Bi-City UABB, or "Biennale of Two Cities", Shenzhen and Hong Kong, is being held for the sixth time this year, it is not very well known in Russia and our country is participating in it for the first time. The Russian exposition was organized by the Union of Architects of Russia, the Urban Development Agency "Growth Point" and the Asadov Architectural Bureau, which showed at the Biennale a project already tested in Moscow at the October "Architecture" in the Central House of Artists - an exhibition of various examples of the transformation of urban and rural spaces "New Industries", accompanying it with a large-scale panel by Yegor Orlov, who also participated in the festival of the Union of Architects. Andrey Asadov gave a lecture in Shenzhen on the experience of transforming Russian cities.
Shenzhen is the mainland "brother" of island Hong Kong, a witness and the result of a long history of the annexation of this very successful financial and industrial center to China (it passed from British rule to the PRC in 1997). It is not surprising that a couple of giant cities with a total population of more than 17 million people have been trying to comprehend their own, as well as general, urban planning problems since 2005. The Urban Biennale is being held in two cities at the same time, changing its location within megalopolises: each time it moves from one industrial zone in need of renovation to another, providing participants with brutally romantic premises awaiting reconstruction of the former workshops. But I must say that either the subtlety of the popular, but still narrowly professional topic, or the Chinese language, or something else makes this biennial not too famous and even somewhat closed - you can get to the page of its official website every other time, and the English-language Wikipedia does not even have a page about it. But there is a page on Facebook, but also with a small number of likes on the page.
This year's UABB theme is ‘Re-living the Cities’, and the main curator is Aaron Betsky. In 2008, he asked the Venice Architecture Biennale the ambiguous theme Out there, now the interpretation of his idea is not so difficult, but the topic can still be understood both as the revival of cities and as their "re-living". According to the organizers, it is about “reusing existing buildings and reimagining our cities, and changing everyday life by means of design”, the biennial should present architecture and urbanism as areas not so much “planning and abstraction” as “hunting and gathering”, collecting examples of projects that can become an example of "building social and economic ties."
Which was required. The collection of "New Industries" by Andrey and Nikita Asadovs with projects for the transformation of industrial zones, state farms and small towns from those being implemented now to completely utopian, from development to artistic, fits well into the framework of the theme, and the wide, light panels of the exposition, familiar to us from "Architecture", are excellent took root in the spacious hall of the flour mill. Of the projects shown in Moscow, ten made it to Shenzhen.
We asked Andrey Asadov, curator of the exposition of the first Russian pavilion at the Shenzhen - Hong Kong Urban Biennale.
How did you select projects? Which of the films shown at Zodchestvo ended up in Shenzhen, and which was eliminated?
- Due to the limited space of the pavilion (each country was allocated an area equal to two spans or 90 m2) we had to select the most typical "types" of renovation of objects and territories, as well as the creation of cultural clusters with the help of new industries and architecture. Here's what was included in the exhibition:
- Center for Contemporary Art Winzavod (Moscow)
- design-plant Flacon (Moscow)
- Vyshny Volochyok (exposition of the Venice Biennale 2010)
- renovation of the monotown Satka (MARSHLAB)
- Samara branch of the NCCA (building of a kitchen factory)
- cultural cluster Textil (Yaroslavl manufactories)
- Ethnopark "Land of Olonkho" (Yakutia, Bureau Atrium)
- Museum of Science and Technology in Tomsk (Studio-44)
- cultural center "Dacha" (Megabudka team)
- Prom-houses (Promotion team)
- What was the lecture about?
- I shared with my colleagues the Russian experience of “revitalizing” territories and cities, illustrated by projects included in the exposition, as well as a number of works by our bureau. During the discussion of the topic, absolutely similar issues emerged, for example, we discussed which renovation methods are suitable for megacities, and which ones are suitable for small towns.
What did you like about UABB in general? What was the most interesting and what is in the "bottom line" of the exhibition impressions, did you have any new thoughts about cities?
- Most of all I liked the very idea of the Biennale as a tool for the development of urban industrial zones. Over and over again, one of the Shenzhen factories becomes an exhibition site, subject to renovation, for the purpose of which a competition is held to rethink it into a new cultural space. Upon completion of the Biennale, the factory turns into a full-fledged creative cluster, initiating the further development of the area. In my opinion, Moscow and other Russian cities could fully adopt this experience, especially since we proposed just such a strategy at one time for the Zodchestvo festival.
That is, you proposed to hold "Architecture" in different industrial zones awaiting reconstruction?
- Yes, this idea came to us during the preparation of an exhibition tour around the country. And also in development of the theme of the past "Architecture". For the festival itself to serve as a tool for “revitalizing” and reformatting territories. As our Chinese colleagues clearly demonstrate. The idea came six months ago, within the framework of comprehending the theme of Architecture, and now, after Shenzhen, it has only grown stronger. When you see firsthand how territories are systematically renovated with the help of new industries, there is no doubt about the effectiveness of such projects.
