Anna Zhao

    anna.whizh@yahoo.com

    A CONVERSATIONAL lecture event themed “My Shenzhen” will be held as the second of the three PechaKucha Night events during the Bi-City Urbanism\Architecture Biennale (UABB) on Saturday night in Shekou, Nanshan District.

    Organized by Riptide company, the event will have eight professionals from design and art circles share various points of view on Shenzhen’s development and their stories in the city.

    All the speakers will give a fixed brief session of six minutes and 40 seconds for their speeches accompanied with pictures elaborating their views, with the audience invited to ask questions and discuss.

    The Saturday night event will invite opinions on architectural and landscape designs in the city. Conversations may cross from the boundaries of design to issues concerning the humanistic and ecological environment of urban cities.

    Questions will be raised for open discussions, for example, on the clashes between urban architectural designs with its landscapes, how to improve the current situation and what should be preserved in the process of urban renovation.

    Originated in Tokyo in February 2003, PechaKucha Night is an event for young designers to meet, connect and show their work in public.

    Michael Patte, the initiator of the event in Shenzhen, said he intends to make the event a dynamic platform of creative communications and inspiring speeches by open-minded people in the city. As a designer himself, he said when the event started six years ago in Shenzhen it had limited speakers and audience but now more people, not just designers, are sharing their ideas.

    “It offers the opportunity for new ideas to be presented live to an audience as well as a broader Internet community in China and all around the world,” Patte said. “We want to learn the critical views from speakers and receive refreshing ideas from them. We hope all people could participate in the design of a city, not only designers.”

    PechaKucha Night had its first UABB event at the end of December on stories of Shekou. A third event on the topic “My City” will be held Feb. 15.

    The speeches will be published in most popular Chinese and international video sharing websites and the global PechaKucha website: www.pechakucha.org.

    Date: 4:30-6:30 p.m., Jan. 18

    Add: Value Factory of UABB, Shekou (Former Guangdong Float Glass Factory), 8 Haiwan Road, Nanshan District (南山区蛇口海湾路8号)

    Bus: 226 (Bolichang Stop 玻璃厂站)