Laboratory：City Curation–”City among Urban Villages” Nantou Old Town / Exhibitor: URBANUS
The history of Nantou Old Town has spanned a period of over 1700 years and played a pivotal role for the history of Shenzhen in China, while Shenzhen only is known as a “Young City” for its 30-year “Special Economic Zone” development history. Beginning in the 331 AD Jin Dynasty, Nantou served as a regional administration center, with a jurisdiction that extended across the Pearl River Delta to include Hong Kong, Macau, Dongguan and Zhuhai. Ithas been steeped in the legacies of every developmental stage of Chinese history, forming it into a heterogeneous mixture of historical town and contemporary urban village. The ancient town has gradually vanished, while the high-density urban village has continued to expand along with the rapid urbanization of Shenzhen over the past few decades. The exacerbation of urbanization has resulted in an intertwined layering of the historical town embedded within the urban village, which is transformed into today’s high-dense urban fabric different from the rest of the city. Hence, Nantou Old Town displays in a full spectrum a complete set of spatial evidence of the urban village transformations in recent history. It fully embraces its Chinese origin and Western influence, as well as the hybrid coexistence of the past and the present.
Nantou Old Town is announced to be the main venue of 2017 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABB), which is to serve as a laboratory of urban interventions. The UABB will be organically woven into the regeneration of Nantou Old Town with the aim of producing a highly coherent, tailored and seamless scheme. The utilization of various types of space, including factory buildings, streets, plazas, shops, apartments and historical architecture of the urban village, will diversify the exhibition format. It is expected to provide an opportunity to experiment on the comprehensive renovation of Nantou Old Town via the intervention of a series of exhibition spaces, art works and events, presenting a strategy of urban regeneration.
Beyond the role of being the main venue of 2017 UABB, Nantou Old Town is an ancient town interlaced with historic, humanity and topics. Combined with history, the present and future, this Special Exhibition exhibits the overall analysis in terms of Nantou’s historical origins, developing process, physical space, and humanistic culture. The 2017 UABB Curation Process is be exhibited as a part of Nantou Old Town Renewal Plan. It presents that how a biennale intervenes urban regeneration with the concept “City as the Exhibition Venue”. This Special Exhibition aims to bring focus to the topic of regenerating Nantou Old Town, therefore attracting more people to pay close attention to the urban renewal issues.
Nantou Council Hall
City Curation | “City among Urban Villages” Nantou Old Town
