Hanoi Museum

Hanoi’s newest museum opened in 2010 as part of the city’s 1000th birthday celebrations. In architectural terms this is far and away the country’s most ambitious museum project. The inverted pyramid design is visually striking and is surprisingly functional. It seems to have been inspired by some of the more flamboyant modern creations in Beijing and Shanghai and was designed by German architects GMP.

Focused on the history of Hanoi and Vietnam, for now at least, the collection is poor and not worth the effort and cost of making the half hour journey from downtown Hanoi. Much of the collection is unidentified or poorly captioned.

The massive investment in this building might have been better spent on improving the curatorial quality of the city’s existing museums. There are plans to improve the collection and the information. This can’t happen quickly enough.

In the meantime, the building has the architectural world talking.

Address: Pham Hung street, Tu Liem district, Hanoi
Opening hours: Everyday except for Monday from 8:00-11:30 and from 13:30-17:00
Entrance fee: free