Vietnam National Convention Center, the World's Largest Membrane Structure Pavilion, Uses PTFE Membrane Material from China

The Vietnam National Exhibition Fair Center, located in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, covers an area of 90 hectares, making it the largest exhibition center in Southeast Asia. This project is an important initiative to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Vietnam's National Day. Construction began in August 2024 and is scheduled to be completed by July 2025. In less than a year, a membrane-structured golden turtle has appeared at the northeastern gateway of Hanoi.

The National Exhibition Center includes an indoor exhibition center shaped like the Golden Turtle God, divided into nine zones, with a total area exceeding 130,000 square meters. There are also four outdoor exhibition parks with a total area of 20.6 hectares, two additional small indoor exhibition halls, and various supporting facilities... This will serve as the venue for all major events in Vietnam, Hanoi, and neighboring provinces. Mr. Tran Sy Thanh, Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee, has designated the new Conference Center project in Dong Anh District as a key project to promote the economic development of Hanoi and the Northern Red River region. Upon completion, the project will become a major highlight of the arts and will be capable of hosting international and regional political and cultural events. The events held here will create opportunities for the city to expand exchanges, connect cultures, and promote trade and tourism investment, becoming a driving force for the civilized and modern development of the city. This will be the site for important national events in the future.

The design inspiration for the indoor main exhibition hall comes from the Golden Turtle God — the Golden Turtle God is associated with the legend of building the Co Loa fortress. According to the investor’s representative, the Golden Turtle God is also one of the four great spirits of traditional Vietnamese culture, symbolizing health, wealth, and prosperity.

The roof of the main entrance of the indoor main exhibition hall symbolizes the head of the golden turtle god, while the eight secondary entrances represent its legs. The dome of the building is approximately 57 meters high, with the lowest elevation of the outer eaves at about 8.8 meters. Measuring from the outer eaves, the roof covers a diameter of approximately 375 meters. The main structure is a spatial truss system. Except for the main entrance area, the other roof sections feature radial trusses arranged by repeatedly rotating at an angle of approximately 5.93 degrees, thereby creating uniformly repeated roof partition grids.

The roof uses domestically produced PTFE membrane material, with a total unfolded area of approximately 124,000 m². The largest individual membrane panel is about 680 m², measuring approximately 42 meters in length and 18 meters at its widest point. The edges of the membrane panels all utilize uniform adjustable aluminum alloy tensioning nodes. The membrane structure project was contracted by Tiger Tech, Inc., a company based in Taiwan. The membrane material was supplied by Zhejiang Huifeng Group from China. In less than half a year, Huifeng Group provided 142,000 m² of membrane material for this project, demonstrating the strength of Chinese manufacturing.

PTFE membrane material belongs to permanent architectural membrane materials. It is a composite material that uses a unique impregnation coating and leveling drying technology to apply a polytetrafluoroethylene resin coating to glass fiber yarns. Its glass fiber filaments have extremely high tensile strength, far exceeding that of steel, and possess very strong anti-creep performance.

This project adopts the EC3/4 series TB8K membrane material produced by Zhejiang Huifeng, marking the first application of domestic EC3/4 membrane material in an overseas project. Due to the tight project schedule (6 months) and large quantity (142,000 m²), it faced tremendous challenges. In the early stage, the domestic supply of EC3/4 yarn was only about 30 tons per year, while the yarn usage for this project reached 90 tons, equivalent to six times the historical average supply. As the only domestic supplier of EC3/4 membrane yarn, CPIC (Chongqing International) made great efforts to ensure that domestic EC3/4 membrane products could successfully enter overseas markets, ultimately completing the challenging supply task satisfactorily within five months.

As the sole supplier of membrane materials, Zhejiang Huifeng has long adhered to the business philosophy of prioritizing quality. Due to the effective implementation of standardized production processes, the product quality is stable and reliable, achieving a product inspection pass rate of over 95% and successfully fulfilling the membrane material supply task. This project process fully demonstrates that through standardized management and strict quality and process control, Chinese-made membrane materials have the potential to rival internationally renowned brands.