The official opening ceremony of the international Urbanism and Architecture Biennale (UABB) took place in Shenzhen on 4 December. For the first time Russia was presented by its own Pavilion dedicated to the projects on adaptation to the new use of industrial areas. The Pavilion was prepared by the Union of Russian Architects, Tochka Rosta City Development Agency and Asadov Architectural Studio. The Pavilion commissioner is Jemal Surmanidze and the exposition supervisors are Andrey Asadov and Nikita Asadov.

UABB held in the most developed and open to the world region of China is a unique exhibition entirely dedicated to the urbanism problems. Every year one of the city industrial areas to be reconstructed is chosen to be the venue of the Biennale and thus it gets an additional boost for development. The project is supported by the management of the special economic zone of China (Shenzhen City) and the intellectual elite of Hon Kong. Profound content, audacious approaches and solutions of the Biennale draw attention of the international professional community and mass media.

This year, a factory in Shekou coastal district not far from the passenger sea port was chosen as a venue for UABB. A separate tender was held for renovation of the factory resulted in implementation of the project prepared by NODE bureau, and its founder, Doreen Heng Liu, became one of the Biennale supervisors. Along with her, the supervisors of UABB-2015 are Aaron Betsky, Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner.

The subject of the Biennale is Re-living the Cities. The ways of reinterpretation and new use of the existing buildings and spaces are expected to be discussed during the Biennale. It introduces the experimental projects demonstrating the ways to build the future based on the existing infrastructure. The national pavilions provide the overview of the tactical urbanism best practice.

The exposition of the Russian pavilion is dedicated to development of the area using the architecture and new industries. It is based on 10 projects which formed the central exposition of Zodchestvo-15 festival, Cases in Cases, demonstrating successful examples of city space renovation, from an individual building to a town in general. The Russian Top10 includes StereoSatka project.

During the opening of the pavilion, Andrey Asadov, one of its supervisors, delivered a lecture on the Russian experience of ‘re-living’ the cities and areas. The exposition of the Russian Pavilion was awarded the top assessment by the Biennale organizers and supervisors. “It is very important that attention is given in Russia to the problem of monotown renovation. We see the enormous potential in it for development of the new economy and culture,” said Aaron Betsky. Based on the preliminary negotiations it is planned to arrange an exhibition tour across other China cities.

Biennale work period: 04.12.2015 - 29.02.2016

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