FX Design Award is an annual event which honors contract designers and design projects recognized by the Design Council as the leading awards for the contract interior design industry. Lighting Design Awards is one of the biggest and most prestigious architectural lighting competitions in the world. And Engineer Excellence Award is the most prestigious award in the field of engineer and technology which is annually given for outstanding projects recognized by American Council of Engineering Companies of California (ACEC). It is regarded as the Oscar award of engineering.
The criteria of those competitions is that projects must have unique creativity, high complexity, innovation in technique and technology, sophisticated design and the function of serving community. There are 200 projects which are selected from thousands of registering projects to give the National Award. 24 projects which are shortlisted for the next round will be given the Honor Award. The final round takes place with 8 most outstanding projects. The best will be granted with the Grand Prize.
Dragon Bridge Da Nang, which is 666 meters in length, is inaugurated last year connecting the main road with the airport and the My Khe beach in Son Tra Peninsula, and the UNESCO-recognized world heritage Hoi An Ancient Town. The bridge is designed by ASA Lighting Design Studios with total investment of more than 1,700 billion VND. The body of the dragon is built 500 meters long, using five 1.2 meter arched steel pipes which weigh totally 1,000 tones. The six-lane bridge is illuminated by 5 thousand LED at night. The most outstanding feature of the bridge is that the dragon can breathe fire from the dragon’s head on Saturday and Sunday nights every week, while spraying water during the day.
According to director of ASA, Dragon Bridge is designed to brilliantly fly onto the Han River towards the sea. Beside the main color which is yellow, the bridge can be illuminated with silver, green, and blue, all of which are inspired by the image of Vietnamese folk dragon.
At the award ceremony of FX Design Awards 2013 in London, judges commented that lighting design for Dragon Bridge is an inspirational art for a unique project. The bridge is the perfect combination of art and function. The tremendous design of a dragon flying over the river toward the sea which can breathe fire and spraying water is considered not to be found elsewhere in the world.