The Renewal of Old Projects: From Abandoned Steel Mills to Cultural and Tourist Resorts

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Through re-design focusing on cultural tourism development, the old industrial plants and mining areas were turned into new city landmarks, cultural tourism leisure and consumer complex, It is not only an important measure to boost consumption, but also fits the development needs of urban leisure blocks. If the factory is the need of the times, then the transformation of the waste plant area is the market needs. However, all the lack of consumer main positioning and precise consumer group, based solely on nostalgia and petty bourgeois sentiment for the artistic transformation are illusory, out of the market, not down to earth, the result is doomed to failure.

In the industrial era, steel mills, mining plants and other industrial bases carry the glory and dreams of a generation. With the development of the times, industrial structure is constantly adjusted, and many industrial bases are gradually abandoned. How do these industrial sites, which witness the urban development, escape the fate of being submerged by the times? Under the blessing of culture and tourism, the industrial heritage is rejuvenated.

In this paper, Bioma summarized the successful cases at home and abroad, through the promotion of cultural tourism and creative architectural design, explore the new life after the transformation of old factory.

SteelStacks Arts and Culture Park

Steel Stacks is located in northeast Pennsylvania and formerly Bethlehem Steel, Founded in 1857, the 1,800-acre company was once the second-largest steel group in the United States and built 1,127 war ships and the Golden Gate Bridge.

However, the stagnation of infrastructure construction, real estate and automobile and ship industries in the 1980s led to the steel market facing a serious situation of oversupply. The plant was eventually closed, but the story didn't end there. In 2005, Beth Works Now Bass Studio acquired the plant's iconic blast furnace and 126 acres of surrounding land from International Steel Group. The following year with Sands Group Sands to jointly renovate and develop the blast furnace area of Bethlehem Steel.

However, it seems difficult to support the new business by relying on the century-old cultural IP of the abandoned blast furnace area and the Bethlehem steel mill. In order to fully activate the area and bring in more people, the development company offered the government 9.5 acres of land free of charge, and the government lobbied the nonprofit art organization ArtQuest and PBS television stations to settle in.

The final presentation of SteelStacks Art and Culture Park is based on the original industrial heritage, Unified site landscape and new building style, at the same time the addition of overhead corridors, connecting industrial site landscape, Steel Stacks Art Park and the hotel integrated business district, the steel mill and the new community and commercial street to achieve a seamless connection.

The key part of the transformation is to plan a curvilinear path through the campus, while meeting the outdoor open space needs of both sides of the Levitt Pavilion Levett Garden Plaza and ArtQuest Center and the PBS Performing Arts Center, Under the overall plan, the blast furnace site becomes the backdrop for the public space, pushing the Levitt Pavilion Garden Plaza, which incorporates art, entertainment and activities, onto the main axis opposite the main entrance to the park.

Inside the ArtsQuest Center building, music, art and film are almost nonstop - the ArtQuest nonprofit arts organization meets each year inside the Musikfest Cafe, Funding 150 ~ 170 music performances of unlimited style, which brought huge traffic to the hotel business district, as of 2017, On average, over 1000 concerts are held each year, with 13% of the traffic generated by Steel Stacks Cultural Park, Steel Stacks has become a world-renowned art, culture and entertainment park. It has been transformed into Jinsha Hotel on the east side of the park, and has brought in new talents and created a lot of employment opportunities.

Chongqing Industrial Culture Expo Park

Chongqing Industrial Culture Expo Park is located in Dadukou District, relying on the construction of some industrial remains of the prototype steel plant of Chonggang, Covering an area of 142 mu, with a total scale of 140,000 square meters, it consists of three parts: Industrial Heritage Park, Industry Museum and Cultural and Creative Industries Park. With industrial cultural heritage as the core, it forms an integrated new industrial pattern.

Chongqing Iron and Steel Group is a large iron and steel complex with a history of 100 years. Its predecessor was the Hanyang Iron Works founded by the late Qing Dynasty government in 1890, The steel mill is not only the history of the development of an enterprise, but also the epitome and portrayal of the bumpy progress of China's steel industry. In 2011, due to environmental protection relocation, its steel production system in the old district of Dadukou was all shut down. Then it was transformed into the Chongqing Industrial Culture Expo Park, which integrates "cultural tourism and business" into one, promoting the development of commerce through cultural tourism, so that the area glow with new vitality.

Industrial Heritage Park site in 1905 Sheffield company produced 8000 horsepower two-cylinder horizontal steam prime mover and other valuable industrial equipment exhibits, A number of themed sculptures, installations and statues of industrial pioneers embody the perfect combination of industrial culture and public art.

The Industrial Museum consists of the main exhibition hall, the "Steel Soul" museum and the industrial heritage park. It strives to create a pan-museum with innovative ideas, interactive experiences and thematic scenes.

Cultural and Creative Industrial Park combines the pan-museum and cultural and creative industries organically. It is arranged in the old factory building and the newly built LOFT space in Linjiang to form a cultural and innovation industrial park. Also the industry office, experiential commerce, sports and leisure, boutique hotels, public space leisure exchange areas and other space.

Since its opening in 2019, the park has become a new Internet celebrity punch card, and many visitors are attracted to it.

Whether foreign or domestic, industrial remains are not cold steel and masonry, But the witness of industrial civilization, bearing the culture and spirit of a city, when the wheel of the times rolling forward, these industrial remains should not be abandoned by the city, but need to be through reasonable development and transformation, reactivate these cultural carriers.