Hanoi Opera House receives Bui Xuan Phai Award - For the love of Hanoi

The 18th Bui Xuan Phai Award - For the Love of Hanoi - 2025 honored the Project to build the Hanoi Opera House and the thematic cultural and artistic park in Quang An (Tay Ho Ward) in the Idea Award category. The award ceremony took place on the evening of October 3 at the Exhibition Center (Hoan Kiem, Hanoi).

At the award ceremony, the Organizing Committee of the 18th Bui Xuan Phai Award - For the Love of Hanoi announced 11 official nominations and named the works and projects honored in this year's season in 4 categories: Grand Prize, Work Prize, Work Prize and Idea Prize.

Nominated along with two projects in the Idea Award category, including a series of projects to renovate and expand the space for the community around Hoan Kiem Lake and a series of activities to honor Confucianism, towards the 950th anniversary of Quoc Tu Giam (1076 - 2026), the Hanoi Opera House and the thematic cultural and artistic park in Quang An (Tay Ho ward) were excellently honored.

Sun Group representative received the Idea Award for the Project to build Hanoi Opera House and thematic cultural and art park in Quang An

Expressing his honor when receiving the award at the Award Ceremony, Mr. Nguyen Viet Tien - Director of the Hanoi Opera House and thematic cultural and art park construction project in Quang An (Sun Group Corporation) said: “Hanoi is always an endless source of inspiration - from history, culture to people. We, the architects, experts, engineers... especially architect Renzo Piano, also started designing this project with our own emotions and love for Hanoi. Although there will be many difficulties in the process of building the theater due to the complexity of construction technology, this award will be a great encouragement for the project team. We hope that the Hanoi Opera House will become a symbol of the city in the future, bringing the world to Vietnam and bringing Vietnam to the world”.

Different ideas

Located in a multi-purpose cultural and entertainment complex, the Hanoi Opera House project and thematic cultural and artistic park have a total area of ​​40 hectares, of which the Hanoi Opera House is built floating on the surface of Dam Tri Lake as a beautiful artistic masterpiece. The theater has two large auditoriums: the Opera Auditorium with a capacity of 1,797 seats (3 times that of the Hanoi Opera House, approximately the size of Esplanade Singapore); the Multi-purpose Auditorium with a capacity of nearly 1,000 seats. In addition to the two auditoriums, the theater also has many other multi-purpose spaces such as the main hall, rehearsal and practice rooms, museum, observation deck... This will not only be a place that can serve many different types of performing arts such as symphony concerts, Broadway-style music performances, classical opera and ballet, award ceremonies, galas, large-scale entertainment performances... but also a space for cultural and artistic exchange and entertainment for the capital's people.

3D Panoramic Model of Hanoi Opera House

The most distinctive feature of the theater is the dome architecture inspired by the ripples of West Lake, covered with a layer of pearl-like material to reflect the color of West Lake's water surface according to the movement of time during the day.

This dome is a unique structure that has never been seen before in the world, with an extremely thin roof shell, only ranging from 200m - 600mm thick and super load-bearing. To create this dome, the architects had to apply digital technology, with the most advanced software in fields such as geometric processing, finite element analysis, and even non-linear analysis according to time history.

From the outside, the curved dome looks very natural, but in fact it is the result of a very in-depth research process by architect Renzo Piano from the biological simulation of the structure of bones, shells, bird skulls..., or studies of the veins of lotus leaves floating on the water surface. This super thin and curved roof shell design not only reminds of the beauty of West Lake, creating a graceful shape for the building, but also creates an airy space to help absorb natural wind, and music performances are filtered with the best sound.

Simulated image of the dome of Hanoi Opera House

Artwork from love for Hanoi

Before coming up with the idea of ​​designing the Hanoi Opera House, architect Renzo Piano spent many years researching the cultural history of Hanoi. He was fascinated by the beauty, ancient cultural stories and legends of the West Lake area, where there is the ancient Tran Quoc Pagoda, the sacred Tay Ho Palace, and the fragrant lotus lake. Therefore, he brought the inspiration of Hanoi into the design of the theater, with a dome shaped like the soft and poetic waves of West Lake.

Architect Renzo Piano and colleagues work with Sun Group's architectural representative on the theater.

The project is also designed to create more green space for the West Lake area associated with the thousand-year-old historical and cultural heritage of the capital. Ponds and lakes around the area such as the lotus pond of Pho Linh Pagoda, Thuy Su Lake, etc. will be invested in cleaning, renovating, restoring and planting West Lake lotus, creating a large green park for people and tourists to enjoy and enjoy the beauty of the "green gem" in the heart of the capital.

As one of the eight key projects to celebrate the 71st anniversary of the Capital Liberation Day (October 10), the Hanoi Opera House is considered an important milestone for Hanoi to change its appearance, entering a new era of greener, cleaner and more beautiful, worthy of the capital of a thousand years of civilization.

Hanoi Opera House is expected to become a new symbol of the capital.

This is also a rare large-scale cultural and artistic project built with 100% socialized capital. This non-profit project was invested by Sun Group Corporation with a budget of more than 12,000 billion VND. The entire design, construction and operation process is strictly controlled by Hanoi City. In the world, there are not many cultural works invested by private enterprises because the initial cost is huge and the cost to maintain operations is much more expensive than the construction.

The Hanoi Opera House project has been nurtured and built with the love for Hanoi of not only architect Renzo Piano and many generations of Hanoi leaders over the past decade, but also entrusted to a private enterprise with heart, vision, and passion in joining hands to beautify the capital and develop the country.

The Bui Xuan Phai Award - For the Love of Hanoi, established by the Sports and Culture Newspaper and the family of the late painter Bui Xuan Phai, is a prestigious annual award initiated in 2008, to honor and encourage outstanding contributions in building, preserving and developing the cultural values ​​of Hanoi. The award is named after the late talented painter Bui Xuan Phai, who had a deep love and immortal paintings of Hanoi's Old Quarter.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nha-hat-opera-ha-noi-nhan-giai-thuong-bui-xuan-phai-vi-tinh-yeu-ha-noi-18525100414332349.htm