Ha Long bay is a stunning place where the magnificence of the landscape meet the myth of the dragon and the legend of Vietnamese culture. This is where the theater project is located, floating above the sea. The site for this project is located in Ha Long city and has been chosen specially to develop an outdoor permanent show which use the natural landscape as a background, it is why the theatre has been positioned above the sea level, facing a unique disposition of the natural and offers a ground breaking panorama for the audience.

SLA Designers developed the architecture of the theater as a floating skin which refers to a multitude of references, according to the visitors’ perception, by day time or night time. Successively the theater appears as a shell on the rock, a part of the dragon body, the sails of the traditional boat, and so on…

One of the main constraint for this project is about audience circulation and security, as two shows will be run every day, total audience on site can reach 2 600 people seating, plus 2 600 waiting for next show. Due to the position above the sea this situation required particular attention to crowd safety and audience flux in the theater. We solved it with a double bridges system for an in and out smooth circulation.

The tensile membrane roof is another big challenge of this project. It has been design with parametric software supports in order to consider the multitude of data constraints: Wind, rain, important span, theater equipment load, sight lines, and of course aesthetic