January 22, 2008 | Event Reports

The “Architect’s Dialogue” Forum, after the opening ceremony.

On Jan 9 at the Central Police Station Compound in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, was given a pretty well-done kick-off. Aimed at being a non-ad hoc sequel of the Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture in 2005, this event is sponsored by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, Government Development Bureau, Home Affairs bureau and Eric K.C. CHENG, this exhilarating three-month exhibition is the first of its kind in the city of Hong Kong. As a coordinator for the Exhibition of “REaD Beijing,” which selects and re-fabricates Beijing urban development of Beijing from 1949 onwards, by Professors WANG Lu and SHAN Jun of Tsinghua University, both were invited-participants for this Biennale, I was fortunate to have my seat in the crowded opening ceremony. Through academic connection, not only did I get a chance to do the installation of our exhibition with my student colleagues, but also witnessed the last few days of hardcore preparation before the opening of this Biennale.

Charged Infrastructures:Elaborations on the Hong Kong Zhuhai Macau Bridge.

On this big afternoon of Jan 9, inside the renovated courtyard plaza of the Police Station, keynote speeches were given by Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang, Shenzhen Depute Mayor, Chief Curator Wang Weijen, and the Biennale’s sponsors to congratulate this brand-new model of two-city joint Biennale. In 2005, Shenzhen was the sole host for such event. Followed the ceremony was a movie by a Golden Lion awardee from the Venice International Film Festival Jia Zhang-ke and vibrant and vivid cocktail party. Exhibition tours and a forum on the topic of “Re-generation/Re-fabrication� were also concurrently held. The forums were the arena for exhibitors to give a talk on various urban issues, which is one of the main features of the Biennale that will continue throughout the first week, and be carried on during several other days in February and March.

In response to the Shenzhen exhibition across the sea in facilitating the “showcase� of a lively city, this Biennale in Hong Kong including lectures, forums and free-visits, is intended to highlight the architecture and urban spaces fabricated through the interweaving of Hong Kong’s buildings. About 100 architects and designers are invited, while over half of which are local architects and authorities, the other half are emerging pioneering Chinese architects and firms including leading pioneer designer MAD, Shenzhen/Beijing-based young architectural-urbanism think tank URBANUS, and well-known Asian architects like Qingyun Ma and Yung Ho Chang, who are now leading 2 major architecture schools in the West- and East-coast of America.

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Hao Ruan is a graduate student in architecture at Tsinghua University in Beijing and a Visiting Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is interested in the different contemporary stages of architectural development and design practices concerned in China and around the world.