The Dot Creative Factory
Project year: 2019
Status: An International Planning And Design Competition For The Urban Regeneration Of Harbin Measuring & Cutting Tool Factory
Supervisor: Francesca Zanotto
In collaboration with: Yanhan Zhu
Soft: 3ds Max, Adobe Photoshop, AutoCAD
Description: Harbin, located in the middle reaches of the Songhua River in the Songliao Plain, located between 44°04’ N to 46°40’ N, is the capital of Heilongjiang Province, the political, economic, cultural and transportation center and the largest central city in the Northeast of Heilongjiang Province. It is known as "Pearl under Swan", "Ice City Summer Capital", and "Lilac City" and so on. Harbin city prospered along the railway. In 1898, Russia built the Middle East Railway, selecting Harbin as the management center because of its important location.
In 2014, the State Council listed the Xiangfang Old Industrial Zone as one of the pilot sites for relocation and transformation among the 21 old industrial districts throughout China. Harbin municipal CPC committee and municipal government expects to actively promote the overall relocation and transformation of Xiangfang old industrial zone with the support of national policy, so as to optimize the urban industrial structure and functions, elevate the image of the city, so as to rejuvenate the Xiangfang old industrial zone.
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The mission of this competition is to find out how to scientifically and orderly carry out the relocation and transformation of the old industrial enterprises in the urban area so as to upgrade the urban functions, renovate the industrial structure, improve the regional functions, perfect the environment, protect heritage and lead in vitality again.
Above you can see the first sketches for the project, a map of Harbin, the main reference and a sketch of the condition of buildings on the site. Below is the final version of the building specification.
The former industrial identity of the area is preserved and enhanced: the external appearance of the warehouses is maintained, and industrial machineries and structures are turned into landmarks and attractions.
In response to the requests of Green Dot Competition, our proposal for the urban regeneration of the Harbin Measuring and Cutting Tool Factory is focused on an idea of growth based on the immediate well-being of humans: a culturally stimulating city, providing jobs, meeting places and high quality spaces will produce happy citizens, who are able to commit for the progress of their community, city and nation.
For this reason, our planning and design strategy for the Measuring and Cutting Tool factory is based on Creative Economy, introducing activities keeping the area lively 24 hours a day and attractive businesses providing meeting places for the citizens and jobs for young people in Harbin.
One of the problems of the city of Harbin is that young people on reaching adulthood prefer to migrate to a more developed and modernized South of China in search of work. Mainly because these cities are more active. The diverse life of nonstop Shanghai and Beijing looks much more attractive than their hometown. We know that the place of work is one of the most important points of contact with both employees and candidates.
Often, the impression of the workspace greatly affects the final decision about the work in the company and determines the settings and expectations with which the new employee goes to work.
Adaptive reusing industrial areas would provide the young group from 18 to 25 vacancies. The designed area thanks to its various functions will always have an interesting audience that will contribute to new acquaintances!
Design solutions focus on an attentive addressing of human scale needs and desires: controlling air pollution in the area, mitigating thermal peaks, providing outdoor spaces enjoyable all year round and so on.
Along the realization period – a 15 years span – the Measuring and Cutting Tool Factory will keep on working on a progressively smaller area; this area will be fenced up with modular elements, making possible for visitors to observe for the first time the operational activities of the Factory from outside, learn about its functioning and appreciate a relevant piece of industrial and economical history of Harbin. Since the perimeter of the Measuring and Cutting Tool Factory will shrink phase after phase, dismissed modules will become furniture and functional elements around the area of The Dot.
You can see all 4 competition panels below. According to the task of the competition, printing was to be done in A0 format, so the composition is quite dense and saturated with details and text.
We also made a very interesting brochure for this project! You can find it here.
THANK YOU FOR WATCHING !
