Running from 27 November 2025 to 24 January 2026, UABBHK 2025 will take place at the Oil Street Art Space (Oi!) in North Point and the East Kowloon Cultural Centre (EKCC) in Kowloon Bay. These urban venues will be transformed into experimental stages for public imagination, civic dialogue, and participatory design — responding to the rapidly evolving role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the architecture sector. Survey Findings Reveal Gaps in Practice and Ethics AI is rapidly reshaping architectural practice, but the profession is facing uneven adoption, limited trust, and a lack of ethical or educational guidance. Globally, 67%of architects use AI for visualisation, but more than half fear job displacement in design and rendering roles^[1]. A striking 74% believe the profession needs urgent ethical guidelines. Many practitioners describe working with tools they don't fully understand or trust—tools that may produce compelling visuals, but often lack narrative depth, cultural context, or authorship clarity. Curatorial Response: From Tools to Performance Against this backdrop, the UABBHK 2025 reframes AI not as a threat but as a catalyst for civic imagination and creative reinvention. "We chose the theme TECHFORMANCE because architecture is at a pivotal moment — AI is transforming how we design, while raising urgent questions about authorship, ethics, and identity", said Ar. Allen POON, Chairman of The Hong Kong Institute of Architects Biennale Foundation. "As AI changes how we design, we must ensure it doesn't change why we design." "Through TECHFORMANCE, UABBHK offers a cultural and civic response to the rise of Al in architecture. Rather than treating Al as a purely technical tool, we see it as a performative medium — a mirror that reflects our collective values, assumptions, and imaginations. Architecture is no longer a static product — it's a civic performance", said Dr. Jimmy HO, Lead Curator of UABBHK 2025. "We shift the focus from automation to authorship, from technology to imagination." At UABBHK 2025, the public will not be passive viewers but active participants — co-designing future cities and engaging directly with the possibilities and provocations of AI in architecture. Exhibition Highlights with Three Curatorial Visions At the heart of UABBHK 2025 are three curatorial chapters that explore how AI transforms architecture into a civic performance: real-time public co-creation, local urban narratives, and cross-border collaboration. Spanning the Oil Street Art Space (Oi!) and the East Kowloon Cultural Centre (EKCC), the exhibitions invite visitors to engage, perform, and prototype the future city. 1. Real-Time Interaction & Public Co-Creation This chapter turns the UABBHK into a participatory lab, where AI enables live, interactive design. Installations respond to movement, touch, speech, and emotion — blurring the line between creator and audience. At Oi!, Prompt [Pond]ering transforms keywords into speculative architecture, while AR-driven Bamboo Architecture projects full-scale holograms of bamboo structures. At EKCC, works like Sentient Mirror, Sketches in Motion, and Architecture Blind Box translate visitors' gestures, feelings, and tactile input into dynamic spatial forms. 2. Hong Kong Urban Narratives: Community × Memory × Imagination This chapter explores how AI can preserve, reinterpret, and reimagine the city's collective memory. At Oi!, installations such as LANdLine Project, Flower Market Imaginaries, and Reimagining Breeze Blocks invite the public to co-author stories of heritage and transformation. At EKCC, the Collaborative Ephemeral Pavilion—built from reused scaffolding and embedded with AI-generated narratives—becomes both a gathering space and a luminous landmark of shared memory. 3. Hong Kong – Shenzhen Collaboration In this cross-border chapter, experimental works investigate AI's role in shaping new urban models for the Greater Bay Area. At EKCC, Generative Futures features real-time robotic fabrication; Think BIG – cl0udbr1dge imagines drone-constructed bridges; and Exporting Aesthetics challenges conventions of authorship and identity in AI-generated skyscrapers. Together, these projects prototype adaptive, inclusive, and technologically forward urban futures. In...