Hanoi (VNA) - For the first time in Hanoi, Vietnam’s architecture and arts communities will have the opportunity to engage directly with the people behind Snøhetta, the world-renowned architecture and design practice from Norway. Through San Dinh S.T.U.D.I.O Talk #01, themed “Shared Culture, Collective Futures,” Sun Group’s Design Management Board is creating a forum for an in-depth exchange on how culture and local context can shape the architecture of the future and help inform more sustainable destination development in Vietnam.
Taking place on the morning of November 7, 2026, at Ascott Tay Ho Hanoi, San Dinh S.T.U.D.I.O Talk #01 × Snøhetta will bring together two influential figures in contemporary architecture: Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, Founding Partner of Snøhetta, and Richard Wood, Managing Director of Snøhetta Asia. Held with the content endorsement of the Vietnam Association of Architects, the talk is part of San Dinh S.T.U.D.I.O Talk – Stories Behind the Practice, a series organised by Sun Group’s Design Management Division to connect international architectural thinking with Vietnam’s evolving context.
The event is expected to welcome more than 1,000 participants, including representatives of professional associations, educators, investors, emerging architects, university students and creative practitioners. It will be supported by leading academic institutions, including Hanoi University of Civil Engineering, Hanoi Architectural University, Phuong Dong University, the VNU University of Sciences and Arts, Ho Chi Minh City University of Architecture, and all leading design firms.
An opportunity to engage with two leading voices
Kjetil Trædal Thorsen is a founding partner of Snøhetta and a key force behind the practice’s interdisciplinary architectural philosophy, which seeks to create projects with a lasting impact on culture and urban life.
A frequent speaker at architecture forums around the world, Thorsen served as Professor of Architecture at the Institute of Experimental Architecture at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, from 2004 to 2008. He has also served on juries for major international design and architecture competitions and awards, including the Obel Award, the Zumtobel Group Award, the 2024 Frederick Kiesler Prize, the 2024 competition for the National Monument to Freedom and Unity in Leipzig, and Austria’s 2024 State Award for Architecture and Sustainability.
In 2024, Thorsen received the FRAME Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his enduring contributions to interdisciplinary architecture, energy-positive projects and a holistic approach to sustainability. Among the world’s influential architects, he has consistently championed a practice that sets aside individual ego in order to listen to local voices.
“Whether we are designing an opera house, a library, a museum, a hotel or a restaurant, our first task is not to express our creative ego. It is to understand the place, the people and the aspirations that already exist there,” says Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, co-founder of Snøhetta.
Guided by the principle “People Before Projects,” Snøhetta places people and interdisciplinary dialogue at the heart of its work. At San Dinh S.T.U.D.I.O Talk #01, Thorsen will discuss how this approach to design practice took shape and evolved, while unpacking the stories behind some of the practice’s landmark projects.
Young architects and students in Vietnam will also have the opportunity to speak with Richard Wood, Managing Director of Snøhetta Asia. Wood will offer a practitioner’s perspective on applying international experience to the rapidly changing markets of Asia and Vietnam.
“What draws us to San Dinh S.T.U.D.I.O Talk offers a valuable opportunity to exchange ideas with a new generation of architects, designers and creative thinkers in Vietnam. We look forward to sharing our latest design thinking and exploring how these ideas might inform and inspire future projects in the country,” says Richard Wood.
Why Snøhetta?
Founded in 1989, Snøhetta is a global, multidisciplinary design practice with more than 250 people from 40 countries. Its distinctive approach brings architecture, landscape, interiors, product design and art into a shared, interdisciplinary process. Through collaboration and dialogue across fields, the practice aims to create spaces that connect people with one another and with the world around them.
For Vietnam’s architecture community, Snøhetta is known not only for its international reputation, but also for its thinking on how architecture can shape a destination’s identity and generate cultural and social value.
One project that established Snøhetta on the international architectural stage is Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, completed in 2002. The building reimagines the lost Great Library of Alexandria, whose legacy stretches back more than 2,000 years. Its tilted, disc-like form faces the Mediterranean, evoking the light of knowledge and the continuity of human civilization. A curved wall of Aswan granite is engraved with approximately 4,000 characters, symbols and scripts from a range of writing systems. In 2004, Bibliotheca Alexandrina received the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture, recognizing both its design quality and its cultural and social value.
Rising from the Oslo Fjord like an iceberg, the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet is another landmark in Snøhetta’s body of work. Its defining gesture is a gently sloping marble roof that descends to the water’s edge, turning the roof into an open public plaza where people can walk, sunbathe and take in the view. Large expanses of glass connect the activity inside with the life of the city outside, breaking down the perceived separation between high art and everyday life. The building received the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award in 2009, marking an important milestone in contemporary European architecture. It was praised for bringing together complex functional requirements and a distinctive architectural form, while strengthening the relationship between the building, the city and the landscape.
In Southeast Asia, Bangkok, Thailand, is among the Asian cities with the least public green space per capita. There, Snøhetta’s 250,000-square-meter mixed-use development Cloud 11 is taking shape with elevated gardens, expansive lawns and a network of pocket parks - an urban green lung designed to bring nature into the city.
Different in function and context, Snøhetta’s projects share a consistent premise: architectural value emerges from the interplay of form, function, use and the relationships a building creates with its surroundings. For the practice, architecture is never an isolated discipline, nor is there a universal design formula that can be applied to every context. Its approach develops project by project, through interdisciplinary collaboration and an ongoing process of dialogue.
As Vietnam’s architecture sector continues to grow and define its identity, a conversation with Snøhetta on architecture, culture and the future of cities offers an opportunity for the next generation of Vietnamese architects to explore how international architectural thinking can be brought into meaningful dialogue with local identity.
From global experience to Vietnamese practice
As Vietnam’s cities expand and new destinations continue to emerge, planning and architecture must go beyond questions of appearance and engage more deeply with the places they shape. A building’s long-term vitality depends not only on the quality of its design, but also on how well it responds to the landscape, respects the environment, reflects local culture and serves the needs of the community.
A place must be more than beautiful: it should connect seamlessly with infrastructure, transportation and the urban landscape and, above all, with the cultural heritage of its destination. By drawing on the distinctive character of each place, architecture can turn local identity into a lasting resource for sustainable development.
In line with this vision, Sun Group’s Design Management Board, with the endorsement of the Vietnam Association of Architects and in collaboration with specialized universities and domestic design consultancies, has for years worked to connect international knowledge with Vietnamese practice. Through projects and professional knowledge-sharing initiatives, these efforts create opportunities for local architects to learn from global methods and experience.
With San Dinh S.T.U.D.I.O Talk #01 × Snøhetta, themed “Shared Culture, Collective Futures,” Sun Group’s Design Management Board continues to expand the space for exchange among architects, designers and the creative community. The conversation will cross geographical boundaries and different architectural perspectives, asking how shared cultural values and the distinct identity of each community can provide a foundation for more sustainable futures.
It will also give Vietnamese architects, designers, students and creative practitioners the opportunity to hear directly from Kjetil Trædal Thorsen and Richard Wood about contextual conceptualism, interdisciplinary ways of working, and their experience creating buildings and spaces connected to contemporary life.
When knowledge is shared, carried forward and passed on, architectural creativity can do more than enrich the places we inhabit today. It can also lay the groundwork for future generations to tell Vietnam’s story in the language of their own time./.
Event information
● Event: San Dinh S.T.U.D.I.O – Studio Talk #01 × Snøhetta: Stories Behind the Practice
● Theme: Shared Culture, Collective Futures
● Date and time: 8:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m., Saturday, November 7, 2026
● Venue: Grand Ballroom, Ascott Tay Ho Hanoi, 58 Tay Ho Street, Hanoi, Vietnam
● Speakers: Architect Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, Founding partner of Snøhetta, and Architect Richard Wood, Managing Director of Snøhetta Asia
● Organizer: Sun Group’s Design Management Board, with support from universities and design firms across Vietnam
● Registration: https://forms.gle/3e1AsJF4KPhybQsz5
