Architect Ole Scheeren has unveiled plans to build a 333-metre-high skyscraper in Vietnam's largest city, which will mimic the topography of the country's natural landscape, reported The Dezeen. Called Empire City, the building will be built near the center of Ho Chi Minh City, in a rapidly developing area on the east side of the Saigon River. It will be made up of three towers, which will rise up from a "mountain-shaped" podium. This podium will feature terraced gardens, designed to be reminiscent of Vietnam's tiered paddy fields, while the tallest of the towers will swell out near the top, to create an elevated garden, or "sky forest". "I felt we should think about the future of architecture and of the city itself, and think of ways that nature and human beings can coexist," Scheeren told Dezeen. "But we wanted about ways that nature could not only exist on the ground, but also high up in the sky," he said. "So we created a podium like a giant terraced landscape, to anchor three towers to the ground, and this landscape is then pulled up into the sky." With a height of 333 meters, Empire City will be taller than any of Ho Chi Minh City's existing skyscrapers – far exceeding the 262.5 meters of Bitexco Financial Tower, the city's current tallest building. The main 88-storey tower, called Empire 88 Tower, will contain apartments and a hotel, as well as the public observation deck and a top-floor events space, known as the Cloud Space. The podium will accommodate retail, while the two smaller towers will contain offices and homes.

Vietnam Authorities plans to build a new building for Vietnam's National Exhibition and trade fair center. From 9 designs the developer company VIN Group selected the master plan and architectural concept of the Hamburg architectural firm "GMP". The design for the main building of the trade center follows the motif of an open lotus flower - Vietnam's national flower - and, with this shape, is intended to become the unique and unmistakable landmark of the city. The new building to be built on the 128 hectare site, which benefits from good transport connections and is located to the north of Hanoi on the way to the international Noi Bai airport; in the east-west direction it is divided by a river. With a gross floor area of more than 600 thousand square meters, the future National Exhibition and Trade Fair Center to the north of the river will be embedded in a green park landscape which extends to the southern side of the river. The entrance to the trade fair will be marked by two high-rise hotel and office blocks, which are placed on either side of the access area and which are visible from afar. The first building phase includes the Trade Fair Center, which consists of a conference center and 8 exhibition halls. All buildings are grouped in circular fashion around a central open space, which is designed as a water feature with "islands" and bridges. The entrance hall is placed to the south and the support-free halls, with an exhibition area of 10 thousand square meters each, are linked with each other by a ring-shaped building called the "Concourse". Delivery yards are situated between the various exhibition halls, from where trucks can drive into the sides of the halls; the gates on the sides also serve as connections between the halls. In this way it is possible to combine several areas or separate them from each other, ensuring flexible use and making it possible to organize several trade exhibitions at the same time. In later building phases, six trade fair halls are planned both in the west and the east, which will be combined to a square overall layout shape and connected to the central buildings of the first phase via glazed connecting galleries. In addition, a trade exhibition building for regular trade exhibitions is provided in the eastern part of the site; the building is circular in plan and is placed on its own so that it attracts attention from the motorway and main road.

The government of Vietnam has constructed the world's largest dragon-shaped bridge over the Han River. Not only it is the steel bridge the largest of its type in the world, but it is covered in over 2,500 LED lights - and it breathes fire! Construction began on the bridge in 2009 and cost a reported US$ 85 million. Connecting the city's international airport and beaches, the structure simulates the shape of the dragon in the Ly Dynasty, a symbolic creature that is part of Vietnam folklore. The 166-meter-long steel arch is the longest such structure in Vietnam, with the dragon's body measuring a total of 568 meters and more than 9,000 tons in weight. The Dragon Bridge has a total length of 666 meters and 37.5 meters in width, with six lanes. The Louis Berger Group designed the six-lane bridge to emulate the shape of the dragon in the Ly Dynasty. It is also currently the only the bridge with a single steel arch in Southeast Asia.