Shenzhen showcases a modern future in major urban design exhibition

Two shabby buildings in Shenzhen's Shekou industrial district stand out like a couple of derelicts, while the rest of China's original special economic zone metamorphoses at the rate of a time-lapse video.

The former Guangdong Float Glass Factory, once the country's biggest and most modern, was put out of commission in 2009 after barely two decades. Nearby, a similarly youthful border warehouse has long ceded its original functions to bigger facilities.

Now, the two buildings located just minutes away from the Hong Kong border have been converted into venues for a major urban design and architecture exhibition, an exercise which reveals a city increasingly reflective about its development while still harbouring ambitions that befit a mainland metropolis hungry for recognition.

The Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture began in 2005, the brainchild of the Shenzhen municipal government, and the fifth edition has just opened in Shekou for the first time.

The event has been held simultaneously in Hong Kong since 2007 - hence the "Bi-City" label - to highlight the growing co-dependence and problems of integration between the two places. The curatorial teams and other organisational aspects are entirely separate. This year, the Shenzhen side wins hands down for sheer spectacle as well as scale and depth of content.

The two-storey machinery hall in the former glass factory retains rows of large, concrete stubs that must have served some prosaic original function. Viewed from a circumferential walkway between the factory floor and the corrugated metal roof, the generous space recalls both the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall in London and the covered pits of Xian's terracotta warriors.