Gmp Architekten has won a competition to design the masterplan and architectural concept for the National Exhibition and Trade Fair Center in Hanoi, Vietnam. The firm’s lotus-inspired plan was one of nine competing international designs.
The 600,000 square meter center will be situated on a 128 hectare site and surrounded by a green landscape. The design for the trade center’s main building is inspired by Vietnam’s national flower – the lotus -- with the exhibition halls arranged “like petals around the chalice of a flower,” write the architects. Pylons with tensile curved roofs will further give the building a “delicate appearance.”
To be built under the first phase of construction, the conference center and eight exhibition halls will be arranged in a circular form, creating an open space that will be built as a water feature with “islands and bridges.” Two, 10,000 square meter exhibition halls will be linked together “by a ring-shaped building called the Concourse.”
Two high-rise hotel and office blocks will stand at the entrance to the site. Delivery yards will be interspersed among the exhibition halls, allowing trucks to drive to the side of the spaces. In addition, gates on the side will connect the various halls, allowing for flexible use.
During later building phases, an additional six trade fair halls will be built on the west and east ends of the site. The square-shaped halls will connect to the main buildings through glazed connecting galleries. A circular trade exhibition building is also envisioned for the eastern part of the site, with a smaller circular building mirroring its shape on the western side. All of the plan’s elements are designed to be developed “at different times and independently of each other.”
Learn more about the winning concept here.
Credits:
Design: Meinhard von Gerkan and Nikolaus Goetze with Dirk Heller
Project leader competition: Karen Schroeder
Team: Christoph Berle, Mikael Stenberg, Holger Schmücker, Urs Wedekind
Team Vietnam: Tran Cong Duc (Project management), Duong Nguyen Tien Hong
Client: Vingroup JSC.
GFA complete: 611,496.00 m2
