The southern section of Yangpu Binjiang is 5.5 kilometers, and Zhang Ming, director of the Department of Landscape Architecture of Tongji University and chief architect of Tongji Architectural Design Group, has lost count of how many times he has walked around.
"Building a city on top of a city" is Zhang Ming's important concept for the design of the southern section of the Yangpu Riverside. He was deeply involved in the design of the public space connection project of the southern section of the Yangpu Riverside. He summed up the recreation of urban waterfront space as "the rejuvenation of the shore": just as our ancestors stood at the intersection of land and water and longed to establish a close relationship with nature, people today expect the revitalization of waterfront space to bring opportunities for urban rejuvenation like a clear stream cleaning the shore.
Based on his understanding of Yangpu Riverside yesterday and today, Zhang Ming put forward the value of "taking industrial heritage as the core to create a 5.5-kilometer continuous industrial heritage expo belt".
Committed to the organic renewal of the city and the transformation and reuse of existing buildings and the built environment, Zhang Ming is good at summarizing the concept into words to convey the values of cultural relics protection, such as "sneaking along the pulse" and "renewing to history". He knows that the promotion and formation of values is even more meaningful than the completion of a major design.
Good design should reflect the present and the future by caring for the past and inheriting the historical context, so as to achieve "superimposed growth".
Not long ago, at the exhibition of the achievements of the creation of the National Cultural Relics Protection and Utilization Demonstration Zone in the Yangpu Life Show Belt in Shanghai, a number of cases of revitalization and utilization of cultural relics and buildings written by Zhang Ming's team were unveiled in the exhibition. Zhang Ming believes that "cultural relics are different from other cultural relics and should not be carefully protected in display cases like exhibits." It needs to blend in with the environment in which it is located and empower each other with it. ”
As a result, the riverside area of the former Yangshupu Power Plant has been turned into a park, where citizens can walk and drink coffee, and a trestle bridge has been built in front of the century-old Yangshupu Water Plant to facilitate citizens to enjoy the buildings up close. As a result of these changes, the historic building has been successfully integrated into the daily lives of the citizens.
Putting the protection of cultural relics in the concept of the people's city is the consistent attitude of Zhang Ming's team. "The protection and reuse of cultural relics should be combined with national strategies and urban strategies, and should be used by citizens under the premise of co-construction, co-governance and sharing. ”
History is a process that needs to be followed in the vein
The Huangpu River has nurtured the history of modern Shanghai's growth and is also the lifeline of urban development.
The comprehensive development of both sides of the Huangpu River has brought Shanghai into a new stage of urban development. In the previous 2010 Shanghai World Expo, the venue was laid out along the river. How the industrial heritage has turned around gorgeously is beginning to emerge in Zhang Ming's design.
The condensation of Zhang Ming's efforts was the Urban Future Exploration Hall, one of the five major theme pavilions at that time. Its predecessor was the main plant of the Shanghai Nanshi Power Plant, which was built in 1897. Transforming from a traditional coal-fired power plant to a green energy center, Zhang Ming coloring "green" to turn the rust of a century-old power plant into life. The generator sets and a large number of ancillary facilities of traditional thermal power generation have been retained, which have become the memory clues of industrial civilization.
"Any of your design and construction actions are not based on a blank sheet of paper, but on the basis of existing environments to build new cities. Zhang Ming said.
The Huangpu Riverside Breakthrough Project covers a total of 45 kilometers and involves multiple administrative districts. What is the biggest feature of the Yangpu Riverside Section? Zhang Ming traces the history along the riverside.
"History is not a fragment, it is a process, from the past to the present, and then from the present to the future. Therefore, we need to recognize and recognize the valuable information left over from different historical periods. If we compare the history of different eras in the past to old negatives, what we need to do is not to remove the old negatives and take a new negative for development, but to stack the new negatives on top of the old negatives, and present the richness of space, texture and history through the effect of superimposition. ”
In the process of tracing history, the designer seems to become an "archaeologist", excavating the stories and values that happened in the site. "The site of the cultural relics is like an archaeological site, you must first find out the details before you can start, and you must carefully excavate layer by layer. This is what we often say, urban renewal requires embroidery. ”
Zhang Ming summed up this practice of finding the context based on the excavation of the place as "sneaking along the pulse". He also emphasized that the object of excavation is place, not site. "The concept of place is related to people's spiritual activities and emotional value, and when we evaluate the value of architecture, we should not only consider its social value, cultural value, physical value, ecological value, etc., but also consider its emotional value. ”
The next step is to let the cultural relics and buildings rejuvenate in the new era through transformation, Zhang Ming emphasized "the practicality of history" and "new to history". In the original design studio of the Urban Institute of Tongji University Architectural Design and Research Institute (Group) Co., Ltd., where he presides over, these two words are hung.
He told the morning newspaper reporter: "The words 'Zongshi Practical' are written by Mr. Liang Sicheng, which is to use the past for the present. 'Turning to History' is what I proposed. The best way for heritage buildings to extend their life and play to their cultural value is to bring them back to everyday life. ”
The largest thermal power plant in the Far East has been transformed into a heritage park
In the process of following the pulse, Zhang Ming was deeply impressed by the investigation of the original Yangshupu Power Plant.
Located 2.7 kilometers east of Yangpu Bridge, Yangshupu Power Plant was once the largest thermal power plant in the Far East and has the reputation of "the cradle of China's power industry". Its predecessor was the Shanghai Electric Company, which was built in 1882, and then built a factory in 1911 to supply electricity in 1913, making it one of the earliest power plants in the world.
According to the requirements of energy conservation and emission reduction, Yangshupu Power Plant shut down the generating units in 2010, and began to implement ecological and artistic transformation in 2015.
The easiest way for a waterfront space to become a public space is to tear it down and rewrite it on a blank sheet of paper, but it will cut off the historical context and lose the direction of inheritance.
Yangshupu Power Plant was once the pride of the city, how to make it return to urban life with dignity after completing its historical mission? Zhang Ming's choice is "anchoring" and "free". The so-called "anchoring" is to selectively preserve and transform the industrial heritage, which is a characteristic element of the site.
"After running the site, our team took the initiative to draw up a reservation list, which included 12 important structures and mechanical devices, including a 105-meter-high chimney, a crane crane on the riverbank, a coal trestle, a conveyor belt, a clear water pond, and an ash silo ......," Zhang Ming recalled.
The existence of these industrial structures once drew an invisible boundary between the factory area and the living space of citizens, making people "near the river but not seeing the river", and also led to the nimby effect.
The "free" after "anchoring" refers to creating a high-quality poetic space for citizens to meet the needs of the people for a better life on the premise of meeting the current needs. When the "forbidden area" of the power plant is transformed into a public open space, "returning the river to the people" will also be realized.
The final open space was called Yangshupu Power Plant Heritage Park, and the project led by Zhang Ming won one of three awards at the 11th Rosa Barbara International Landscape Awards. During this year's Urban Space Art Season, visitors walked into the park and saw a rain garden and a water café. These are the two foundation pits left behind after the demolition of the structure above the circular water storage tank of the water storage and purification device, witnessing the texture of the site and the traces of industrial production.
It is the ecological logic of rain gardens to plant water purification plants, lay pebbles at the bottom of the pond, and store precipitation during heavy rains, and discharge sluggish rainwater into the municipal pipe network. Visitors sit in the café with a view of the skylight and the iconic chimney through the open dome.
The artistic expression of industrial heritage breaks through people's imagination. -The 11-meter-deep pump pit has been transformed into a pump pit art space, the ash silo has also become a ash silo art space, the transfer station has become a post station, and the coal hopper has become a coal bucket pavilion......
The old workers of the power plant met Zhang Ming in the park, and they were excited and emotional: "Mr. Zhang, I have worked in the factory all my life, and now when I walk here, I remember the scene of the year." "The historical testimony in the site has also become an emotional bond between people and buildings.
A trestle bridge allows you to see the "live" century-old water plant
The return of industrial heritage was readily accepted by the citizens, and Zhang Ming felt that this was the meaning of cultural relics protection. "The Yangshupu Power Plant is an industrial heritage as well as a cultural relic. If you look at it as a living organism, it will be pleased with such a change. ”
Residents on the north side of Yangshupu Road finally saw the open waterfront. Walking in the waterfront space, they feel its readability and temperature.
The longest "breakpoint" in the process of Yangpu Riverside Connection, the Yangshupu Water Plant, which was built in 1883, has also undergone the process of "opening".
It is located on the west side of the Puxi section of Yangpu Bridge, and is the first modern water plant in the country. What catches everyone's attention is its English castle shape, with clear water brick walls embedded in the red brick waistline, which does not even look like a factory.
The function of the riverside shoreline has shifted from production to life, but the water plant is "alive" - the workshop that produces tap water is still running, providing water for nearly 3 million citizens. In 2013, it became the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units. "It's hard for us to cross from above, from inside. It is even the biggest break point in the entire Huangpu River cross-strait connection project. From this, Zhang Ming thought that the breakthrough might be possible with the help of a trestle.
But where is the trestle, and if it is crossed from the top, it will affect the skyline of the artefacts. If it is located outside the flood control wall and parallel to the waterfront, it will occupy the water area and affect the width of the river. He also thought of using barges to form a "pontoon bridge", but it was very difficult to manage.
If the bridge can't be erected, should the citizens be allowed to detour along Yangshupu Road? In the end, Zhang Ming borrowed the top space of the infrastructure to realize the breakthrough of the trestle.
"The renovation wanted to set up crash bollards outside the flood control wall to protect the water pipes, and we released the top space of the crash bollards and built a 500-meter-long water trestle bridge. The trestle is grey wood and looks understated, in harmony with the castle-style waterworks. It was suggested that the trestle could follow the style of the castle of the water plant, but I did not agree. The newly intervened elements should not be mixed with the cultural relics, and should have a certain degree of recognizability, and should not rob the glory or the show, which is the respect for the cultural relics. Zhang Ming explained that this is the attitude of respecting the ancients and not retro, keeping the right and not keeping the old.
The birth of the trestle bridge allowed citizens to walk through the riverside with a way to see the buildings up close. "In the past, tourists could only see it when they passed by boat, or from the other side of the river, but they certainly couldn't see it clearly. Now, whether they are walking or running by the river, they can enjoy it. In this way, it breaks the sense of "high above" given by cultural relics and buildings, and truly integrates into the lives of citizens.
The green hills by the river have become a concrete expression of the people's city
"We respect traditional heritage buildings and the glorious history they have created, but we still have a mission to create the built environment that belongs to the present. With a sense of mission, Zhang Ming firmly believes that the new built environment is by no means a rootless source and a tree without roots, "It has gone through history to the present, and as designers, our pursuit is to make it go further in the future." ”
As the world's largest remaining riverside industrial belt, not every piece of industrial heritage has been preserved as a cultural relic, such as the Green Hill. Zhang Ming has seen the ranking of the number of check-ins of riverside buildings on a certain social media, and Green Hill is the first.
It is a common industrial building that was almost demolished, and was built in 1995 as a former machine shop warehouse for a tobacco company. "When we went, we learned that when we were studying the entire plot, the plan for its demolition had been finalized, and the construction vehicles were about to enter the site. According to the city road plan, Anpu Road will cross the location of the building. ”
But Zhang Ming found the meaning of architectural preservation. "I proposed, the shoreline of the riverside space is too 'flat', can it be transformed into a three-dimensional garden, and it will not affect the passage of urban roads? At that time, the Yangpu District Binjiang Office and the Binjiang Investment and Development Company said, Mr. Zhang, can you make a plan?"
On the drawings submitted by Zhang Ming's team, we can see that the building has been obliquely cut in the direction of Lujiazui and in the direction of the riverside with its back, reducing the construction volume by 50%. In this way, climbing the building is like crossing a hill, and it can also relieve the oppressive feeling caused by the building being too close to the river. The height of the building was reduced from 30 meters to 24 meters. This is the dividing line between high-rise buildings and multi-storey buildings.
When the Green Hill actually came into view, it was discovered that the rear of the building was a planned green space that led directly to the waterfront. Anpu Road passes through the first floor of the building, and the second floor is designed to be elevated for people to walk through. On the cascading platform, there is a sunken tree pool, and 34 maple trees surround a oak tree. During the Double Ninth Festival, Yangpu residents come here to climb high and look far away, see Yangpu Bridge, and look at Lujiazui.
"A building without identity is not protected, but that doesn't mean it has no value. In the position of Midorigaoka, in its relationship with urban roads, we choose to solve it in a more complex and humane way. Walking along the river, there is suddenly a double spiral staircase to climb, and there is a U-shaped walkway on the top floor for a 270-degree view, which is a response to history, the site environment and human behavior. Speaking of this, Zhang Ming remembers, "One day, the architectural critic Zhou Rong also came, saying that he saw people wandering aimlessly on the Green Hill, rippling with happy smiles. The city has left such a seemingly 'useless' open and shared space for the citizens, and he feels that this is a kind of pampering of the citizens in Shanghai. ”
At worst, this is a concrete expression of the "people's city".