Rural-Urban Transition: Strategies in Diversity
Monday, 12 June 2017

A conversation with the curators of the 2017 UABB - Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, Shenzhen: Cities, Grow in Difference (城市共生)

Part 1 - Welcome and Introduction

Welcome
Hans-Jürgen Commerell, Director, ANCB The Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory, Berlin - 00:00:00 - 00:04:02
CHEN Ping, Cultural Councillor of the Chinese Embassy in Germany, Berlin - 00:04:10 - 00:10:00

Introduction
Eduard Kögel, Programme Curator, ANCB, Berlin - 00:10:08 - 00:13:26
LIU Lei, Architect, and Director, Shenzhen Center for Design, Shenzhen - 0013:36 - 00:22:50
Doreen Heng Liu, Principal, NODE Architecture & Urbanism, Shenzhen/Nansha/Hong Kong - 00:22:56 - 00:31:45

Part 2 - Keynotes

Presentations
MENG Yan, Principal Architect and Co-Founder of URBANUS and Curator, 2017 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, Shenzhen - 00:00:00 - 00:09:59
HOU Hanru, Artistic Director, MAXXI, National Museum of the 21st Century and Curator, 2017 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, Rome - 00:10:05 - 00:24:56
YANG Yong, Co-Curator, 2017 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, and Artist, Founder of Shangqi Art, Shenzhen - 00:25:01 - 00:37:24

Part 3 - Panel Discussion

Panel Discussion
Jochen Becker, Curator, metroZones - Center for Urban Affairs / Chinafrika. under construction, Berlin
HOU Hanru, Artistic Director, MAXXI, National Museum of the 21st Century and Curator, 2017 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, Rome
MENG Yan, Principal Architect and Co-Founder of URBANUS and Curator, 2017 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, Shenzhen
Doreen Heng Liu, Principal, NODE Architecture & Urbanism, Shenzhen/Nansha/Hong Kong
moderated by: Eduard Kögel, Programme Curator, ANCB, Berlin

The following Invited Peers joined the discussion:
Anh-Linh Ngo, Editor-in-Chief, ARCH+ Magazine, Berlin
Hubert Klumpner, Vice-Dean D-Arch / Chair of Architecture and Urban Design, ETH Zürich / Founding Partner of Urban-Think Tank
Johannes Kühn, Founding Partner, Kuehn Malvezzi Architects, Berlin

BACKGROUND
The upcoming Bi-City Biennale (Shenzhen), starting in December, will take place mainly in an 'urban village'. It provides a unique opportunity to explore diverse visions and strategies of urban growth facing the challenge of excessive urban expansion and uniformisation of social life. The question of how to invent different but relevant ideas and approaches for the future evolution of our urban life becomes urgent. It is time to go beyond the top-down model of development and learn from the bottom-up creative initiatives of the people who inhabit this transitional reality — especially those in the 'Global South' — and their strategies of resistance and invention. The traditional focus on the centre has to shift towards the periphery and beyond to the regional exchange process, in order to include informal and new developments.