Vietnam is famous for its long thin houses. But these building just went from thin to skeletal.

An aviary-shaped house on Khuat Duy Tien Road.

With total investments of over 2.2 trillion dong ($123 million), the belt road No. 3, Trung Hoa – Linh Dam section is taken shape after several years of site clearance. Though the road is not yet finished, strange skinny houses are starting to appear.

The roads at 78-86m wide is one of the country’s most modern - but the jury is out as to the aesthetic values of the anorexic buildings.

On Khuat Duy Tien street, a dozen of odd houses are also built along several hundred of metres road. The most curious is an aviary-shaped house own by a private company. This house is built on a tiny 10mx2m piece of land. Around 200m from that house is a chain of nearly ten dwellings on 3mx1m plots of land.

Canvas along the new Khuat Duy Tien road.

According to VietNamNet’s investigation, after site clearance was completed, many land pieces were left with an area equivalent to a single bed. The owners of these pieces ofpted for tent like structures.

Super-thin houses are also built on Nguyen Trai Road, Minh Khai Street, the section at the foot of Vinh Tuy bridge. These houses have areas of 3-5sq.m only.

Houses of 1m depth in Vinh Tuy ward.

According to construction law, people are not allow to build houses on pieces of land of less than 15sq.m in area or those of 15-40sq.m in area but with one side less than 3m.

Hanoi authorities have organized hundreds of meetings to deal with the skinny and strange home in Dao Tan street.

And yet, despite the best efforts of the authorities the homes still appear.

Houses of 1m depth in Vinh Tuy.

Le Quang Phu, chief inspector of the Hanoi Construction Department, said the land was what was left over following compulsory purchase. The original owners had been compensated for losign their original land but were left with small areas. Many opted to develop the tiny areas that remained. However, Phu says all these houses are built illegally.

A thin house at the foot of the Vinh Tuy bridge

In future it is suggested that a wider stretch of land is purchased leaving space for wider roads and the building of new homes deemed more attractive to the authorities.

Phu Nguyen