Recently, the first phase of the "Creative Coffee · Design Talk" activity was successfully held, which also kicked off the 7th Wuhan Design Biennale and 2023 Wuhan Design Day (hereinafter referred to as the Biennale activity).
This year, for the first time, Wuhan will take over as the convening city of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network Design Capital sub-Network, and will hold the Biennale as the host, which is of great significance to enhance Wuhan's position in the global creative cities network and build an international exchange center.
The reporter learned from the Wuhan Urban Construction Bureau that according to the requirements of the 2023 Design capital construction and the convening of the city, the location of the Biennale activities is determined in accordance with the "two-venue" mode: Wuchang District Simeitang Railway Heritage Cultural Park and Hongshan District Wusteel Yungu ·606 Industrial Park as venues to undertake the opening ceremony, closing ceremony and other activities.
What is the origin and characteristics of the "double activity venue", and how to transform the industrial heritage into an important carrier for helping urban renewal, extending the urban context, adding humanistic consumption scenes, and helping the old city to regenerate. On August 9, the reporter went into the two major venues to take a look and "reveal the plot" for you.
Sculpture "Cloud Valley"
Simeitang Railway Cultural Park
Activating the century-old railway history of Wuhan by combining the old with the new
Simeitang Railway Heritage Cultural Park is located at the Wuchang Bridge of the Second Yangtze River Bridge in Wuhan, connecting Wuchang Binjiang Business core area and Yangyuan core area from north to south, connecting Simeitang and Jiangtan Park from east to west. Its predecessor is the Wu-Jiu Railway North Ring Line machine repair workshop section, was built in the 1950s, the current building is a Grade III industrial heritage.
The park construction project covers an area of about 100 mu, involving 20 industrial relics (buildings), with a construction area of 35,000 square meters. Among them, the phase I PPP project involving Wuchang Ecological Culture Corridor includes 6 retained factories and 1 new post station, with a total construction area of about 17,000 square meters. The park is an important node of the Yangtze River's hundred-mile ecological and cultural corridor, with features built by railway tracks, pillow stones, traffic lights, trains and other elements throughout the park.
Under the hot August sun, the once overgrown factory area north of Wuchang Bridge Head, the second bridge of the Yangtze River, is changing. As one of the main venues of the 2023 Biennale, the Simeitang Railway Site Cultural Park is under construction, and the concept of protection and redevelopment is fully practiced and applied here.
In 1906, the Beijing-Han Railway was opened to traffic, and Wuhan stepped into the railway era. In August 1936, the whole line of Guangdong-Han Railway was completed. From the port city of tea trading to the bustling industrial city, and then to the transportation hub city of industrial and commercial prosperity, every time Wuhan takes off, it is closely connected with the railway. This time, Wuhan's century-old railway history will be activated and continued.
According to Zhan Guangjian, site leader of the Simeitang Railway Site Cultural Park project of the Railway Investment Company affiliated to Wuhan City Investment Group, the project takes the railway as a concrete carrier and takes the city history as the background. On the basis of fully protecting historical relics, the industrial reserved buildings will be transformed together with the surrounding buildings to become the ecological vitality center of the urban core area with railway culture as the theme.
It is reported that more than 200 units (pieces) of mechanical equipment have been left over from the entire depot, which have been used in the Wuchang ecological culture corridor and the park, and have become a new landscape node after transformation. The large rusty gantry crane has been carefully polished, waiting to be put on new clothes to create the Longmen Square; The combination of rail, pillow stone and fountain forms a dynamic rail water axis node landscape; The concrete T-beams of the 24-meter-long railway bridge will be transformed into a cultural landscape wall; Cold machinery "transforms" into imaginative cartoon characters...
In Simeitang Railway Site Cultural Park, the 1#2# workshop under reconstruction was originally the maintenance workshop of Wujiu Railway, and the two workshops are internally connected, with a total construction area of nearly 10,000 square meters. Into the factory, the thick "industrial wind" came, and the "steel bones" of the building frame and several tram cranes that had served the production line were completely retained.
Repairing the old and extending the new railway culture
Zhan Guangjian introduced that the entire project transformation adhere to the old and new, the implementation of fine construction, to maximize the preservation of industrial heritage style. From raw materials to on-site molding, every link is strictly checked, each factory is carefully crafted, and the historical traces of the old factory are preserved in the modern construction technology, and the spatial value of the industrial heritage is fully exerted.
The park entrance will have a retro platform rendering
In addition, the project will also restore the railway platform and Xujiapang railway station facade wall at the entrance of Linjiang Avenue. In order to better present the restoration effect, the landscape wall adopts the waterstone process, and the entire project has invited cultural relic repair masters to guide the sample setting many times to achieve the restoration of the old as the old.
In the future, Simeitang Railway Heritage Cultural Park will form four main business forms: cultural infiltration area, dynamic body creation area, natural experience area and maker interaction area, which will not only continue the history of old buildings, but also revitalize the city, reshape the value of the area, and become an important window to display the image of Wuhan city.
Wisco Yungu ·606 Industrial Park
Use activation to create a model of urban renewal
Wuhan Steel Yungu ·606 Industrial Park is located in Hongshan District, Wuhan City, north of Tuanjie Avenue, east of Qingwang Road, south of Industrial Park Road, west of the Third Ring Road, close to Wuhan Railway Station. Its predecessor was founded in 1954 Wuhan Metallurgical Equipment Factory, has experienced six rounds of construction, is one of the main urban area of Wuhan industrial remains relatively concentrated, relatively complete style of the area.
The initial area of the industrial park covers an area of about 100 mu, with a construction area of about 26,000 square meters. It is composed of 11 industrial plants and 2 supporting service buildings. The park is distributed with iconic elements such as water towers and gantry cranes with distinctive industrial characteristics.
Wisco Yungu ·606 Industrial Park reborn
Into the Wuhan Iron and Steel Yungu ·606 Industrial Park, I saw the Chinese fir trees planted in the 1970s and 80s of the last century stand upright, and the renovated red brick workshop is already a long window landing, in the shade of the green trees, as if to tell the "hot" history.
In the northeast corner of the park, a sculpture named "Cloud Valley" looks like a mountain cloud valley from a distance, and looks like an eggshell that has completed incubation. This is transformed from waste industrial oxygen tanks of WisCO Factory. Similarly, art works such as "Technology 606", "Frontier cattle" and "artisan's hand" made from the parts eliminated from the old workshop of WISCO can be seen everywhere in the park. The integration and innovation of history and modernity, industry and technology fill the imagination in detail here.
The industrial park was officially transformed in February last year, and 13 characteristic buildings were transformed in the initial area according to the concept of "repairing the old as the old, darning the space and perfecting the function".
The first stage of the "Creative Coffee · Design Everyone Talk" event was held on the B1 floor of the park. "The original plant here was a blanking production workshop, built in 1965." The relevant person in charge of 606 Industrial Park told reporters that the plant is now a display service center in the first area, setting up sales exhibition, marketing office and industrial souvenir sales space.
Floor A6, one of the main venues for the Biennale, was built in 1978 as a drill workshop. The field is about 90 meters long, 35 meters wide, 9.6 meters high under the eaves, and has a construction area of more than 3,000 square meters, which is the largest single building in the first area. The person in charge said that after the transformation of the A6 floor can make full use of its advantages of large span and high space, as a display office space, the future industrial park will also make full use of this venue to plan and hold exhibitions, shows, e-sports competitions and other activities.
The simultaneous transformation of the building also has the former tooling workshop, assembly workshop, argon arc welding room, etc., which have the characteristics of large span and high and empty. In the process of restoration, it is necessary not only to preserve the texture of the original building, but also to ensure its safety, which requires quite high restoration technology. While retaining the original building structure to the maximum extent, the construction personnel took measures to strengthen the beams and columns and replace the light steel roof to ensure the safety of the building. By high pressure washing and other means, the red brick wall has been restored to its original appearance. The original production slogans and some production scenes in the building are retained and reproduced through restoration and re-making.
It is understood that in recent years, Wuhan Iron and Steel Group on part of the stock of real estate resources "free cage change bird", carefully planned "WISCO Cloud Valley" brand, aimed at "plant to change the park, production area to change the city", the layout of headquarters economy, cultural innovation, science and technology, strategic emerging industry service base and other industrial functions of the group, to build a green, humanistic, innovative, inclusive friendly industrial park. To create a model of urban renewal and integration between industry and city.
