Typical case: Jinan No.1 Machine Tool Factory

· Value proposition

To redefine the meaning and possibilities of  Jinan No.1 Machine Tool Factory in modern society, to make it become the popular site in downtown area, to contribute to the community renovation and neighbourhood re-connection, and to empower the time-honoured Jinan city with new trends.

Before

 
 · History: The Past And The Present Of Jinan No.1 Factory

Jinan No.1 Machine Tool Factory is located in the center of Jinan city. Its history can be traced back to the "Jin De Hui" in 1944, which was the predecessor of Jinan No.1 Factory. After liberation, it officially became the site of Jiyi factory.

During the period of the National First Five-Year Plan, it was one of the "eighteen arhats" factories in the machine tool industry.

In the 1990s, it achieved remarkable achievement, such as the first batch of national technology centers  in China, which is a leader in the machine tool industry.

The factory went broke in 2013, however, as an "old state-owned" factory, it carries important memories and emotions of Jinan people.

· Re-think: Creating New Experience For Old Industrial Heritage

In this case, one of our goals is to keep the old Jinan No.1 Machine Tool Factory as a part of the industrial heritage as much as possible in the plan, so that the site can maintain its emotional connection with the citizens after renovation.

We are very cautious about modifying the appearance of the old factory, and we keeping the original façade form and roof outline as much as possible.

In order to meet the new functional requirements of the space, we made appropriate adjustments to the main entrance and the key commercial display areas. Meanwhile, we boldly chose the modern design language and materials for the newly added parts to emphasize and highlight. This method balances the unique texture of the brick wall of the old workshop with the modern sense of the added volume and creates a unique dramatic effect.

For the design of the interior space, in order to better show the original beam column and roof truss structure of the factory, we set the connection between the span structures as a new commercial atrium space. Then we set back layer by layer both sides to obtain the abundant internal space. At the same time, it provide us the view from different height and angle to observe and experience the opportunity to industrial heritage in the future.

We left the original equipment outside the factory and distribute them throughout the site as landscape installations to create a post-industrial landscape.

Steps of renovation

· Renovation: "Vitality Core" Explodes "Vitality Field"

Considering the location, the target customers and the future planning of the Ji'an No.1 Factory, we proposed a mode of "Culture + Business + Event" to attract customers though the Cultural and creative industries. Cooperate with different activity planning to create a continuous flow of projects.

We arranged a special-shaped volume of "vitality core" in the old factory building. "Vitality Core" comprises colourful appearance and irregular lines with strong sense of future, which will surely become the focus of building. In the future, “vitality core” can be used as a flash experience space in line with different trends and formats, to continuously create topics and improve project exposure. It not only inspires the infinite vitality of the indoor space, but also combine with the original additional part on the east side，the bent on the south side and the chimney on the west side to form a special vitality point in the site.

In the city square on the east side of the factory building along the street, we set a commercial space using the original additional part and the courtyard formed naturally，"parent child + art" as the "popularity driver" of the project. The original bent on the south side has been transformed into a new show and theatre, which will undertake a series of fashion and art activities in the future, such as press conference, walk show, performance, etc. And with the light food and beverage and outside area set up between the post-industrial park and creative office, it forms a rich formats and space scenes.

Based on the “vitality core”, we hope to activate the whole community and surrounding area to make "Jiyi Factory" to be "vitality field" of Jinan.

 

· Conclusion

After more than half a century of historical precipitation, the Jinan No.1 Machine Tool Factory still preserves its unique charm of the industrial age.

We hope that the reconstruction of this project will try to eliminate the closed boundary of the original industrial plot and create a multiple and possible urban public space, which will become a beneficial discussion and practice for the organic renewal of the city and play an important role in reconstructing the relationship between the community and the neighbourhood.

It will enable people to feel the past in the future, experience brand new city life and still perceive the collective memory preserved in the process of social changes.

Typical case: Jinan Shimao Kuanhouli

· Value proposition

Located in central area of Quancheng Road, Kuanhouli is the cultural inheritance of Jinan traditional buildings and is the community with local spring and history of Shandong. The case recalls the memories of local citizens through every detail of Jinan culture and personal experiences, reconnecting the people and cities.

Before

After

· History: The inheritance of Kuanhou culture

“Neighbours struggles for more area, even fighting for a wall; however, only generosity brings forever prosperity for families and clans.”

The origin of Kuanhousuo Street could be from the poems. It was said that, in beginning of Qing Dynasty, Kuanhouli is the place where rich and officials lived. The residents kept expanding the yard or garden for vanity, and, as a result, residents occupied the limited space of public street in order to expand own house. However, there were two families became the good example of generosity amid the environment of selfishness, and, later, the neighbours followed the example. Therefore, a street with generosity was born.  Another version of origin of Kuanhouli was that there was a charity facility, called Kuanhousuo, on the south of the west street, and then the street got its name.

· Re-think: The right image of Kuanhouli

The image of Kuanhouli is the fusion of both Shimao Plaza and cultural community, based on the three advantages of city, culture and economy.

During the process of renovation, we recovered and fixed four traditional sites and buildings.

In the phase of designing, the new buildings were relocated to avoid occupation of heritages, forming the wide area around the historical sites. Merging history into the case, both inheritance of culture and modern commerce are realised.

· Renovation: From history to centre of trends

The designers extracted good experiences from many successful renovation cases such as Taikoo Li, Xintiandi, Kuanzhai Alley. On the one side, the local traditional elements were reserved to shape the commercial space with city memories; on the other side, the various architecture styles of objects were merged to form a comprehensive style with visual aesthetics. The bold change of style with no influence to holistic effect always brings visual shock.

Being different with that of modern commercial buildings, façade of the traditional buildings put importance of separation of windows/doors. In order to avoid the cliché in similar projects and optimize the effect of exhibition, the customised styles among the stores was considered with basis of classical Chinese windows/doors, achieving the distinction and diversity in the shopping area.

Now Kuanhouli becomes the popular site with the acknowledgement that the tourists must visit, and the locals frequently come. In the past years, the average daily number of consumers once reached around 80,000 to 100,000 in festivals, and hundreds of brands operate in the area. Kuanhouli holds diverse activities for culture, shopping, and entertainment, bringing the new energy to the local community.

· Conclusion

The case merges traces of history into the various sites of local history, and the journey of looking for the historic pieces is called Spring Seeking, which means that the visitors and consumers look for traditions and myths in Jinan, the city of spring, and jigsaw of Jinan culture is hidden in the sightseeing and shopping sites.

Scenarios of daily routines are designed in each site, just like the poems portraying Jinan: singing in the moon night and eating fish and drinking in the autumn. Guiding by the daily scenarios, the visitors and consumers experiences the very locally traditional life in Jinan.

Collecting memories of local citizens with local details: birth and growth here, joy and sadness here; the memories with personal experiences reconnects the people and the city.

03 Cultural Innovation

Typical case: Shenzhen Shimao Shenzhen-Hong Kong International Centre

As the representative project of Shimao Commercial Centre, the core product line of Shimao Commercial, the project owns the key word of "new": the target customer group is the "New Middle-Class Youth" who pursue quality of life, dare new things, and are delightful to share; with "New Idea" shaping new commercial space and with unique portfolio of brands, quality content, diverse scenario-designing and immersive inaction, the project is committed to fulfil the incremental "New Demand" of better life of people, and combines future life vision and innovative development of city.

Shenzhen Shimao Shenzhen-Hong Kong International Centre not only introduces business disruption in the whole region, but also marks a proactive exploration of PPP-based utility construction. The project includes Shenzhen Terraces (or called Universiade Culture and Art Park), a co-constructed utility with local government, which contains over 20 functional spaces such as art museum, exhibition centre, entertainment centre, youth innovation centre, library, museum, dream theatre, etc. Once completion, the Shenzhen Terraces will become the cultural hub of whole region and accelerate the local cultural development in the Shenzhen.