Shenzhen, China’s test bed for ideas, shares a new vision for cities - but it’s a work in progress

It was an irregular start for one of the biggest events in Shenzhen’s cultural calendar. The day before the opening of the fifth Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, held jointly with Hong Kong, an American curator, in a packed press conference at the municipal offices, denounced a major element of the government-led showcase as a complete shambles.

SEE ALSO: Hong Kong in 2050: artificial islands, new look apartment buildings and ‘urban living rooms’ says architecture forum

Aaron Betsky said the restoration of traditional Hakka houses in the Longgang area had been hijacked by the sponsor, Vanke, and turned into a theme park. The programme’s curatorial team had nothing to do with what is described in the press release as the affiliated venue, he said.

“Longgang is the opposite of what we do and I encourage you not to go there,” he said as Xu Chongguang, deputy secretary general of the Shenzhen government, sat beside him.

Betsky continued, after the nervous titters died down, saying he had issues with other aspects of the biennale. For example, the curators thought it a shame the main venue – a former flour factory in Shekou – would be demolished after an exhibition intended to focus on sustainability and imaginative urban design, he said. This forced Xu to jump in, explaining that only part of the factory was going to be knocked down.

Deviations from carefully worded scripts at government press conferences are rare, but perhaps the ad lib comments were an apt reflection of Shenzhen’s unique nature: China’s test bed for economic reform is also a city where the private sector and grass roots have been more free to dance to their own tune.

SEE ALSO: Hong Kong in 2050: we’ll all be farmers, and today’s city will be but a memory

Indeed, the theme of this edition of the Shenzhen biennale is “reliving the city”, including how cities always need organic, bottom-up activities to make it real.

“Shenzhen still misses layers of ambiguity and interconnectedness that make a real city. There are lots of skyscrapers but the palette needs to be extended,” said Alfredo Brillembourg, another curator.

The biennale is a cultural event that takes place in Hong Kong and Shenzhen every other year and, since its inauguration in 2007, has provided a rare platform for architects and designers to openly share their vision of what the future Pearl River Delta can be like.

This year, the Shenzhen government has again chosen the Shekou district as the event’s main venue. A team led by Guangzhou-born architect Doreen Liu Heng spent about seven months turning the former Dacheng Flour Factory – empty since 2010 – into an exhibition venue.

The space is less dramatic than the cavernous glass factory nearby that hosted the 2013 edition.

Nonetheless, its exposed concrete, broken windows and metal staircases beg to be explored. Apart from the main factory building, where the main exhibits are spread over three levels, visitors can roam freely around the grounds, including the cathedral-like innards of the vacant silos. As Xu pointed out, the event is not just a platform for serious, academic discussion. It is also a family-friendly “carnival”.