This year’s Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABBHK) puts the future of Hong Kong in the spotlight.

Themed “Visions 2050 – Lifestyle and the City,” this year’s event invites public discussion, particularly among the younger generations. The fifth event since 2007 brings together the public, the creative industries, and building professionals.

Blouin ARTINFO caught up with Christine Hawley, Chief Curator of UABBHK, to ask a few questions.

The theme of this year’s Biennale is “Visions 2050 - Lifestyle and the City.” What is particular about the lifestyle of Hong Kong, and its reflection on architecture?

Hong Kong is a unique city - it has the vestigial traces of an imperial planning system, creating a city of unbelievable density. The ability to not only build economically on immensely small footprints, but to create a living environment within such restricted space, requires a particular skill and temperament.

Hong Kong displays a seemingly organic fusion of cultures, together with an ability to be one of the most fast paced cities in the world. I am interested in how families live in their homes, in the streets and public spaces, for it is ingenious and different from my experience of city living in northern Europe.

My question is, can a critique of the city, together with the questions around critical issues of the future, not only shape the physical future of Hong Kong but produce an environment that is more ideal than the present?

The Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture has been organized between Shenzhen and Hong Kong since 2005. How does this two-city structure work in practice?

Shenzhen and Hong Kong each has its own team in organizing the respective exhibitions. However, in response to the Shenzhen’s biennale theme, “Re-Living the City,” the Hong Kong curatorial team has started the curatorial discussion by considering the bottom-up approach to thinking about the city. “Lifestyle and the City,” the sub-title of the exhibition, became the point of departure. We asked the exhibitors to consider how our lifestyle may shape the future city. What ability do we have as individuals to influence the way we want to live in the future, through choices we make every day?

It will be interesting to see how the two biennales have evolved over the course of exhibition, starting from the initial common approach to the city.

How and why did you come to the role as Chief Curator of the Bi-City Biennale?

I was invited to participate by my colleagues in Hong Kong. However at the outset I had no idea that my title would be Chief Curator. I thought I would take a rather modest, long distance view. The reality has proved to be very different. As I have been coming to Hong Kong for the last 30 years, and find it one of the most vibrant cities in the world, the opportunity to participate was very exciting.

What is your vision for the Biennale?

First, I hope that the Biennale provides a platform for ongoing discussion. I would like the exhibition to be an opportunity for the younger generation of designers and architects to think seriously about the challenges ahead.

As the biennale includes not only architects and urban planners but also film makers, fashion and product designers, jewelry makers, ceramicists and composers, I hope that it will attract a wide section of the public who might get a glimpse of the extraordinary range of imagination and design that contributes to our experience of the “everyday.”

You say, “We particularly want to create an exchange with young people, for they will be the next generation who can consider today what their future will be in 50 years’ time”. How are you intending to do that?

I have the luxury of working with young people on a daily basis who are serious, imaginative and responsible, and I know that there is a relatively short time when the “zeitgeist” of a generation can be captured.

The generation that are now in their early twenties will be in positions of authority in the next few decades. There is little time when you are in practice or the maelstrom of business to think either strategically or reflectively. The biennale is simply an invitation to imagine the future and the critical questions that need to be addressed and to present these ideas to the public for their consideration.

What should the visitor look forward to?

The sheer breadth of imagination and vision. I hope that some will understand that the “outrageous” proposal of today should be the “reality” of tomorrow.

2015 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Hong Kong) will run from December 11, 2015 through February 28, 2016 at Kowloon Park, Hong Kong.