ICE wins prize for VNTA Headquarter

It has been a while ago since we won an award for our entry to the international invited competition for the new VNTA Headquarter in Hanoi, Vietnam. VNTA is the telecommunication authority of Vietnam. We were invited last year to participate in this competition with international large scale firms with us remaining one of the last three finalists. In the attached picture our model is to the right (downloaded from the internet, not really representing the model in its details).

After seeing the final judging results we realized that the client had a choice between two very similar schemes (ours was one of them). Yet our muscles are limited compared to the muscles of one of the largest architectural practice in the world which won the project.

What this competition revealed to us is that we either compete on that level in terms of investment beyond the project and design or we shift to boutique style small scale projects. As the later decision would defeat the purpose of the setup of our company in the first place. Hence we are currently struggling about which way to go further with dignity and integrity. It is a long way to go still...

Team ICE: Ulrich Kirchhoff, Louise Low, Minh Le Van, Claudia Wigger, Matteo Biasiolo, Jorge Gil
Environmental: Cundall
Local Architect: Trinity
Renderings: Lifang

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