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The Biennale officially opened today in Kowloon Park with as guests of honour Mr. Stephen Lam Sui Lung (Chief Secretary of Administration, HKSAR) and Mr. LV Ruifeng (Deputy Mayor of Shenzhen Municipal Government)! A parade brought the hundreds of visitors through the Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Taipei Exhibit pavilions joined by representatives from respective governments as the officiating guests – the Dragon Skin shivered with pleasure from all the attention! In the evening a first symposium on the concept of biennales was moderated by Tris Kee, starring Terence Riley, Huang Weiwen, Aaron Betsky and chief-curators Gene K.King & Anderson Lee. For more information on the events, check out the official biennale blog!  

Early in the morning 5 large wooden crates were dropped off in Kowloon Park, packed with over 160 carefully crafted dragon shells, still frozen from the Finnish winter they came from. Not an easy creature to tame as it eventually took 24 hands and 8 hours to force the Dragon Skin Pavilion into its (double curved synclastic catenary) shape! Special thanks to the amazing friends & students for their spontaneous help! --> On to the opening of the 2011-12 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture!  

Time moves fast as we stretch and bend ourselves into the 5^th urban dimension in a pure act of mental yoga. Evening lectures by Yu Kui and Daniel Gillen (MAD), Christoph Klemmt (Orproject) and Eva Castro (Plasma + Groundlab) cast yet another light on Architecture in China – a light so intense it knocks some of us out… On to the finale!  

A vast barren wasteland for a site, 2 hours away by car as we travel through a never ending city. Developer’s security guards scare away those curious about the virtually abandoned urban village in decay. A striking contrast with Beijing’s historic and recent icons!