BRG Group and Sumitomo Corporation, working with a committee of Vietnamese and international experts in construction, urban planning, and architecture, have selected SOM to design and engineer the centerpiece of North Hanoi Smart City—a 108-story, mixed-use skyscraper surrounded by a vast public park.
The development, Smart City Financial Tower, is part of the fifth phase of a new, 300-hectare neighborhood sited between downtown Hanoi and Noi Bai International Airport and will serve as a model for future urbanism. SOM was chosen through a design competition among international architecture firms with expertise in tall tower design.
“The vision for North Hanoi Smart City is of a forward-thinking, humanist urban center, and this tower articulates those aspirations,” said SOM Design Partner Olin McKenzie. “The design is driven by smart technology and sustainability, leveraging passive strategies to allow the building to breathe, giving inhabitants access to natural gardens hundreds of feet in the air, and catering to a dense mix of uses that will bring thousands of people through the building every day.”
Smart City Financial Tower, set to be the tallest building in Vietnam, will be a landmark and a gateway—marking the site of the neighborhood in the skyline and becoming a nexus of activity. Inspired by Vietnamese design, the tower echoes patterns and volumes found in native plants and vernacular architecture, reinterpreting those forms into a new framework for indoor-outdoor living and working.
“The North Hanoi Smart City Project is a key project of both BRG Group and Sumitomo Corporation,” said Madame Nguyen Thi Nga, Chairwoman of BRG Group. “The project has received a special attention from governments leaders of Vietnam and Japan as a new symbol project for friendship between two countries and two peoples. Finding the best architectural plan from SOM is an important milestone on the journey to develop the 108-storey Financial Tower, a modern mega complex and a premium architectural highlight to showcase the dynamic and sustainable development of Hanoi Capital and Vietnam.”
The building leverages passive strategies to allow the building to “breathe.” Capitalizing on the winds that can be felt at high altitudes, the split-core approach deploys wind turbines to provide renewable power. Two independent structures are connected with a vertical bridge that runs between the two cores on several floors, creating lush, communal sky gardens for residents and office workers, hundreds of feet in air.
North Hanoi Smart City’s Finance Tower builds on SOM’s portfolio of work in Vietnam and the region, including the 2022 Strategic Vision Plan for Van Phong Bay in Vietnam’s Khanh Hoa Province as well as Singapore’s tallest building, the under-construction 8 Shenton Way. The SOM team includes AECOM (cost estimating), RJ Models (model making), MH Architects, and Ha Ngo Thi Ngoc Anh (translation).
