Hanoi is building a unique and innovative ecosystem based on its traditional heritage.

Spaces rich in traditional cultural values, tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and traditional craft villages will be "revived" within the framework of the Hanoi Creative Design Festival 2026.

Hanoi hopes that projects, ideas, and concrete actions aimed at exploiting and promoting cultural values, tangible and intangible cultural heritage, traditional craft villages, etc., will become creative, commercially viable, and sustainable projects, where all efforts to preserve culture, innovate thinking, and develop the economy are harmoniously connected.

This was the statement made by the Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee, Ms. Vu Thu Ha, when speaking about the Hanoi Creative Design Festival 2026. She also expressed her hope that the entire creative community would work together to build a Vietnamese creative ecosystem rich in identity, effective, and sustainable, reaching new heights in exploiting cultural resources for the sustainable socio-economic development of the capital city.

Reviving unique heritage spaces.

In 2026, the Hanoi Creative Design Festival will shift from simply organizing a festival to building an urban creative ecosystem with interdisciplinary thinking, connecting visual arts - design - technology - architecture - sound - data - crafts - performance… to create a multi-sensory experience and an interactive space with an international scope.

The festival is expected to kick off with the "Creative Gathering" event, taking place in early January 2026 at Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Square and the Hoan Kiem area of ​​Hanoi, featuring a unique interdisciplinary artistic connection.

This year's festival encompasses areas such as: creative exhibitions, creative fairs, creative forums, creative competitions, creative projects, creative design awards, creative funds, and creative infrastructure.

Young people interact with artworks at the National History Museum as part of the 2024 Creative Design Festival. (Photo: VNA)

A distinctive highlight of the 2026 Festival season is the spread of creative spirit throughout the city's spaces. Accordingly, the Heritage Space (Dong Xuan Market - Bac Qua area and Dong Xuan Cultural Industry Center) will be the centerpiece of the festival. Innovators and designers will arrange and integrate heritage with creativity, piloting a model of a commercial and cultural development zone, connecting artisans, designers, and small traders to form a heritage-creativity-commerce experience route… Transforming a traditional market into a market of the new era of creative economy.

The Kẻ Chợ area (Hanoi's Old Quarter with 36 streets) is a reviving space for the "Market - Street - Craft" concept, creating "Creative Streets" corresponding to various cultural industries. These spaces include experiential exhibitions/performances/interactions connecting street life with the capital's elite craft villages.

The Future Space (a network of parks throughout the city) hosts "Creative Education - Future Skills" activities, providing a playground for students of all levels; public design spaces, international pavilions, competitions, outdoor playgrounds/Fablabs, workshops, etc.

The Ecological Space (the sandbar in the middle of the Red River) will become a testing ground for unique ideas, prioritizing landscape art, using local materials, circular design, and seasonal experiences; and researching a waterway experience route on the Red River.

Community spaces (across the entire city) will foster creative activities and develop innovative economic models with the participation of embassies, international organizations; cultural centers, historical and cultural spaces in wards and communes…

Visitors view the exhibition at the Hanoi Children's Palace, Creative Design Festival 2024. (Photo: VNA)

Jonathan Wallace Baker, Head of the UNESCO Office in Vietnam, assessed these creative spaces as not just physical locations, but places that nurture ideas, foster new collaborations, and bring communities together.

Building a sustainable innovation ecosystem.

Jonathan Wallace Baker asserted that the shift from a festival to building a creative ecosystem means creating sustainable opportunities for designers, artists, creative businesses, students, and the community. In this way, creativity will become an everyday part of urban life, rather than being confined to events.

“UNESCO wholeheartedly supports Hanoi’s creative journey and is delighted to accompany the City on its path to becoming a space of imagination, connection and innovation,” said Jonathan Wallace Baker.

As can be seen, the Hanoi Creative Design Festival has been gradually asserting its unique identity through themes deeply rooted in contemporary culture, such as: Inspiring Creativity 2021 - New Life for Heritage; Design and Technology 2022: Creativity - Contribution - For the Community; Connecting Flow and Creative Heritage 2023: Design - Community - Creativity; Creative Crossroads 2024: Dialogue between Heritage Architecture and Contemporary Art.

Continuing that tradition, this year's festival not only revived forgotten heritage, transformed creative spaces, and connected young people and the community, but more importantly, it brought together many resources, exploited potential, and promoted the creative economic development policies of the capital city.

Hanoi residents visit and experience the Creative Design Festival. (Photo: VNA)

With that in mind, the Festival will be organized to transcend the level of an annual cultural and artistic event, or a typical festival, aiming to become an urban creative institution, a place for the convergence, experimentation, and dissemination of new ideas, contributing to improving the quality of life for the people of the capital city.

The Hanoi Creative Design Festival, held since 2021, has become a unique ecosystem, a gathering place for creative resources, a dialogue between the past and the future to create a unique identity for the city. It also connects heritage with art and technology to create a creative industry ecosystem, making a practical contribution to the development of the national creative economy and international integration…

Hanoi was inscribed by UNESCO in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) in 2019, becoming the 246th Creative City in the world, and the 32nd capital city recognized in the field of Creative Design. To date, the Network has expanded to 408 members.

Since then, Hanoi has implemented many innovation and integration plans based on the principle of "Taking creativity and considering the creative economy as the core of the process of developing a dynamic, comprehensive, and sustainable city."

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/ha-noi-xay-dung-he-sinh-thai-sang-tao-giau-ban-sac-tu-di-san-truyen-thong-post1082377.vnp