bi-city biennale of urbanism\architecture (uabb) shenzhen, china
- description
Completed and put into operation in July, 1987, former Guangdong Float Glass Factory was a joint project of China, America and Thailand, with a total investment of nearly one hundred million dollars.As the biggest modern float glass factory in China at that time, this factory imported wide chute (LB) technology from American PPO company and adopted advanced production equipments to manufacture all kinds of common, dark brown and gray glass whose thickness is 2-12 centimeters, with an annual output of 2,730,000 loaded vans. This factory, which covers an area of 122,000 square meters with an overall floorage of 43,000 square meter, was began to be constructed in August,1985. The equipments were installed in July, 1986, of which the major production equipments were made in Italy, and installed by Italy International Glass Engineering Company (INGLEN). All of the production process were automatized and mechanized. Such a large-scale glass factory then was a miracle in the history of China’s glass industry so that it won Lu Ban Prize of China Constructional Projects in 1988.
In 2009, the production line of float glass was stopped. Even though the major equipments were dismantled, the remained building elements and details still kept the original imprints of industrial civilisation and venues in Shekou. The site of the venues of this UABB will be held in the main power house of the founding and molten tin bath workshops which embodies the characteristics of industrial elements most.