Industrial remains and Urban Memories
The development of Xizi Wisdom Park originated from the relocation of Hangzhou's urban industries. In 2008, Hangzhou Boiler Factory, the representative of the industrial cluster in the north of Hangzhou, moved from its original site which had been entrenched for 60 years, to Dingqiao, then a suburb. With the rapid urban development, the farmland and industrial zones in Dingqiao have been gradually replaced by large-scale residential areas, and the living atmosphere has grown stronger. The large area of land occupied by the Hangzhou Boiler Factory in Dingqiao no longer met the development of the whole area and the living needs of local people.
Since 2015, the Hangzhou Boiler Factory in Dingqiao and the neighboring area of about 21.5 hectares have successively carried out new development plans to realize the dual transformation of space and industries. The production line of the boiler factory was relocated again to Chongxian, and the old factory became "abandoned industrial buildings". The factory and its surrounding land were to be developed into a "wisdom industrial park" as an important part of the new Dingqiao Wisdom Town. GOA has successively undertaken the three phases of development in its transformation process.
The design tasks include the renovation of the old factory buildings and the new construction of the surrounding stock land. The challenges faced by architects can be summarized into two aspects: one is to avoid the homogenization and suburbanization of large-scale "industrial parks" and return to a kind of "urbanity" in space; the other is to appropriately formulate the renewal strategy of the old factory, and maintain the industrial memories while improving the land values.
Master Plan: A Diverse and Comprehensive Community
How to endow the industrial parks in the outskirts with "urbanity"? In the past, the "industrial" space was fully integrated with the town under the "compound" mode which combined workplace and residence, and provided living facilities for employees of the factory as well as other residents in the zone. The state of city-industry integration embodied in this "compound" residential model is somehow inspiring at the moment.
Based on such reflection, the architects put forward the concept of the overall planning: “it is not limited to providing a container of industries, but integrating multiple functionalities into one, so as to shape a comprehensive community.” The focus is thus on diversified functions, appropriate scale, and moderate density.
The construction of the whole 21.5-hectare land proceed in three phases, endowed with abundant functional business forms. The first phase focused on the plot to the north of the old factory, which accommodates intelligent manufacturing center, R&D center, creative offices, art centers, etc.; the second phase was renovation of the old factory, which is transformed into the combination of a warehouse store, a shopping center and a parking lot through functional regeneration; the third phase was constructed on the west side of the old factory, which should be a pilot plant in response to the needs.
With the piazza in front of the Art Center as the core, the L-shaped public axis outlines the skeleton of the entire park. The horizontal axis extends to the east entrance of the park through the public street, and the vertical axis leads southward into the shopping center in the old factory, connecting the southern commercial plaza in series. The L-shaped axis is completely open to surrounding residents and serves as the main flow line for commerce and other public activities. It links the newly-built area and the factory plot, and is also the main interface between the industrial park and the urban realm.Relying on this structure, the 21.5-hectare industrial park is embedded in the metropolitan area in an interactive manner, and it itself has become a compact block.
Factory Renewal: Function Replacement and Vitality Regeneration
The renewal of the old buildings of Hangzhou Boiler Factory is the top priority of the entire project. The old factory covering an area of about 42,000 square meters is a portal steel frame industrial building of 10 years history before being abandoned. The structure itself of the factory did not have outstanding historical values, however, it is the industrial memories behind that are worth preserving.
The architect proposed two strategies. The first is to arrange commercial functions and supporting facilities into the old factory to stimulate the land value and service quality to the neighborhood; the second is to weaken the sense of "scale" while retaining the industrial atmosphere, making it into a pleasant commercial space at a pedestrian level.
The design retains the existing steel structure and column span, focusing on function repositioning and façade reconstruction. The new functional layout comprises a Sam's Club of approximately 20,000 square meters, a shopping center of 30,000 square meters, and a parking lot of 27,000 square meters. The original roof of colored steel sheets was substituted with reddish-brown metal roofing, which incorporates a zigzag skylight system structured under the modulus of 12 meters with the “cutting-folding” method. The folding effect on the main façade echoing the jagged roof forms an empty-full rhythm to break the endless monotony of the existing street interface.
At the main pedestrian entrance of the building, the cantilevered metal folded-plates become an iconic canopy, which is separated and contrasted with the commercial cube. The implementation of all formal languages shall strictly abide by the old factory’s control lines in length, width and height, without breaking through its original contour.The shopping center has drawn on the method from commercial layout of terminal buildings, covering scattered retail boxes at the lower part with a giant whole-piece roof, blending the modern commercial atmosphere with the spatial features of industrial buildings.
R & D Park: An organic industrial garden
At present, the "suburbanization" phenomenon of industrial parks can be concretized as homogeneous buildings, unbalanced scales and cold spatial ambiance. In the case of Xizi Wisdom Park, on exploring the “urbanity” of industrial space, the architect attempted to achieve a more organic state in terms of public space pattern, architectural form and landscape stratification.
Buildings of the park are interlaced with gardens. The gardens are like cells of different sizes, interconnected by footpaths like capillary network. The gardens were scaled on the basis of the 50m x 50m plot unit, in organic forms of square, oval or L, reflecting different courtyard ambiance. The park has a circulation system with separate flow lines for pedestrians and vehicles. The multi-level walking space is composed by main streets of 15m wide, internal roads of 4m, and garden footpaths of 2m. Corridors and canopies on the first and second floors provide multiple covered space for people to stay and rest.
The high-rise buildings are distributed along the northern street, accommodating the R&D center and the intelligent manufacturing center. The independent five-storey R&D headquarters and the lower creative offices are arranged on the inner side. The tall and low buildings formed a rhythmed space.
The architectural forms in each cluster are different, following the principle of " diversity in unity". The building façades on both sides of the L-shaped public axis adopted a warm brown tone to activate the public space ambiance, among which, the art center used reddish-brown perforated aluminum plates, same as the factory façade, in an eye-catching diamond- shape.
The single building for R&D headquarters adopted the reddish-brown integrated board, demonstrating the texture and warmth of bricks. This façade material is light, flexible and easy to maintain, suitable for R&D activities.
The high-rise clusters accommodate larger-scale R&D and intelligent manufacturing activities. The design of building façades is not completely unified and standardized, but with different façade practices to reflect different buildings’ characters, in an attempt to dispel the coldness of industrial buildings. From neat and laconic vertical lines to horizontal lines full of tension, the appearance of those buildings provides orientation and identifiability for different places in the park.
The façade components absorb the construction experience from other building types and lay emphasis on the relationship with people's perception through delicate scales. Under the large division, the second and third levels are established with fine metal parts. Elements such as canopies are expressive components in the architectural appearance.
The Unintentional Success: Old Factory with New Stories
On the stock of industrial land, architects, developers and the government work together to balance the growth of economic benefits, the maintenance of cultural context and the realization of public interests, so as to build a comprehensive community. With the deepening of urbanization, the development of this area is still in process.
Team:
Planner & Architect: GOA (Group of Architects)
Photographers: GOA, SHIROMIO Studio, Hangzhou Boiler Group
