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Author: Maria Paola Repellino Foreword: Michele Bonino and Francesca Governa Afterword: Lu Andong Book Design: Maria Paola Repellino Translation into English: Erika Geraldine Young Managing Editor: Jake Anderson
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CONTENTS
6
Foreword Michele Bonino and Francesca Governa
10
Introduction
20 21 23 26 31 34 38 43
The development of cultural and creative industries in China The policy discourse on the cultural industry in China The creative industry as an economic and urban driver Clusters for creative industries The creative industry and the real estate market Architects at work: new generations tackling creativity Spaces and materials Architecture for the city
51 53 56 63 68 68 74 80 86
THE ARCHITECTURE OF CREATIVE CLUSTERS Collecting icons The prototype. 798 Art Zone The model shaped on site. M50 Art District Mosaic pattern M Woods Entrance Revitalisation Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art Iberia Centre for Contemporary Art Minsheng Museum of Modern Art
97 99 111 118 118 124 130 136
Shifting scales Scaling down. iD Town Scaling up. Jinling Art Museum Variations on measure Legend Town Now Factory Creative Office Park Dahua 1935 Renovation of Kunming Rubber Factory
145 148 157 164 164 170 176 182
Bounding borders Enclosure. West Village Disclosures. OCT-Loft Renovation Wall shapes 77 Cultural and Creative Park Beijing Cidi Memo iTown Renovation of Wuzhen Beizha Silk Factory Yuyuan Road Redevelopment
190 191
Afterword On responsive experimentalism of contemporary Chinese architecture Lu Andong
198 200 208
Acknowledgements References Figure credits and list of abbreviations
FOREWORD MICHELE BONINO AND FRANCESCA GOVERNA
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In Chinese cities, that are prone to either being demolished or preserved using a traditional integrity-based approach—i.e. the reconstruction of buildings “as they were”—there is only one field in which architectural “renovation” is systematically present: industry/production. What has prompted this exception? How has it been able to trigger design experimentation and extremely interesting results in just a few short years, ostensibly without a solid background? This book illustrates a multi-year, on-site study that will try to explain this situation to an international public. From the early twenty-first century, after the famous case of the 798 Art Zone in Beijing, China witnessed the dawn of certain convergences that challenged any concept of globalisation that tried to standardise the urban transformation processes all around the world. The availability of big abandoned production areas, the development of a cultural and creative industry, and the advent of a generation of up-to-date, innovative architects, were rolled into one and formed a unique trait. It wasn’t until a comprehensive industrial delocalisation policy launched the first challenge against congestion and urban pollution at the turn of the century that the potential of the empty areas in city centres was fully appreciated. Unlike big industrial factories in the West, in China these spaces combined social, residential and production functions: Chinese danwei were ready to return to the city, without impenetrable barriers or irresolvable interruptions of the urban fabric. The economic potential of the creative industry was initially exploited spontaneously, when artists began to experiment and realised that the spaces and techniques of earlier industrial production was a golden opportunity they could convert into creative production. 798 Art Zone was a paradigmatic case; the initial informal discovery was quickly institutionalised and then turned into a model for entrepreneurial transformations and formulas throughout the country. This trend coincided with the emergence of the first generation of freelance architects in China. Returning from their studies in the West, they came face to face with the hybrid, flexible features of these areas—an ideal testing ground they could use to develop a contemporary architectural vocabulary “with Chinese characteristics,” while international studios poured their proposals and influence into big mainstream projects. Maria Paola Repellino leads the reader along the streets of several cities in China in search of these special features: the architecture she finds there boldly emphasises entertainment and communication (Robert Venturi would probably have found it interesting), but it is also dry and unmediated in its relationship with pre-existing industrial buildings. The study is further enriched by the author’s affiliation both to the China Room and the Future Urban Legacy Lab of the Politecnico di Torino, research centres that over the years have frequently collaborated on issues involving the “city and production.” The stories about the many “fun mills” in the pages that follow were verified during work and discussions with the researchers in the two groups; this exchange also reserved quite a few surprises regarding both the in-depth review of Chinese architectural culture, and its comparison with the urban legacy of the West.
Next pages 1. O-office Architects, iD Town, Dapeng New District, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, 2014. Z Gallery (LP-OOA, 2014).
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INTRODUCTION
The promotion and development of creative industries has played a crucial role in the economic transition that has seen the manufacturing industry shift from “Made in China” to “Created in China.” In the past decade this has led to the explosive growth of creative industries and their physical transposition into cities: highly specialised companies in the cultural sector have grouped together as “creative clusters” in well-defined urban environments. Often located in former industrial zones, these creative clusters have proved to be a successful way to enhance abandoned real estate in major cities. Injecting new ideas into old factories has ensured their immediate reuse and transformation, which in turn has gradually increased land value. As a result, new real estate investments—shopping centres, multifunctional complexes, recreational and residential structures—have sprung up either inside or around these areas, re-enhancing urban environments not always centrally located. Hundreds of creative clusters—arts districts, cultural areas, media bases, incubators and parks for creative industries, or fun mills—still continue to proliferate and trigger real estate enhancement strategies by reinventing important city districts. Architecture plays a key role in these sites. It has to ensure that the spaces involved are suited to the new functional, hybrid and time-variable programmes. Sophisticated architectural aesthetics have to not only underscore the superiority and uniqueness of the sites, but also exhibit and promote new images as well as renew identity. To satisfy the increasing demand for comfort and entertainment it has to create the conditions for a “well-being” in the city; by providing new leisure spaces for residents and users it also has to promote both the quality of physical space and the quality of life in the immediate urban environment. In terms of sound public-private investment, architecture must ensure rapid construction and maximum profits thanks to the immediate leasing of spaces and the gradual revaluation of the real estate in the area. Although the architecture of creative clusters is important, the physical features and aesthetics of creative clusters have not yet been fully assessed. The buildings and the consequential urban spaces have not been thoroughly studied even though they have innovative and often unusual features compared to the morphologies and typologies they introduce into a city.1 This book will focus closely on these spaces, starting with specific architectures that will be examined using an open-minded approach. How can we interpret them? What are the economic, political and design mechanisms used to build and legitimise them? What city concept is designed and built in these spaces? Can we identify recurrent features, general issues, and compositional orders and logic? To answer these questions this study will directly examine several architectures, considering them not only as documents worthy of an in-depth study due to their importance as an architectural artefact, but also as “footprints” to assist in the comprehension of the broader political ambitions and cultural and socio-economic transformations that are shaping and transforming physical space by imbuing it with new uses and meanings. This viewpoint is an opportunity to narrate places, projects and processes within
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the framework of change: when creative clusters are scrutinised they look like physical objects with certain distinctive albeit interesting and complex features; however, when queried regarding their symbolic, economic, social and political role their inertia weakens and the ensuing questions and problems go beyond the objects themselves, their present state, and location. The privileged location of creative clusters are former industrial zones built primarily during the Maoist period; they were based on the danwei or “work unit” system that envisaged a close link between the workplace and living areas.2 As a spatial and organizational model of urban Chinese society, all industrial danwei shared certain spatial and functional features. The walled enclosure running around their perimeter made them look like small cities within the city. Inside there were factories, canteens, schools, recreational and welfare structures, tall high-rises and low Soviet-style residential buildings with small courtyards where older citizens looked after their gardens or played mah-jong in what felt like an “urban village.” The boundary wall indicated the introvert nature of the place, but also reinforced a sense of cohesion and identity in the community. Starting in the eighties the danwei system weakened and was gradually reformed. With the decline of socialism, the link between the productive and residential fabric of the danwei finally broke down. Delocalised production left empty spaces, ready to be occupied differently. Generally speaking creative clusters cover part of the surface area, occupying either some or all of the blocks. The forms and methods employed during the transformation interventions reveal that several different kinds of policies and strategies were used, usually without protection constraints and planning restrictions regarding housing density and activities. Leasing rights are normally held by a single semi-public company formed by the local government, the former factory owner and private real estate companies. After the design stage, the company is responsible for assigning and regulating the lots and site management and, once built, collective facilities. This has occurred not only in first, second, and third tier metropolises, but also in small cities and villages in the remotest areas of China. Obviously with fundamental differences depending on the context. For example, compared to the first experimental prototypes with an initial more spontaneous and informal structure in cities in the north, the interventions in the Pearl River Delta area have a more marked commercial vocation. The priority objective was to duplicate the commercial success of the pioneering 798 Art Zone in Beijing and M50 Art District in Shanghai. This was the objective of the programmes for cities along the coast and in the south-west of China where these projects were more widespread and the programmes completed more rapidly than in other regions. Every implemented project illustrated possible urban renewal models and inspired increasingly innovative architectural and technological solutions which then spearheaded other initiatives in China’s less developed regions. The theory proposed in this book is that transforming existing real estate by promoting creative clusters produces not only functional innovation, enhanced infrastructures and increased land values, but is also an interesting field for architectural experimentation, one which has been exploited by numerous professional Chinese studios that have proposed innovative solutions. New sensitivities have been tested in these areas, initially involving an unusual focus on contexts, existing real estate, and enhancement through renovation. In this unique “workshop” the architectural project tackles problems of the conservation and enhancement of the past by building new narrations of traditional, twentieth century Chinese architectural culture.3 In this case architecture and urban projects are introducing into the international debate situations that do not only involve incomparable individual buildings, but require a separate, much broader critical discussion. More than any other, these sites
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make it possible to observe recently created small and medium-sized studios manned by young professionals—a far cry from the gargantuan government structures of local design institutes, but better equipped to critically interact with the requirements of the client and the context in question. Although creative clusters are a rather small part of the enormous transformations taking place in contemporary Chinese cities, they represent numerous heterogeneous projects inspired by a precise concept of the city and architecture, with high quality spaces ready to embrace new uses and meanings. They nearly always have an open functional programme merging light industry, commercial activities, public spaces and living spaces. As a result clusters can be considered as a dynamic platform that is modified by demand and opportunities and accepts uncertainty as one ingredient of transformation. This doesn’t mean that the programme is irrelevant, simply that it isn’t based on a typified, fixed, codified morphological construction. Every cluster allows the reinvention of type and morphologies, although it normally respects integration between the main buildings in the former industrial site. Creative clusters are spaces contrasting with the homogenisation of most of the surrounding urban space. In essence, creative clusters are frontier towns for the cultures of Chinese architectural project, enabling us to establish several of their distinctive traits in the last decade. This is the objective of this book. Methodologically speaking the research forcibly involved several disciplines, methods and fields of study,4 all required in order to paint a complete picture of the often difficult relationships between the architectural design, the urban design, urban planning, urban geography and the economy. Most existing studies consider the creative cluster as an object that pervades multiple sectors—socio-economic, cultural, political—and, therefore, requires a combination of diverse disciplinary approaches in order to gain greater incisive comprehension of this trend. Even in terms of scale, the viewpoint seamlessly shifts from the narrower scale of an individual building to that of the entire complex, the neighbourhood, and then the urban, regional and global dynamics that play such an important role due to the competition between new territories of the global economy. The research focused on a selection of interventions completed in the last decade to transform existing heritage into creative clusters, starting with a broad panorama of case studies which were also taken into account during this study. The trend is examined more closely in the area of Beijing, Shanghai, the Pearl River Delta and the more inland territories of China (the city of Xi’an, Chengdu, Kunming) along the economic, infrastructural and urban corridor of the One Belt, One Road initiative. The detailed description of situations in different areas of China reveals the analogies and differences in the processes, strategies and spatial outcomes used to develop creative clusters. Extensive fieldwork was performed on several occasions between 2014 and 2019 in the area of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu. I have visited over thirty interventions and systematically observed architectural projects in these areas; this has included gathering detailed cartographic and photographic documentation. The long, repeated visits to these sites were undertaken to record the gradual evolution of the spaces inside and around the clusters. Interviews were also set up with institutional actors (officials and managers), designers, artists and other professionals involved in the transformations. They provided additional information about the processes, mechanisms and strategies to design and build these spaces, thus broadening and deepening the empirical research. A study of the history of the sites was concurrently performed to collect heterogeneous material, design documents, textual and iconographic documents of the former production sites, and commercial and promotional material. The study also considered published sources including statistics about the economic impact of creative industries, government re-
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ports, local and national planning policies, reports by journalists, and a review of scientific literature. Apart from profiling the actors, the driving factors and the transformation processes, a key focus of the study was the critical interpretation of the physical space. Urban form and physical space were considered a crucial resource to study the recurrent methods used by architectural projects to reactivate—in strictly spatial terms—existing heritage and turn it into creative clusters. The processes, actors, functions and spatial outcomes characterising these transformations are illustrated for each case study in order to sketch out the adaptability and ongoing redefinition of the strategy. This book is opened by an introductory chapter—The development of cultural and creative industries in China. It problematises the development and promotion of cultural and creative industries in the political discourse and economic and urban organisation in China, but it also discusses its implications on the profession and on architectural and urban design. This section attempts to shed light on the contemporary use of expressions that include the term “industry” and “creativity” (“cultural industries,” “creative industries,” “cultural and creative industries,” “creative economy,” etc.) and to demonstrate how these concepts have been adapted to the situation in China. This part examines not only the reasons and factors linking the reconversion of existing heritage to the development of creative clusters, but also how it relates to the real estate market. It also poses several questions regarding the strategies employed and ensuing scenarios. Finally, this section describes creative clusters as fertile ground for research and action involving the architectural and urban project and outlines several distinctive traits of professional and design practices in China in the last decade. The sites in question are particularly interesting due not only to the experimental notion of city they embody, but also the many design topics they have to tackle. The core of the book—The architecture of creative clusters—discusses several recurrent methods used by architectural projects to reconfigure space. Three in particular. The first deals with the exceptional nature of architectural objects involved in the transformation of the cluster: extremely high quality and very strong expressive architec-
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tures—landmarks with a characteristic formal tone that imbue the area with a certain protagonism. The end result is often a collection of sophisticated interventions (in the same cluster); these interventions explore new formal solutions and typological hybrids and also experiment with building materials and techniques. Design focuses primarily on the elegant aesthetics of the buildings. The second method involves the search for a radical variation of scale compared to the one that characterised the industrial zone. A scale capable of hosting practices and uses that differ from those used in the manufacturing industry. This obviously involves reduction, fragmentation and miniaturisation of existing industrial spaces (usually enormous). The challenge is to find a new order compared to pre-existing logic, a new distance between the parts, and a better relationship between the infrastructures in the cluster and those around it. Architecture becomes a fertile exercise in the measurement of spaces and materials; a project to re-proportion the solid and empty spaces, volumes, and open spaces. Finally, the third method involves greater demarcation of the edges of the cluster area—a sort of distancing from the city around it. With differing degrees of experimentation the project tends to renew the model of the (variously) compact block, often searching for denser construction around the perimeter of the area, as if to mark its boundaries. These three intervention methods were identified from amongst a wide range of design experiences which in this study were associated with three main pairs of sites: 1) the 798 Art Zone, a former military factory north-east of Beijing, and the M50 Art District built along the banks of Suzhou Creek in Shanghai; 2) the iD Town, in the new tourist district of Dapeng, east of Shenzhen, and the Jinling Art Museum, surrounded by the fake old buildings of the Lao Mendong district in Nanjing; 3) the West Village in a recently urbanised area north-west of Chengdu, and the OCT-Loft Renovation in the Nanshan District in Shenzhen. All these sites differ in size, geographical position, spaces, economies, initiators, and timing and methods of the transformation. The sites range from big complexes with a glorious industrial past to smaller and less well-known locations. Some played a significant role in the expansion of
2. O-office Architects, iD Town, Dapeng New District, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, 2014. The new MJH Gallery in the site (OOA, 2014).
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the city. Others occupy potentially strategic or key positions in terms of economic growth and real estate development. Some have already experienced important changes, while others are still being transformed (with results that are not always predictable). Although they do not represent a comprehensive catalogue of the numerous situations that exist, these projects are significant because they highlight several issues that transcend the specificity of each context and become part of a debate on a much broader architectural and urban design. In conclusion, during these recovery processes to turn existing heritage into creative clusters, urban and architectural design emerges as an operational tool to construct new spaces and new narrations. These projects re-elaborate the historical memory of the site and enhance the physical traces of a past by not only transforming urban materials into territories with incredible formal potential, but also by establishing a new link between uses and meanings, capable of offering unusual urban experiences. The project was inspired by strategies of economic and touristic enhancement; it helps to imbue ordinary architectural infrastructures and buildings with a new appeal by re-weaving the threads of interrupted stories and the association of narratives. The young designers involved in these transformations merge their search for technological and expressive innovation with the re-elaboration of symbolic imageries and traditional values thereby revealing the unusual versatility that is substantially shaping the identity of contemporary Chinese architecture. Although the heterogeneous results are linked to the specifics of the context, they are normally very expressive, sometimes ironic, and always marked by boundless creativity and unconventional solutions. In the last decade, international searchlights have focused on this new generation of Chinese architects, and their projects increasingly appear in international architectural journals. However, they are no longer one-off occurrences despite the fact they still pertain to a narrow field compared to the magnitude of Chinese architecture. Instead, these experiences assist in providing a less univocal and perhaps more penetrating insight into the urbanisation underway in China and its possible evolution.
3. Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects, Beijing Cidi Memo iTown, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 2015–2016. Workers hurrying by in front of Zone A exhibition hall (XZ-ALYA, 2016). Next pages 4. Sasaki, 798 Art Zone, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 2006. Pace Gallery interior (ECSASAKI, 2006).
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1 Saying that Chinese creative clusters have not been described in books and other publications is not entirely true. The latter, however, focus primarily on the conflictual roles of government authorities in their attempt to maintain control over cultural production in these areas thanks to entrepreneurial initiatives (Zhao 2010; Zheng 2010; Wang 2008; Keane 2007; Hui 2006; O’Connor and Gu 2006; Zhang 2006). Architecture is not generally included in these studies. The same is true regarding international literature that examines the trend in contextualisations that are not specifically Chinese. In the last thirty years the notion of creative clusters in China has sparked the interest of a broad range of scholars; proof comes in the form of literature produced by multiple disciplinary fields (urban planning, geography, economics and cultural studies) spread out across several different geographical areas: Europe (see, for example, Kharnaukhova 2012; Namyslak 2012; Chapain et al. 2010; Mommaas 2009, 2004; Cooke and Lazaretti, 2008; Santagata 2002; Teo and Huang 1995; Wynne 1992); North America (Zukin and Braslow 2011; Chapple, Jackson, and Martin 2010; Vang and Chaminade 2007; Coe 2001); Asia (Zheng and Chan 2014; Kong 2012; O’Connor and Gu 2012; Keane 2011, 2009); and more recently in Latin America (Blejer and Blanco Moya 2010) and the Middle East (Ponzini 2011). In general two main research topics emerge (for a systematic review of literature about creative clusters, see Chapain and Sagot-Duvauroux 2018). The first study topic involves in-depth study on the economic dynamics of creative clusters, with reference to the theories by Alfred Marshall and Michael Porter, in terms of performance (Hellmanzik 2010; Stern and Seifert 2010; Lazeretti et al. 2008; Krugman 1991); value chain and the role of territorial factors in a globalised context (Bader and Scharenberg, 2010; Mizzau and Montanari 2008; Pratt 2008; Van Heur 2008; Vang and Chaminade 2007; Basset et al. 2002); networks and innovation locations (Chapain and Comunian 2010; Pilati and Trembaly 2007; Scott 2006; Lazzeretti 2003; Brown, O’Connor, and Cohen 2000; Crewe and Beaverstock 1998); attraction of the “creative class” (Florida 2002) and tourist flows (Richard 2011; Zukin and Braslow 2011; Pratt 2009; Currier 2008; Teo and Huang 1995). The second study topic instead focuses on the cultural and
social dynamics of creative clusters in relation to urban regeneration policies, place-making and the promotion of the image of urban spaces (Ponzini 2011; Markusen and Gadwa 2010; Evans 2009; Mc Carthy 2006a, 2005; De Frantz 2005; Montgomery 2004, 2003, 1995; Wansborough and Mageean 2000); and their impact in terms of governance (Zielke and Waibel 2014; O’Connor and Gu 2010; Catungal, Leslie, and Hii 2009; Ponzini 2009; Porter and Barber 2007; Mc Carthy 2006b; Newman and Smith 2000) and gentrification (Currier 2008). 2 During the Maoist period reinforcement of production structures was closely linked to the planning and construction of numerous danwei in Chinese cities. The danwei acted like a productive unit and space for social control, assignment of social welfare services and citizenship rights (see Bonino and De Pieri 2015; Wang 2013; Zhang, Chai, and Zhou 2009; Lu 2006; Bray 2005; Lü and Perry 1997; Bjorkloud 1986; Walder 1986; Henderson and Cohen 1984). 3 Several important texts on modern twentieth century Chinese architecture do exist; see Cody, Steinhardt, and Atkin 2011; Zhu 2009; Denison and Ren 2008; Delin 2007; Lu 2006; Xue 2006; Rowe and Kuan 2002; Denong 2001. 4 This has been the case ever since I started my research while studying for my doctorate at the Department of Architecture and Design (DAD) under professors Pierre-Alain Croset and Michele Bonino at the Politecnico di Torino. In 2013 I began to study the promotion and development of creative clusters in Chinese cities in the last ten years, and their close link with the transformation of industrial real estate. The first step was to disprove the stereotypes and simplifications that arose in the West on the heels of a few well-known cases (e.g. 798 in Beijing and M50 in Shanghai), and then rebuild an interpretation by identifying certain “tactics” of recurrent transformation and systematically comparing over thirty case studies in major Chinese cities. The study used a qualitative-quantitative methodology that cross-checked several different types of sources and observation techniques, starting with previous experiences and models, in order to complete the knowledge-gathering and interpretative frameworks. The research also developed specific representation tools to critically interpret the locations in question. Discussion and debate about the study topics was ongoing as part of the joint research between the Politecnico di Torino and Tsinghua
University: Memory/Regeneration (and relative publication Beijing Danwei. Industrial Heritage and the Contemporary City, Jovis 2015). During the project I was able to spend long research periods (a total of four months in 2014) at the School of Architecture, Tsinghua University in Beijing. I wish to extend my thanks not only to Tsinghua University, but also to the Politecnico di Torino for their institutional, administrative and financial support.
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and diversified demand (consumption) (Keane 2013). As a result policymakers consider creative clusters as a mechanism to “make up for lost time,” a tool to stimulate economic and urban development and generate numerous short-term advantages (Keane 2013). Regional and local government officials use the pretext of creating the infrastructural conditions needed to develop innovation in order to obtain advantages in terms of tax revenue and an increase in land value (Keane 2011). The proliferation of creative clusters in China is “heavily integrated in urban planning and contingent on local government support through preferential policies, assisted loans, rent relief and tax holidays” (Keane 2011, 11). In most cases, leasing rights are held by a single, semi-public company formed by the local government, the former factory operator, and private real estate companies. After the design phase the company is responsible for assigning and regulating the spaces, managing the site, providing collective services (e.g. mobility infrastructures), building work and living spaces, and constructing public spaces and green areas. Accordingly, real estate speculation emerges as the driving force behind this commitment: apart from the consumption-driven success of episodes such as the 798 Art Zone in Beijing (see p. 56–63), the increase in land value and the leasing of renovated spaces is currently the only viable business model (Keane 2011). From the point of view of urban regeneration, branding most of the projects as “creative” is a surefire way to: attract public and private investments; create real estate development and new employment opportunities for young talented individuals; and promote the image of urban areas. So while municipal authorities are engaged in transposing government directives, district officials are racing to turn existing post-industrial heritage into “creative estates” (Zheng 2010). When China approved the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016–2020) it basically proposed a strategy to revise its industrial system; its goal was to improve the use of physical and social resources and focus on more inclusive and sustainable growth. This meant that industrial restructuring, coupled with urban regeneration, became a hot topic. In recent years the establishment and development of creative clusters increasingly intersects a veritable “renewal fever”
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(Valencia 2019). Renovation is turning parts of the old fabric, and abandoned warehouses and factories, into new technological and cultural centres. The question that springs to mind is: what lies behind this trend? why are so many creative industries located in old production sites? One reason is because government authorities are applying stricter restrictions to the concession of new land to real estate companies in order to curb real estate speculation and thus limit the environmental problems caused by rampant urbanisation. Since land for new real estate development in first-tier cities is unavailable, the real estate sector has had to find other solutions; as a result it has increasingly focused on the renovation of existing building heritage. As the real estate market slowed down and the housing sector became saturated, big real estate companies added more and more new departments to their organisational structure. These departments focused specifically on developing other business models, for example by turning rural villages into luxury resorts or converting former factories into creative clusters, and then profiting from the lease of these spaces. The major issues that concerned the government most were: the bursting of the real estate bubble; the consumption of free space in big cities, and the increasingly urgent problem of revitalisation of the built environment. Another reason was the incredible speed with which whole cities, infrastructures, and residential complexes were built since the eighties. Many buildings constructed in the eighties and nineties are now obsolete or need to be replaced or adapted to new performance requirements. In addition, many of these structures were built with a short life cycle (30-50 years). As a result, the quality of most of the existing building heritage is substandard compared to structural safety regulations. Finally, another important reason is the radical process of spatial relocation of manufacturing industries outside urban centres and their agglomeration in different types of development zones in suburban or rural areas (Gao, Liu, and Dunford 2014; Liu, van Oort, Geertman, and Lin 2014); the fallout from this process was a huge number of underused or vacant lots. Between 1985 and 1997 roughly 60 hectares of industrial areas were abandoned in Beijing due to industrial relocation; over
7. Shougang, Shijingshan District, Beijing, 2019. General overview (SP, 2019).
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COLLECTING ICONS Many of the places abandoned by production have not been part of a unitary transformation project or general plan. Their transformation occurred bit by bit, incrementally, and often emulatively: first several spaces, then, in a similar manner, neighbouring spaces. It primarily involved big industrial sectors with self-sufficient work units where groups of medium-sized buildings with simple volumes stood next to big anonymous industrial structures. These complexes, with their heterogeneous architectural objects and diverse morphologies, were built at different moments in time. The individual projects added on to an ensemble of fragments all tried to achieve a characteristic formal timbre, thereby ensuring a certain distinctive protagonism. The result was a collection of objects, each representing a different idea of renovation and conservation. The goal was to let the compartment “explode” within a limited environment rather than “hold it together” using some form of homologation of the parts. One emblematic example is the well-known story of the 798 Art Zone (also known as Dashanzi Arts District). The former military factory north-east of Beijing became an internationally-renowned centre of artistic activities, art academies, exhibitions, and events linked to creativity in several sectors. Today it looks more like a theme park. The increasing popularity of creative clusters was exploited to gradually turn this site into an economic model based on commercial and recreational services. New art galleries, foundations, institutes, and private museums are springing up in the area and old abandoned structures are being restored thanks to the rapid growth of the art market.1 Today, 798 Art Zone is made up of countless fragments, physical and temporal spaces that continuously clash, are aligned and rearranged. One can get lost in the 798 Art Zone, a labyrinth of often sophisticated projects and increasingly incomparable situations that explore new formal solutions, functional distributions, and typological hybrids. It is here that Vector Architects reshaped the old industrial volume of the M Woods museum, delicately wrapping it in a metal mesh, while for the Cube Art Museum, Zhu Pei investigated the principles of versatility of space and fluid distribution and developed a broad range of spatial configurations. The transformation of the Panasonic factory as the seat of the Minsheng Museum of Modern Art, on the other hand, provided the architect with a chance to review the traditional typological museum model and also study a new morphology of contemporary exhibition spaces. Instead OMA’s renovation for the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art—UCCA, and Approach Architecture Studio’s project for the Iberia Centre for Contemporary Art, propose an experimental use of building materials and techniques, contaminated by the silent influence of parametric design and digital innovation. This method was also used to develop M50 Art District—M50, one of the first creative clusters in Shanghai; it stands out in an increasingly deliberate manner along the cultural corridor of private museums, art centres, galleries, and artists’ studios that have revamped the abandoned industrial factories
17. 798 (DAS).
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30-33. Vector Architects, M Woods Entrance Revitalisation, 798 Art Zone, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 2016. Design sketch (VA). Design sketch, perspective (VA). M Woods museum before the renovation (VA, 2016). External view (XZ-VA, 2016).
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47-50. Approach Architecture Studio, Iberia Centre for Contemporary Art, 798 Art Zone, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 2007–2008. The industrial buildings before the renovation (AAS, 2007). View of the building site (AAS, 2008). View of the building site, facade construction (AAS, 2008). Elevation and plan (AAS).
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51-53. Approach Architecture Studio, Iberia Centre for Contemporary Art, 798 Art Zone, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 2007–2008. External view (AAS, 2008). Interior view (AAS, 2008). Hall to entrance (AAS, 2008).
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57-60. Studio Zhu-Pei, Minsheng Museum of Modern Art, Universal Creative Park, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 2011–2015. Interior before renovation (SZP, 2011). Design sketch, cross section (SZP). Design sketch, longitudinal section (SZP). Lobby and atrium (QI-SZP, 2015).
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87-89. Liu Kecheng Studio, Jinling Art Museum, Qinhuai District, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 2011–2013. Sections (LKS). General plan (LKS). A view from the southeast (C-LKS, 2013).
1－1 section 1:100
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2－2 section 1:100
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50m
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BOUNDING BORDERS An enclosed plan is a principle of spatial order used to design many places that play an important role in Chinese culture. In his essay entitled The Aesthetic of the Absent. The Chinese Conception of Space Li Xiaodong emphasises that the “wall thus became one of the most important architectural elements in Chinese history, applying on as small a scale as the individual household, temple compound, palace, to as large a scale as a city: even the whole country is enclosed by the Great Wall. Architectural space is like a series of closed worlds, of complete, independent, progressively smaller units, which repeat on a reduced scale the forms of the larger units. A house may be viewed as a town in miniature, the town as a collective family on a vast scale” (2002, 98). The Maoist work unit or danwei were circumscribed spaces grouping the production, housing, and social welfare units needed for community life, de facto replicating the ancient tradition of surrounding space with walls. The enclosure was usually a solid brick wall, up to three metres high, with a limited number of gates regulating access to and communication between the building block and the environment around it. The enclosure’s main feature was the physical and social compartmentalisation of the site. It isolated the unit from its surroundings, signalling its independence; it also established the property and social status of the danwei and its inhabitants and represented the exterior image with which the work unit interacted with the rest of the city, thus providing a visible extension of the group’s identity in sharp contrast with its immediate surroundings (Zhang, Chai, and Zhou 2009). So the first step in the construction of a new danwei was to establish its boundaries, either by building an independent wall or by constructing inward-facing buildings along the edges of the area. This spatial configuration created a physical barrier protecting the centre of the area and kept out anyone who did not belong in it. In the Chinese perspective, an enclosed plan makes the site suitable and safe, enhancing social interaction and the organisation of activities inside the area. The enclosure does not have negative overtones, something that occurs frequently in the West (segregated places); instead it represents the efficient organisational model that inhabitants expect to live in. During the Maoist era the enclosure became a way to define the identity of a place or productive unit as well as establish a strong sense of belonging to a community, within an efficient political, economic and social unit (Bjorkloud 1986, 21). The rule governing the construction of a settlement involved building unitary blocks; this rule continued to be applied and became even stronger over time, e.g. the residential typology of gated community; it also became a topic for interesting experiments in contemporary design practice. Studies on the urban block also involve renovation and replacement vis-à-vis the re-compacting of the old fabric. The most representative example is the West Village completed by Liu Jiakun in Chengdu. The project celebrates the urban quality of the architectural archetype of the enclosure on a monumental scale. The
123. Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects, Beijing Cidi Memo iTown, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 2015–2016. The curved wall is shaped as the shark fish gill (ZS-ALYA, 2016).
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138. Urbanus, OCT-Loft Renovation, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, 2003–2012. General overview (WQ-URBANUS, 2012).
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The book has seen the light thanks to so many people, far too many to name one by one. I have learnt so much from the presentations and discussions I was privy to during the conferences and seminars organised by the China Room research group and the Future Urban Legacy Lab (FULL) interdepartmental centre of the Politecnico di Torino, a lab I would like to thank for having welcomed me as a member. Special thanks go to Michele Bonino and Pierre-Alain Croset with whom I have shared and discussed all the various drafts of this book inspired by the discussion of my research doctorate and the Politecnico di Torino-Tsinghua University joint project entitled Memory/Regeneration (and ensuing publication Beijing Danwei. Industrial Heritage and the Contemporary City, Jovis 2015). My thanks also go to the generous and untiring Angelo Sampieri who shared his thoughts with me while writing the book and enriched my considerations. I am particularly grateful to the contribution by Lu Andong and the comments by Alessandro Armando, Mauro Berta, Filippo De Pieri, Francesca Frassoldati, Francesca Governa, Matteo Robiglio, Marco Santangelo, Marco Trisciuoglio and Elena Vigliocco. I would also like to thank Alberto Bologna, Xian Lu, Haode Sun, Haohao Xu and Yang Ye for their help during my research. While putting together the book I was able to meet and talk with numerous professionals and visit several architectural studios; I would like to thank them all for their kindness and for sharing their time, knowledge, and material documentation that was helpful during the study. Finally I would like to thank the Department of Architecture and Design (DAD), Politecnico di Torino, and the School of Architecture of Tsinghua University in Beijing for their institutional, administrative, and financial support that allowed me to repeatedly travel to China during the preparation and publication of this book. Turin, September 2021
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