Transformation of Industrial Heritage based on the Concept of Ecology

-- Case Study of Guibei Industrial Land in Wuhan

Dan Mengwei Li Kexuan Zhan,Qingming Wang,Jiangping School of Urban Design

Wuhan University Wuhan, China

danmengwei@126.com likexuan911@yahoo.cn qmzhan@whu.edu.cn whwjp@126.com Abstract—The implementation of ecological and sustainable development is the goal of modern society's development. The paper reveals an in-depth research on the preservation and transformation of industrial heritage from the unique viewpoint of "two-oriented society" i.e. energy-saving and environment-friendly". A case study has been implemented with "the transformation of Guibei industrial land in Wuhan" as an example. It adopts the eco-design approach in terms of the five aspects of ecology restoration and regeneration of environmental system, eco-design of transportation system, ecological planning of municipal infrastructure, ecology protection and transformation of architecture, and the continuation of historical context. Its goal is to realize the ecological and sustainable transformation of industrial heritage.

Keywords-industria lheritage; eco-design; transformation; creative industry

I. INTRODUCTION Preservation and transformation of industrial heritage is

heatedly discussed at present. Wuhan, as a traditional industrial city, leaves many industrial heritages which need us to consider how to deal with them.

Industrial heritages are industrial and cultural relics with historical value, technical value, social significance, architectural value and scientific value [1]. And today in the context of industrial heritage transformation, many industrial heritages are successfully transformed into cultural and creative industry parks, such as the 798 in Beijing, the M50 and No.8 Bridge in Shanghai, etc. Creative industry refers to the kind of industry which is rich in cultural connotation and derives from human creativity and wisdom, and it's the sum of industrialized activities through technology and market operation [2]. One feasible direction of transformation of industrial heritage is transforming the large plants that were left over from industrial heritage into gathering places for artists or industrial museums.

However, in the process of development, people tended to pay more attention to the transformation of architectural forms and ignored the principle of sustainable development. Thus, we failed to take the dual elements of industrial heritage and

environment into consideration to create a more pleasant and cozier space that is closer to nature. Here, we put forward to adopting eco-design approach to transform the industrial heritage. Ecologist Sim Van der Ryn and Cowan brought up the definition of eco-design: any design forms which could harmonize with the ecosystem process and minimize the damage to the environment [3].This means that when we transform the industrial heritage, we should stop depriving the nature, and instead preserve the living environment of plants and animals, save resources and protect the environment to achieve the ecological transformation of industrial heritage.

II. THE BASIC INFORMATION OF GUIBEI INDUSTRIAL LAND IN WUHAN

Guibei industrial land in Wuhan is located in the interchange of Yangtze River and the Han River. North of the area is connected with Qiaokou district over the Han River by the No. 1 Jianghan Bridge. East of the area is connected with the old downtown of Wuchang over the Yangtze River by No. 1Yangtze River. West of the area is the Moon Lake cultural theme park and the Qintai Theatre. The study area is shown in Fig. 1.

The Guibei industrial land in Wuhan is mainly occupied by industrial land. The buildings are old, and the municipal facilities are inadequate. There also include a lake, industrial plants, some residential areas and a school. Hanyang special automobile manufacturer and 842 tape factories are scattered here. Hanyang special automobile manufacturer is located at the foot of Kameyama, which was the archaeological site of Hubei guns plant founded by the leader of Westernization Movement Zhang Zhidong in the end of Qing Dynasty. How to transform it in the environment-friendly way is the essential issue that needs to be discussed.

In my opinion, to the west the area can be regarded as the extension of the Moon Lake culture; to the east it will play an auxiliary role of transportation and recreation for the future landmark----Coast mouth. Currently, along the Kameyama there are several innovative companies and catering companies running their business. Considering the good location advantages, resource advantages, and the current

1825978-1-4577-0290-7/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE

developing trend of the area, we can make it the "center of cultural creative industry" in Wuhan, and make it the core landscape area representing the city's image and the public activities center with distinct riverside features.

III. INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE TRANSFORMATION BASED ON THE CONCEPT OF ECOLOGY

We adopt the eco-design approach as the main design method and take "the transformation of Guibei industrial land in Wuhan" as an example. We explore the industrial heritage transformation from five aspects, which are ecology restoration and regeneration of environmental system, eco-design of transportation system, ecological planning of municipal infrastructure, ecology protection and transformation of architecture, and the continuity of historical context.

A. Ecology restoration and regeneration of environmental system Industrial heritage is affected greatly by the surrounding

environment. A good eco-system can bring unexpected pleasant space among the buildings. When we transform the industrial heritage, we need to pay attention to the preservation of the environment. To the north, the site is close to the Han River, and is located at the foot of Kameyama. As it's abundant in landscape resources, we need to pay more attention to preserving and use the resources.

• Mountain As for the mountain, we need to take the policy of strict protection and appropriate development. We should strictly ensure the "green line" is not violated and the integrity of the mountain. Besides, we can modestly develop on the mountain by creating more entertainment projects. We can add an entrance and channels to Kameyama near the industrial site, thus it can strengthen the relationship between Kameyama and the site, making the mountain better integrate into North Turtle area, which can enhance the ecological integrity of the area.

• Water This site is rich in water resource. The first problem of water transformation is the treatment of the water quality and shoreline exploitation. We can improve the water quality under the theory of ecological

purification, and solve the problem of the inadequate use of shoreline of the lake. Also we could build retaining walls around the lake to create the elevation difference, and grow some aquatic plants, making the shoreline abundant in changes. Add viewing platforms around the lake and set up channels to connect with the shore side across the lake, which is win-win of achieving the ecological development of making full use of the water landscape as well as protecting the water resource.

• Vegetation The general existing green space is in good condition. There are plenty of big aged trees with diameter of more than 30cm, which mainly locate around the plants and roads. However, the vegetations are not adequately taken advantage of, resulting in the landscape waste. We should preserve and make full use of the big old trees in the area, and bring in native trees as many as possible. Also we should pay attention to the arrangement of trees, shrubs ,grasses and the arrangement of evergreens and deciduous trees in order to form multi-layered green space to restore the plants' ecological system. Besides, respectively link the green areas from the horizontal direction and vertical direction to form a green axis.

B. The eco-design of transportation system The area now falls into an evil traffic circle of "passing but

no staying". Therefore, we should know its important location advantage and follow the principle of eco-design to transform transportation .

• Two problems of motor vehicle traffic need to be solved: One is the bridge ramp. We can adopt the overhead forms, and make a green recreation area under the ramp to avoid forming a traffic island. The other is to follow the rules of planning control to connect the roads with the city's spur tracks. Also we should take the future development of the city into consideration. We should add two bus stops to cover all the area, meeting the future transport needs of the Coast mouth to achieve sustainable development goal.

• Combine the bicycle traffic with pedestrian traffic throughout the entire area to encourage environment-friendly and ecological traffic ways. At the same time, connect the pedestrian traffic system with the entrances of the surrounding attractions. In the west, it links with Qintai Theatre through the underpass, and in the south it links with the entrance of Kameyama,.

• The pedestrian traffic is divided into the ground system and the air system. Setting up overhead channels between the public areas and the industrial areas can lifts our view point and broadens our horizon. Besides, it achieves the intensive land use and saves the city space.

• As for the cable system, we can add a major landscape axis under the present cable route to offer the visitors better panoramic bird's eye view.

Figure 1. Guibei industrial land in Wuhan

1826

• Make full use of the space and channel functions of the

original air-raid shelter in Kameyama, and make it a walking channel from north to south.

• Set up subways or sightseeing bus system along Wuhan Qintai Concert Hall, Guibei area, Coast mouth, Hanzheng Street, and Hankou Road along the river in order to meet our needs for leisure, shopping, sightseeing.

In addition, in the road system transformation of industrial heritage we could develop the underground space actively and achieve intensive land use. Also we need to establish boulevards to create a good ecological environment. All of above follow the eco-design principle. Fig. 2 shows the planning layout of the study area.

C. The ecological planning of municipal infrastructure system In the process of industrial transformation, firstly, we

should realize the intensive use of energy, promote energy-saving design, and make full use of wind, solar, hydro and other renewable energy sources to improve the efficiency of energy utilization and conversion. Secondly, we can establish a better system of water recycling. In the green part, water can penetrate into the soil and aquifer, which can promote the reuse of water. The water on hard pavement can be brought together into the water storage tank, which can be used as landscape water, or water for road cleaning. These methods achieve a balance of water in the rainy seasons and non-rainy seasons, transforming the unstable water into sustainable water supply for city utilization [4]. Finally, more attention should be paid to the disposal of solid waste and other garbage, also the landfill gas control and recovery system should be established and improved.

D. Ecological preservation and transformation of individual buildings When construction, this area was for industrial production

plant area and living area, and its building form can be divided into two parts, one is single industrial buildings in large-span, and the other is low-rise residential buildings. Nowadays, except that some large-span factory buildings in the industrial areas are relatively well-preserved, the other small factory buildings and residential buildings are in poor conditions. In the premise of the protection of the original historical and cultural legacy, we should re-define, re-design and modify

the industrial plant, achieving a creative understanding of the architecture and lifestyle [5].Linking eco-design with the actual situation of buildings in Guibei District, we analyze and discuss the cost-effective high-return way of ecological transformation which can be obtained by low-skill, low-input ecological technologies.

• Making full use of existing building resources for functional replacements to meet the functional requirements of new constructions. With the re-planning in Guibei District, the function is transformed from the industrial production to artistic creation and display. Although the functionality of the construction changes significantly, the spatial pattern of the construction is still the same. The structure of large-span factory buildings is mainly well-preserved, and its plane separation is flexible, which can satisfy the new usage requirements of the buildings after the function conversion. We should make a full account of spatial pattern characteristics of existing buildings, use the existing building resources to carry out a function replacement, do a relevant easy repair for existing buildings properly. By this way, we could avoid large-scale demolition to achieve ecological transformation. It is consistent with the sustainable development principle which requires low energy consumption, low input and high usage. An example of applying these ideas to the testing site is presented in Fig. 3.

• We should enhance natural ventilation and lighting capabilities of buildings, and optimize the insulation properties of buildings to reduce the building energy consumption. Generally speaking, the main building energy consumption is from the indoor lighting and temperature control systems. There are two direct and effective ways to reduce energy consumption: using natural light to provide indoor lighting instead of artificial lighting; using special ventilation designs to improve space comfort to reduce energy consumption of air-conditioner. Since the old factory plant is built in the mountain's shade side, and the construction span is too large, it is lack of internal space lighting .It relies only on natural light reflected through doors and windows on the external walls. Owing to the depth of the building has been identified and can not be changed, the insufficiency of natural light supply can be solved by means of atrium design or the irradiation of the mirror within the area. Additionally, the depth of the building plan is large, thus relying only on the windows and doors of external walls to complete the

Figure 3. A design of using existing buildings and space

Figure 2. Planning layout of the study area

1827

ventilation work of the whole building is far from enough. Wells or vents for additional lighting in the building plane are needed. These wells and vents can exchange gas with the external environment while they are providing natural light. In Wuhan summer is extremely hot and long and winter is very cold and wet. The indoor thermal environment is influenced greatly by the outdoor thermal environment. The envelopes, walls, roofs, doors and windows have the largest influence on the change of indoor thermal environment and the largest energy consumption, therefore, the energy saving project of existing buildings should be focused on the insulation measures of these items, and taking heat into account at the same time [6]. Regarding the transformation of the old factory plants in Guibei District, using new energy-saving building materials to achieve insulation and using vegetation to get shading and decrease temperature are all methods with high feasibility. An example of increasing green space is given in Fig. 4.

• Find the potential value of existing resources to improve the utilization of renewable resources. Because the factory plant was old, and the production machinery and construction equipments didn’t get proper placement and maintenance after the factory’s cessation, many devices are abandoned and became the so-called industrial "waste material." We will use these wastes to create park landscape or feature space, turning these wasted resources into treasure. Meanwhile, as a city's historical cultural imprint, these "wastes" show characteristics of urban development in each era, and they will render the city a cultural and creative center. For example, remove part of external walls, roofs of factory plant, retaining truss structure to form an active space; move machinery water pipes, metal stairs within the plant out and putting them on the main landscape axis to form a landscape characteristic; remove some of the existing roof to solve the lighting problem; open up both sides of the walking trails to form a walking trail, etc. We should make use of the potential value of existing resources to combine the industry with art to improve the utilization of renewable resources.Two examples of using existing resources and space are illustrated in Fig. 5.

• Combining constructions together in the process of transformation to avoid unnecessary waste of resources. When renovating the old plant, the original structure of old buildings needs to be reinforced to meet new seismic code, and the original decoration needs to be fitted up to meet the new use function.

Therefore, owners should be encouraged to meet the requirement of energy-saving and combine energy saving projects with reinforcement or decoration work, thus avoiding the destruction of earlier constructions built during the reinforcement or decoration process, which leads to the waste of resources [7].

E. Continuation of historical context The development of creative industries is conducive to the

protection of industrial heritage. Creative industries could maximize exploitation and make full use of preserved constructions in the premise of not destroying historic buildings and landscape, which makes contribute to the continuation of the historical context. In the process of exploration and use, the elements which reflect the development of this site would be considered to retain, so that completely undone could be avoided. In the process of replacing the function of factories and other buildings, retaining its history traces can achieve the sustainable development of culture.

IV. CONCLUTION The development of modern city has been gradually

shifted from the industrial city with high energy consumption and high pollution to the eco-city with high-energy saving and low pollution. Only by following the ecological development, could the transformation of industrial heritage achieve self-balancing of resources and energy, which is in line with the requirement of sustainable urban development in China.

REFERENCES [1] TICCIH, Nizhny Tagil Charter for the Industrial Heritage (Nizhny Tagil

Charteronlineliterature:http://www.international.icomos.org/18thapril/2006/nizhny-tagil-charter-e.pdf,2003)

[2] Zhang Jingcheng, Report of China’s Creative Industry.Beijing:China Economic Publishing House, 2006

[3] Ryn Sim, Van der Cowan S.Ecological Design,Washington D C: Island Press,1996.

[4] Li Jin, Wu Renwei, Wu Cheng, Wang Tiefei, Jiang Qi, Hu Yan, The Expression and Application of Ecological Design Taking the Design Planning of Shanghai World Expo Park Landscape System as Example ,1st ed,vol.31.City Planning. 2007, pp.87-88.

[5] Yu Kongjian, Fang Wanli, Of China's Industrial Heritage. Architectural Journal, 2006,pp.12-14.

[6] Peng Changhai, Analysis of Energy Saving Techniques for Existing Buildings in Nanjing, , 10th ed,vol.33. Architectural technology,2002, pp.750-751.

[7] Lin Zhenrong, Zhang Chenbo, On Energy Saving of Buildings in the area where Summer is Hot and Winter is Cold, 11th ed,vol.25.Guangdong Building Material,2009,pp.25-27.

Figure 5. Examples of using existing resources and spaces

Figure 4. An example of increasing green space

1828