The new Hanoi Lotus Centre harnesses an existing investment by the City in the creation of a major new stormwater mitigation lake and utilises this infrastructural investment as the foundation for an iconic public place celebrating the Lotus, Vietnam’s National Flower. The Hanoi Lotus draws inspiration from Vietnam’s national flower, creating a city-defining piece of public architecture to place Hanoi and Vietnam on the global stage.
The young tightly wrapped lotus flower is a poignant symbol of growth and potential before it bursts open into an elegantly coloured bloom. Bouquets of tightly clustered lotus flower are a common sight on the streets of Hanoi and form the inspiration for the composition of our building.
The Lotus Building owes it’s form to a pentagonal grid system. The pentagon has been chosen as a metaphor representing the five points of an out-stretched person (head, arms and legs). Ratios of five are also common in nature especially in the organisation of petals structures including the lotus flower. This brings a nature and human focus to the ordering of the site.The grid is a pentagonal pattern with the Lotus Building as its central node. This allows it to expand across the site in a non-linear manner. This approach provides flexibility to the design as based on this central node point the grid can be scaled up or down at any point in the design process without effecting the organisational principles of the site.
