Curtain drops on theatre design

The designs were submitted to the Hanoi People’s Committee last week for approval by the project’s appraisal council to prepare for the ground-breaking ceremony in October, to celebrate 1,000 years of Thang Long-Hanoi.

Hanoi’s opera house has limited seating which cannot meet the city’s theatre needs

The Thang Long theatre will be located on a West West Lake township project’s site, near Hoa Binh Park on Pham Van Dong street, Tu Liem district.

On 22 hectares in total, the theatre will be a regional-level theatre and Hanoi’s biggest.

In order to choose the two designs, a contest was held and judged by an appraisal council, which consists of famous domestic and international experts and designers.

The first option shows a theatre located on a lotus pond with two separated buildings, in the shape of a copper drum, covered by one roof imitating the image of a turtle’s shell. These two buildings will have 1,500 and 1,800 seat stages with many other smaller-scale function rooms.

The second option shows a red sail in Halong Bay, constructed on the water’s surface. The theatre consists of theatre, an open air stage and a parking lot. All of the constructions are built on the water surface and garden, with a transport system going through the whole area.

This option has one building only, which consists of different multi-function rooms.

The two designs were designed with an environmentally-friendly frame of mind.

The plan to set up a multi-function theatre for Hanoi to celebrate its 1,000-year anniversary began three years ago.

However, the location of the theatre has changed three times, which has slowed down the project’s implementation.

The location in 2007 was identified in Tu Liem district’s Me Tri commune, on an area facing Pham Hung street, near the National Convention Centre and the Hanoi Museum.

However, in 2008 the committee decided to move the theatre to Quang An commune, next to West Lake and left the old land area to the Japanese Riviera, who planned to set up a $500 million Lotus hotel.

In 2009, the location once again was moved to a 22ha land area in the West West Lake Urban Area on Pham Van Dong street.

The theatre will be built with the city’s budget, at an estimated cost of around VND2.4 trillion ($126 million). As of last week, land clearance and compensation for the project’s construction were actively being implemented in order to keep up with the schedule to make the ground-breaking ceremony this October.

The current biggest theatre is considered an iconic image of Hanoi, the Hanoi Opera House, which is a single building set up during the French colonisation period. It has a capacity of only 900 seats.