Gongyi Chemical Plant Renovation

Design

Gongyi Chemical Plant Renovation

Bachelor graduation project
collaborated with Xiangwen Ding
2023

From the 1950s to the 1970s, China saw a surge in heavy industry, taking cues from the Soviet Union's model to enhance foundational industries such as steel, machinery, and coal, particularly in the north. This growth period lasted until the 1990s when China began transitioning towards a market-based economy. This shift led state-owned chemical factories to move towards privatization. This economic pivot also meant that cities turned their focus from heavy industries to lighter industries and service sectors. As a result, many factories fell into decline, leaving behind polluted sites, unused buildings, and a workforce facing unemployment.

The subject of this project, the Gongyi City Chemical Plant in Henan Province, is a representative and significant part of this Chinese industrial history. Founded in 1967, it once played a key role in propelling the Republic's development and its chemical industry forward. However, the plant was forced to close its doors in 2008 amidst the nation's economic overhaul. With the land severely tainted by chemical residues, redevelopment costs were prohibitively high, resulting in the plant's abandonment until 2022. This project was conceived as a transformative plan for the factory site. In the process of ecological rehabilitation of the entire area, the core section, distinguished by its industrial architecture, was preserved and rehabilitated, maintaining the period's architectural essence and spatial layouts. This area was reimagined as the Gongyi City Industrial Heritage Museum.

After the fall of industrial monuments that symbolized the development of the country, the core question of this project is how new architecture should commemorate the history of a city, especially the history of individual fates in the tide of time? Through reinterpreting the infrastructure, materials, and spaces that once served the scale of giant machinery, I explored the possibility of transforming a monument from giant scale to human scale.

Anselm Kiefer, The Seven Heavenly Palaces, 2004