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A paper dream and a dome of memory
The story is told through shapes, colors, and spatial rhythms at the Top 10 Pavilion 2024, a public art exhibition recently inaugurated in Hanoi, concluding the seventh season of the Top 10 Awards, one of the most prestigious awards in the fields of Architecture, Interior Design, and Green Buildings in Vietnam.
At the center of the Pavilion is a dome made from dó paper – an ancient type of paper that our ancestors used to copy scriptures, paint pictures, and print books. But this time, the paper doesn't preserve words, it preserves light. Light filters through the thin folds of paper, casting the shadows of time onto the ground, reminding viewers of a Vietnam of craftsmanship, patience, and meticulous attention to detail.
Architect Dao Hoang shared: "Materials that were once discarded, when reborn, are no longer waste but become materials for reflection. The Pavilion is a symbol of the ability to start anew, from what seemed to have ended. It is an authentic and meaningful slice of modern architecture, where beauty comes not only from form, but also from attitude towards life and responsible thinking."
The central pavilion is a dome made from handmade paper.
Each fold on the paper is like a wrinkle on the face of the artisan. Irregular curves, tiny scratches—all become evidence of the hands and soul that touched the material. In an industrial world, dó paper is a gentle resistance, reminding us of imperfect beauty, not mass-produced, but rich in memory.
Interwoven on that paper background are layers of recycled plastic, once discarded plastic bags lying haphazardly somewhere—in canals, by the roadside, or in anonymous trash cans. Now, plastic is no longer inanimate. It is melted, shaped, and pieced together like fragments of memory. Each sheet of plastic carries its own shade, its own history, its own crack or mark of time.
The architectural works were designed.
But when assembled onto a metal frame, the old plastic suddenly sparkled, not because of its shine, but because of the belief in it. The belief that art can still be born from waste. That useless things can still become symbols. That remnants can still be woven into architecture.
Unlike paper or plastic, steel arrives at Pavilion with a cold and precise appearance. It's not soft, not heavily handcrafted, but it's essential, like the skeleton of a fragile body. Standing in Pavilion, one clearly sees the silent dialogue between three materials: paper representing tradition, plastic for the forgotten past, and steel for the mechanical present.
This blend is not forced at all. On the contrary, it creates a symphony of materials, where each material is an instrument, each curve a melody, and each wall panel a whisper about the relationship between humans, the environment, and technology.
Standing in the center of the Pavilion, one can clearly see the silent dialogue between the three materials.
Where each material is an instrument, each curve is a melody.
Top 10 Pavilion - A small dream in the city
The structure is not large. The pavilion is nestled in a space just large enough for leisurely strolls, for looking up, and for contemplating. But it is precisely this smallness that highlights the beauty of refinement – an art that is not ostentatious, but lives on in its depth.
The Pavilion is not just a showcase of architecture; it tells a story. A story about architects who started with dreams, a story about a community that contributed labor, materials, and ideas, and a story about how a society confronts an environmental crisis: not by avoiding it, not by blaming it, but by transforming it.
Therefore, even though it is only a temporary exhibition, Pavilion lives on as a work of art for humanity, where beauty is intertwined with action, where forms are constructed with belief, and where people can pause to ask themselves: "What have I done to this world?"
With 349 entries, 30 outstanding works were selected from three categories.
Alongside the Pavilion is the Top 10 Awards 2024 ceremony, marking a 7-year milestone in honoring projects that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also possess profound humanistic depth and community value.
With 349 entries, 30 outstanding works were selected from three categories: Housing - Interior Design - Green Buildings. But what's remarkable isn't the number, but the spirit: each winning project carries within it a vibrant story about the land it's connected to, the people it serves, and the issues it addresses.
A house for the Red Dao people amidst the vast forests of Hoang Su Phi, a coffee shop renovated from a warehouse in Dong Thap, a community library made of bamboo in Central Vietnam... These structures are like poems written with bricks, bamboo, light, wind, and the scent of fresh earth—not noisy, but profound.
When architecture no longer stands alone
The Top 10 Awards are not just awards; they are an open space for meeting, learning, and sharing among generations of architects, between designers and the community, and between tradition and the future.
There, architecture is no longer the privilege of a select group. It becomes a social dialogue: where buildings are linked to responsibility, where aesthetics are linked to ecology, where creativity is linked to life. Designers no longer think only of materials but also of impact, of memory, of the children who will grow up in that house, that street, that garden.
The dome is made from dó paper – an ancient type of paper that our ancestors used to copy scriptures, paint pictures, and print books.
Top 10 Pavilion is the answer. Not noisy, not assertive, just silently existing like a poem in the heart of the city. A paper dome breathing in the wind. A plastic wall shimmering with memories. A steel frame holding firm to faith. A small dream, yet powerful enough to move a great spirit.
And if you happen to pass by the Pavilion one May afternoon, stop by; the exhibition is on display in Dien Hong Garden, Hoan Kiem District, until May 19, 2025. Beneath that paper-covered arch, listen to the sound of time, listen to the sound of old plastic telling stories of rebirth, listen to the sound of steel echoing the rhythm of the future. Because amidst the chaos of today, sometimes, architecture is the ultimate storyteller, telling through light, telling through silence, telling through what remains after the world has said too much.
