FIRST HONG KONG BIENNALE

Construction frenzy may have taken hold of Shanghai and Beijing, not to mention China's hundreds of other towns and cities. But for the past ten years, Hong Kong has floated behind serenely, like a successful, rather conservative older cousin.

Still, there are signs that the city is developing something that other Chinese cities lack: public discourse. Its first architecture biennale, running through March 15, 2008, headlines a growing public interest in the built environment.

HEAVY THINGS SEEM TO FLOAT IN AIR

Somewhere between the nostalgic musings of I. M. Pei and the flickering of an independent-minded slideshow, noted Marcel Breuer expert Barry Bergdoll expressed perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Breuer's architecture: "by the end of his career, even heavy things seem to float in air." Bergdoll illustrated his point with a series of striking images in which massive concrete structures balance as if on tiptoe.

PUBLIC SPACE IN LA?

Public urban open space. In the course of one L.A. day, those four little words inspired comparisons to a dining room table, descriptions of a "third revolution," arguments for spatial justice, historical tales of the search for an R-1 residential paradise, and an examination of what being "green" means in a desert.

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