On 9th September Dr Giulia Setti presented her research on Strategies for architectural modifications in reuse of industrial fabric. She is an architect with a PhD in Urban and Architectural Studies from the Polytechnic of Milan, and currently she is a teaching Fellow at CEPT University. Her research focuses on urban regeneration of industrial tissues by developing design strategies that refashion the existing architecture with a new parallel purpose.
This article conveys the author’s understanding of the research presented by Dr Giulia Setti.
Compared to restoration, razing the old and developing new is more lucrative to developers. But it wipes out the memoir, style, and the reminiscence. While refashioning with effective re-purposing can portray the memoir and coalesce it with the present. For example, High Line Park in New York was built on the elevated portion of West Side Rail and serves as a green belt along lower west Manhattan. In Europe, the economic crisis during the eighties caused mass shutdowns and consequent abandonment of industrial facilities.
These crumbling facilities, once situated on the outskirts, have now been engulfed by expanding cities. But in an abandoned state, these spaces are just voids that fragment the urban fabric.
In developing countries, this scenario is yet to emerge, but in developed countries, this is an exigent issue that needs to be addressed.
Factory as a symbol of heritage might seem skeptical at first, but with spaces which were once iconic but now abandoned, like Weapon factories built in Berlin during World War II, it becomes necessary to integrate these voids within the urban fabric and simultaneously retain the heritage. For instance In Pirelli Milan during the urban regeneration in Bicocca Area, Pirelli Group office building was built as an architectural frame around the rehabilitated relics of a cooling tower.
Each regeneration project is unique although they follow a general timeline beginning with the abandonment and followed by waiting period and then modification for regeneration from abandoned space to consolidation and ultimately densification within the urban fabric.
Degrees of refraction complicate scenarios; for example in Detroit, demolition of industrial voids resulted in a shrinking city with a design problem. Contaminated premises, deteriorated structural systems and contextual design are some of the general issues. Although the first instrument is to use urban design to redefine the landscape, new purpose needs to complement or amalgamate with the existing fabric. Thus contextual factors like surroundings, location, perceived value, available infrastructure, condition of the industrial facility itself and sometimes private or government interventions play a significant role.
Proper understanding of the existing state is important for strategic intervention.
First step is to identify the level of decay to opt between new project or modification. Industrial ruins located remotely and deteriorated beyond the threshold of re-use can be preserved as memoir.
For example in Landschaftspark Duisburg, Germany ruins of a coal and steel production plant have been re-designed as a public park to portray the productive history. Apart from the level of decay, it is important to recognise the existing degree of disposal; i.e., initial phase of abandonment, completely abandoned, already re-used, re-conservation or new project. In case the alternative of industrial re-use is not feasible, the existing industrial structures are modified to serve a new purpose. Mapping is a critical exercise for identification and evaluation of contextual factors which influence yielding of a new purpose i.e. residential, commercial or recreational. As a part of the Paris urban renewal project, a 600 meters long warehouse at Boulevard MacDonald is being transformed into retail and housing space by modifying layouts and elevations; both purpose and design integrate with the urban milieu. If the exterior modification is not needed then the interior can be modified to cater a new purpose, like the N10-Eiras indoor sport facility at Coimbra, Portugal. New purpose can also be generated by adding new layers or volumes that redefine the public realm, like the Museum of Photography in Edinburgh.
Though the fabric can be modified or re-used in a variety of ways, but it is important to maintain architectural balance between the new and old in style and materials to retain the essence while simultaneously being coalesced with the present fabric.
This article was originally published on CEPT Portfolio.
Header Image Photo by Samuel Regan-Asante on Unsplash
Savvy Munshi 