Editing RAMa 2025 Shanghai Architecture Biennial (section)

== Challenges & Reception ==

=== Challenges ===

* '''Environmental constraints''': Outdoor installations are susceptible to weather, humidity, and maintenance demands; some works (e.g. moss installations) struggle under urban environmental stress.
* '''Temporality vs permanence''': While the emphasis on ephemeral, light design is core to the concept, the question remains whether these gestures catalyze lasting change or fade without follow-up.
* '''Stakeholder buy-in''': Persuading private landowners or municipal actors to adopt more generous public design is a long game; an event alone may not shift entrenched policies.
* '''Balancing ambition with modesty''': The curatorial strategy eschews grand narratives; some critics might see it as lacking in scale or vision.

=== Early Reception ===
Critics have praised the biennial’s '''humble ambitions''', noting how it sidesteps the tendency toward spectacle in favor of '''practical gestures''' in urban life. The drinking fountain piece, in particular, has been singled out as a “charismatic and useful public realm upgrade” with strong relevance to civic infrastructure.

Observers also note how the biennial leverages diplomacy — rather than critique — to potentially influence site stakeholders: by creating small acts of generosity as proof-of-concept, the exhibition aims to seed broader shifts in urban policy.