In the afternoon of Mar 20, 2017, the first press conference of Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture (Shenzhen) (short as “UABB“) held in the press hall of Shenzhen Municipal Government, China. Themed on “Cities, Grow in Difference”, the Seventh UABB will be jointly curated by Hou Hanrou, the curator and critic, Liu Xiaodu and Meng Yan, both the founding partner of URBANUS and architect. UABB 2017 will open on Dec 15, 2017 at its main venue Nantou Old Town with the support and complement of sub-venues set up in the urban villages in Luohu, Yantian and Guangming.
Tailored for the urban villages in Shenzhen, the exhibition’s theme and contents also involve alternative urbanization experience and avant-garde experiment against global context. This UABB will highlight the site-specificity of the exhibition content and, in view of the distinctive spaces in urban villages, start from topics familiar in everyday life to conduct in-depth exploration and reflection on the urban villages. The approach of implanting the exhibition into the urban village and synchronizing with the latter’s organic regeneration is to regard the urban village as a starting point to seek the new urban growth mode instead of a mere subject of renovation. The urban villages and worldwide distinctive alternative practices will be put in juxtaposed into the interaction with the urban, architecture, art and culture for research and discuss, meanwhile, present the public an imaginative yet down-to-earth exhibition venue and mobilize to the greatest degree the public’s interest and participation in the UABB and urban issues from the aspect of presentation approaches, guided tour, public education and villager participation.
