These days, Ha Noi Capital has been overwhelming with the atmospheres and colors of the millennium festival. During the occasion of the great anniversary, many key works celebrating 1000 years of Thang Long - Ha Noi are inaugurated such as Hoa Binh Park in Xuan Dinh, Tu Liem District, statues of President Ho Chi Minh and President Ton Duc Thang at Thong Nhat Park, Vinh Tuy and Thanh Tri Bridges, and Thang Long avenue started at the intersection of Pham Hung and Tran Duy Hung...
Among these works, the Ha Noi Museum which is located on Pham Hung Street, Me Tri Commune, Tu Liem District, Ha Noi, has been regarded as a work of art, architecture, unique culture, and most modern in the system of museums in Viet Nam now.
Hanoi Museum officially was started constructing from 19 May 2008. Designed as an upside-down pyramid, Ha Noi Museum has unique architectural features, look like a diamond. Combining with the light system, the museum would look like a lotus at night. This project is constructed with very special way of building from the roof down to the basement. This is a cultural work that the architecture, aesthetics and construction quality require complex technical systems and composition, maximum use of multimedia elements, with a full of sounds and lights space.
The museum has a total area of nearly 54,000 square meters, 30.7 meter high. It includes four stories and two-story basement. The floor area is over 30,000 square meters, in which the principal display area is about 14,000 square meters and the preservation of artifacts area is about 12,000 square meters; outdoor exhibition and garden areas is about 25,000 square meters.
The fourth floor of the museum has the largest area, the lower smaller, and each floor is reached out 5 meters on compare to adjacent below floors. Great Hall (known as the Ceremonies Area) is designed as circles and associated with the upper floors by an open floor space. The highlight of the hall is a spiral ramp connecting all four floors, and an elevator system is placed at the top and the end of the ramp. The second and third floors are for display. Fourth floor includes function rooms for meetings and workshops, research facilities, a library and a workshop to preserve and restore exhibits. The museum's facade has been decorated with patterns of Vietnamese tradition.
Artifacts are displayed in a lively and attractive way of spiral shape. In the center is the image of the Dragon, surroundings are displayed with themes of human, place-names, objects and events. Exhibits will focus on three main features of Ha Noi Capital which are Culture, Hero, and Peace. Each artifact will be introduced with a throughout display script by an information system.
As scheduled, the museum are inaugurated the first phrase on 6 October 2010, on the occasion of the great anniversary. And 50,000 artifacts will be on display, recorded the hallmarks of history, culture, architecture that evidence for the formation and development of Ha Noi. The museum is considered as the place where the 1000 years history of the capital is reappeared comprehensively.
Accordingly, the first floor will display models of columns that carved dragons in the Ly Dynasty, artifacts of Ly - Tran – Le Dynasties, photos and science materials on Thang Long in Dai Viet period and antiques excavated from Thang Long Imperial Citadel.
In addition, the ceremonies area will be arranged two large screens, which project 3D movies of implementation and construction processes of the Ha Noi Museum and the ideals of overall display. And two computer monitors are also placed here to introduce about the architecture works of GMP- ILAG Consulting Joint Venture (Germany) and the contents of the overall display design for Ha Noi Museum of the Story Inc. (New Zealand).
The second floor will be space for pre-Thang Long era artifacts with emphasis on Co Loa Bronze Drum and the pictures of three rounds of the Co Loa Citadel in An Duong Vuong time.
On the third floor and fourth floor will feature artists’ collections with 10,000 items including artifacts associated with the capital, some of them are the unique ones show the culture and civilization development of the Vietnamese people...
On this occasion, an ornamental tree festival is also held at the outdoor exhibition area of the museum.
Visiting the museum, visitors will be introduced to the unique cultural heritage of Hanoi. Through the antiques, artifacts, people will find many compelling stories about of the heroic land of Thang Long with thousand years of civilization.
Phuong Anh (Collected)