Bach Dang Giang Museum, Thuy Nguyen, Hai Phong, Vietnam

The Vision

The mouth of the Bach Dang River has been a place of war where Vietnamese fought to protect the motherland against multiple invaders from the north trying to access Hanoi citadel and conquer the country. These battles have been celebrated in Vietnam for centuries as the mother of all battles, conveying a lesson of bravery, patriotism, and national resilience.

In the 21st century, it became a beautiful place of reflection and peace for millions of Vietnamese people coming to pay respect to the fighters of the past and admiring the beautiful landscape around.

The design of the project will introduce clearly through a spectacular series of immersive audio-visual using the the most advance technology together with historical objects to show how critical and heroic these battles were for Vietnam.

This project will show the beauty and strength of the river as a source of meditation and inspiration.

aerial view to the Bach Dang River

view from entrance pathway towards the new museum

view from the Bach Dang River branch

Exhibition Design Direction

The exhibition design project proposes a route through exhibition places composing a varied memorable experience based on the new technologies of fully immersive mapping as developed by new, advanced generation of exhibition.

With the intention that the story of Bach Dang victory in 938 will be told from the bank’s perspective, historical stories will be produced in 3D, integrated with graphic images as well as documentary and historical photos in the same way. At the same time, water reflection effects showing the changing tides will be combined and applied in this space to provide a realistic experience for the visitors.

The exhibition space includes both real and virtual elements, combined with projection technology to tell the story of the historic battles on the Bach Dang River in the most impressive and vivid way.

Jean Francois Milou's sketch

exhibition space planning

The Design Idea

The image of the Bach Dang water waves is integrated into the architectural design idea through the roof system where it can be observed from many sides. When intersecting with the square floor plan, the roof of the building will leave curves on the vertical surface like the traditional roof systems in Vietnam.

Here, you will see the familiar image of the pavilion and the head of the sword but in a more condensed architectural form. The materials used are also considered to be selected based on traditional architectural tones in which copper is the main color. The outside walls surrounding the the exhibition space tell historical stories about the battles on the Bach Dang River through traditional stone sculpture. The copper-colored curtain system surrounding the building will let light, wind, and sun through, like traditional Vietnamese indoor screens.

From there, visitors to this place will feel the beautiful sunlight and shadow effect similar to those under the trees. Sunshine, wind and the landscape of the building will blend into one of the peaceful and meditative spaces for visitors to step by step experience the heroic historical stories on the Bach Dang River.

view from the main lobby to the river

view from internal garden to the river