Tag: uabb | ArchDaily

Compute Isn’t Weightless: AI Infrastructure and the Architecture of the City

Jonathan Yeung — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 08:30:00 +0000

As artificial intelligence continues to disrupt sectors of the economy and reshape entire industries, institutions and individuals alike are bracing—and rapidly adapting—to the changes that machines seem to hold over our heads. Yet the more precise pressure is not simply AI altering the way people work and live, but the business models and investment logics of the companies developing these systems: the concentration of capital, the new requirements for compute, the race for compartmentalized talent, and the infrastructural footprint needed to sustain it. In the Greater Bay Area—anchored by Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong—this dynamic is especially pronounced. Government-led initiatives are actively accelerating the industry's growth, with policy and planning mechanisms beginning to translate an ostensibly intangible field into physical form: zoning updates, earmarked land, and the emergence of AI-oriented building types, from research laboratories to large-scale data centers.

9th Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Shenzhen) Explores Urban Cosmologies

韩爽 — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Curated by architecture and urban planning scholar Andong Lu, young architect Zigeng Wang and design curator Aric Chen, the 9th Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Shenzhen) continues the principle of "the city is the exhibition site, the exhibition is the practice" as the primary exhibition of UABB came to Luohu district for the first time. It was located in GDH City · Jinpi Fang (Kingway Brewery Industrial Heritage) and the exhibition opened in December 2022 and ran until March 2023, with over two hundred events held during the three-month exhibition period.

Urban Design and Research of Nantou Old Town / MENG YAN | URBANUS

舒岳康 - SHU Yuekang — Sat, 18 Aug 2018 22:00:00 +0000

The Nantou Old Town in the city center of Shenzhen, China was founded as a city over 1,700 years ago starting from the Jin Dynasty. In the past century, the ancient town has gradually vanished, while the village was constantly expanding. The exacerbation of urbanization in Shenzhen has resulted in an intertwined layering with complex pattern of the historical town embedded in the urban village, which is again encircled by the city—“village in city, city in village”.

Sky Farm / VRAP

罗靖琳 — Tue, 01 May 2018 19:00:00 +0000

China, a country where farmers accounted for 97 percent of its total population one hundred years ago, has been run by farmers for four thousand years. Chinese folk wisdom about construction is, more often than not, hidden in some seemingly “heretical” ancient books including Guanzi. Diyuan Chapter, The Book of Burial, The Book on Agriculture and Exploitation of the Works of Nature. The history of traditional rural settlements in China demonstrates how Chinese agricultural techniques have evolved. These traditional rural construction works, led by small-scale peasant economies, are multi-field and trans-scale projects that have admirably inte-grated geography, irrigation works and agriculture. This type of production-promoting compound construc-tion has captured our attention and we have dubbed it “agri-tectonic”

Village as Kitchen of UABB / ZHOU Wei + ZHANG Bin / Atelier Z+

罗靖琳 — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 22:00:00 +0000

Neither City Nor Village, As City As Village
3#/8# exhibition hall transformation is the architecture exhibition project of BI-CITY BIENNALE OF URBANISM\ARCHITECTURE (SHENZHEN) Yantian Sub-Venue: Village as Kitchen in this year. This year’s BI-CITY BIENNALE OF URBANISM\ARCHITECTURE regards Urban Village, the outcome of conflict and integration of urban and rural, as the venue. In the overlapping of urbanization from top to bottom and self-development from bottom to top, Urban Village becomes an unusual space, neither city nor village, as city and as village. This mixed space provides the more convenient, cheaper living space and service facilities for different communities.

Zhulang Huagai: A Figure for the Nantou Urban Village / NADAAA + Cooper Union

罗靖琳 — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 19:00:00 +0000

The Urban Villages of Shenzhen comprise of a series of historic cores whose presence today is precarious at best. Surrounded by the rapid expansion of the contemporary city, the dense urban fabric of these communities serves as a reminder of a past that is not so distant as it is fundamentally out of scale with the emerging forces of real estate.

Dom-Ino Pavilion / Benyuan Design and Research Center

罗靖琳 — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A pavilion called "Dom-Ino" is presented by 2017 Bi-City Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABB) - Sub-exhibition in Shangwei Village. Different from conventional buildings, this pavilion has no walls, but 24 huge iron doors. Doors can be either opened or closed at any angle by rotating, which allows the space to “breathe”.

"Floating Fields" Wins Shenzhen UABB Award And is Set to Continue Through 2016

Herbert Wright — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 04:00:00 +0000

The Urbanism\Architecture Bi-City Biennale (UABB) in Shenzhen finished in February, but at least one element of it lives on. Floating Fields, a project by Thomas Chung, Associate Professor of Architecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was installed at the UABB site at the Dacheng Flour Mills in Shekhou as a demonstration of a concept to return agriculture to the Shenzhen's bay with floating agricultural fields. The project, which forms the major landscape piece at the Biennale, received the Biennale Organising Committee Award at the event's closing ceremony.

Exhibition: Radical Cairo at the Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Architecture

Rene Submissions — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 09:23:00 +0000

The 2015 Shenzhen Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism exhibits, makes, and discusses architecture that reflects the reuse and rethinking of existing buildings, the re-imagination of our cities, and the remaking of our daily lives by design. It is be a biennale of fragments, not abstract plans; of collage, not grids; of tactical urbanism, not top-down strategies. The ETH Zurich Master of Advanced Studies Program in Urban Design – chaired by Marc Angélil and directed by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes – has investigated informal settlements in Cairo, looking into designs for affordable housing units in the neighborhood of Ard-el-Liwa.

The Evolution of Radical Urbanism: What Does the Future Hold for Our Cities?

Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 15:50:00 +0000

Earlier today in Shenzhen the 6th Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture (UABB) opened its doors to public. Under the overall theme "Re-Living the City," curators Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner of Urban Think Tank headed up the "Radical Urbanism" exhibit in the main venue. Brillembourg and Klumpner invited the exhibition participants to show how we can learn from ad-hoc and "bottom-up" initiatives for alternative urban solutions. In the following essay - originally printed in the UABB 2015 catalogue - the curators call for us to "rethink how we can operate within the city, learn from its emerging intelligence and shap[e] its outcomes to radical and tactical ends."

2015 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture

Rene Submissions — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 04:30:00 +0000

The 2015 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (2015 UABB), the world’s only biennale dedicated to the themes of urbanism and architecture, announced its highlight exhibits. Based in Shenzhen, one of China’s first Special Economic Zones, 2015 UABB will feature presentations from over 72 exhibitors from six continents who will all explore the theme “Re-Living The City”. Opening to the public on 4 December this year, 2015 UABB will take over the former Dacheng Flour Factory in Shekou, a declining factory complex built in 1980s that will be transformed into a multifaceted exhibition venue especially for the biennale.

Call for Exhibitors: 2015 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism Architecture in Hong Kong and Shenzhen

Karissa Rosenfield — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 03:01:47 +0000

The 2015 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism Architecture (UABB) has launched an open call for exhibitors. Co-organized by Shenzhen and Hong Kong, UABB is the only biennial exhibition in the world that is based exclusively on the themes of urbanism and urbanization. This year's edition, which will run from December 2015 to February 2016, will be based around the themes "Re-Living the City" and "Visions 2050 - Lifestyle & The City." All those who are interested in participating as an exhibitor should submit their proposals to the organizers of the Shenzhen curatorial team (here) and Hong Kong curatorial team (here) before June 30, 2015. See our past coverage on the 2013 UABB to learn more about the event.