I was working as a guide in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the first question that tourists asked me during the tour was: “Why do Vietnamese live in such narrow houses?”

The thing is that Vietnam is the country where the “luxury” tax is present, and the wide facade of the house is really a luxury. The population of Vietnam according to data for 2017 is 97 million and due to the large population, only civil servants reckon on retirement, all other pensions do not receive. The Vietnamese authorities decided to make a small bonus for local residents in the form of a small business that they can do on the first floor of his house, the business was not taxed and did not require registration, with the exception of tobacco and alcohol products.

In order for the business to generate income, it was necessary to build a house in the central part of the city, where there is a lot of traffic and the most successful location was along the road.

All local residents travel exclusively on bikes, and returning home they will notice the establishment and can stop to eat, purchase goods and receive the necessary services. In order to build as many houses along the road as possible, it was decided to introduce a tax on the facade - the wider the facade, the higher the tax had to be paid by local residents. Houses are built up, in a dense “wall to wall”, so that the square meters are not empty, because of this, there are no windows on the side walls in local houses.

For locals, the lack of windows does not cause discomfort. It gets dark early due to its proximity to the equator, and they spend all daylight hours at work, returning home when it gets dark. If you look closely at the houses, you will see that they are engaged in business on the first floor, children live on the second floor, and parents occupy the third floor. Vietnamese houses from a height resemble candles, narrow, but built in height.

p.s .:Subscribeper channelMy house- all the most important, useful, interesting is yet to come!Here everyone can share their experience in building, repairing and arranging housing, a suburban area, send photos, tell us about your summer cottage, house, apartment.

Read also:

Between heat and cold: why the walls and roofs of houses in Andorra contain mica

Trulli Alberobello - fabulous houses in Puglia on the heels of Italy