Rising from Hanoi’s Co Loa district, the Kim Quy Dome is more than the visual anchor of the Vietnam Exposition Centre; it is a statement of what domestic engineering can achieve on a world scale. Weighing 24,000 tonnes and erected in just five months, the steel dome has set a world record as the largest steel dome structure built entirely using Vietnamese-produced steel.
Inspired by the legendary Kim Quy (Golden Turtle), a cultural symbol of resilience and longevity, the dome’s turtle-shell spatial frame is fabricated from ASTM-grade steel and engineered to withstand level-12 typhoon winds and magnitude-8 earthquakes, with structural deviation controlled within an extraordinary 3 mm. Over 100,000 high-strength steel nodes and bolts were assembled under continuous 3D laser scanning, while a 500-tonne crawler crane operated round the clock. At peak, more than 1,000 engineers and workers executed the build in rotating shifts.
The dome crowns the Vietnam Exposition Centre, a 900,000 sq m integrated exhibition ecosystem developed by Vingroup and completed in under 10 months. The core exhibition building spans over 130,000 sq m across nine sections. It is supported by four outdoor exhibition parks covering 20.6 hectares, two indoor halls, a conference and wedding centre, a Grade-A office tower, a Marriott five-star hotel, and extensive landscaped amenities. The adjoining VinPalace Co Loa convention centre alone offers 16,800 sq m of event space across 12 halls, accommodating gatherings from several hundred to over 5,000 participants. Parking infrastructure for more than 10,000 vehicles completes the logistics backbone.
Crucially, all structural steel was produced domestically, an achievement that underscores the maturity of Vietnam’s fabrication and erection capabilities. Led by Dai Dung, the project dismantled long-held assumptions about the limits of local mechanical and structural firms.
Scheduled to open at the end of August to host the national exhibition commemorating Vietnam’s 80th National Day, the Kim Quy Dome stands as both an engineering landmark and a cultural emblem, proof that adversity forges capability, and that Vietnamese industry is ready to perform on the global stage.
