Post-industrial area in transition - renaissance of a derelict industrial area in Beijing

Abstract

During the industrialization process early in 20th century in most of Chinese cities, heavy industries with contamination were initially located in city periphery when they were founded. But nowadays, these industrial areas gradually became part of urban area due to the rapid and large-scale urbanization and city expansion. Since late in the 20th century, with decline of heavy industries and traditional manufacturing, there has been increasing number of derelict industrial areas with great potentials to be redeveloped and integrated into the city. As for these industrial dereliction, the typical development mode in China is to demolish and then rebuild to maximize the profit of government and developers. However, this development mode may cause many negative gentrification effects and target only on certain groups of people, while the demands from the general public are being neglected. Therefore, it has been becoming an urgent need to come up with a collection of strategies both on city and local scales to tackle with this issue. The site chosen for the project is the former Capital Steel Complex, known as the Shougang Group, which was the largest and most important steel production complex in Beijing. It has witnessed the history of heavy industry development in China since it was founded in 1919, and enormous contribution to the city development was made by this huge company which has been functioning as the pillar of local economy. Due to city image and environmental concern, the industrial complex has been reducing production until it completely halted in 2010, which indicate the end of a grand age of this steel industrial area, leaving a 8km2 industrial dereliction with heritage value and huge potential for redevelopment in a strategic location in western Beijing. The objective is to develop a collection of strategies for redeveloping this site that will balance the preservation of industrial heritage and implementation of new urban functions in a ecological way, and at the same time meet the emerging demands both from city and local perspectives. This will be realized by creating a new centrality in the site identified as the CRD (Cultural & Recreational District)- expectation from government. The approach is culture-led regeneration in this large brownfield, namely, culture will be catalyst for new development and generate new economy related to culture and creative industries. During the regeneration process, the concept of positive gentrification will be introduced to guarantee the benefit of public, promoting social equality in this decaying area in problematic condition left by post-industrialism.