In the past two days, the orange friend "Naughty Cow" passed by Pinglian Road and was curious about an abandoned industrial park nearby, "This is an abandoned industrial park near Kangqiao, do you know what kind of factory this is?"
"Naughty Cow" also posted pictures of the industrial park, from which you can see many rusty but very tall tank devices and some abandoned factory buildings like triangular buildings.
After searching, on the map, the name of this block is "Grand Canal Future Art and Technology Center", close to the northern end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which belongs to a building in the Grand Canal Cultural Landscape Belt project group, and currently shows "temporarily closed".
The former Hangzhou oil refinery
It has witnessed the development of Dachengbei in the past 30 years
The 18-hectare site, which housed the former Hangzhou refinery, is left with large factory buildings and oil storage drums, most of which have been demolished.
In the nineties of the last century, the Hangzhou Oil Refinery moved from the vicinity of Wulin Square and West Lake Cultural Square to the current Pinglian Road. Dozens of plane trees planted at that time are still preserved on both sides of the landscape avenue.
When Hanglian was "at its peak", it had more than 2,000 employees at most. "Using Daqing crude oil as raw material, atmospheric distillation and catalytic cracking process are used to produce No. 90 vehicle gasoline, No. 0 light diesel oil, chemical light oil, petroleum liquefied gas and other products. Chen Ting, the former director of the Hangzhou refinery, said that the output of diesel at that time could be said to have reached the highest level in Asia.
Since 2008, the general environment in which Hanglian is located has changed: it conflicts with urban development planning, and at the same time, it is also facing difficulties in its own transformation and upgrading. To this end, the Hangzhou Municipal Government and Sinopec signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement, and at the same time clarified the relocation and development of the Hangzhou refinery.
However, the project was never substantially launched. Chen Ting described the situation in which Hang Lian was at that time, using words such as "very difficult" and "facing closure".
Until the end of 2015, the Banshan base of Hangzhou Iron and Steel was officially shut down, and Hangzhou Lian and Hangzhou Glass were also relocated one after another, making room for space, leaving a large number of industrial relics full of the imprint of the times.
Eyewashes, LPG tanks, coke powder separators, screw pumps.... These iconic machines of the original refinery are now placed on the side of the central landscape avenue in the north of the city, where the gate of the Hangzhou refinery was once located.
Art, technology and industrial heritage are intertwined
A new landmark to check in in the north of the city
As a building in the Grand Canal Cultural Landscape Belt project group, the remains of Hanglian have also been renovated.
The team at the Beijing Tian'an Time Center for Contemporary Art, together with the world's top design firm MVRDV Architects, won the bid for the renovation of the Hangzhou oil refinery.
"In a way, distancing ourselves from history gives us more freedom, and imagining the future on the ruins of the past is challenging and romantic. "In this project, we have taken care of both worlds: repurposing industrial heritage and adding entirely new elements to show a better, more sustainable future." ”
According to the project model provided by MVRDV, on the site of the refinery, the "Grand Canal Future Art and Technology Center" is divided into four functional formats: art and technology center, international creative industry park, art and cultural creative district, and oil refinery park.
With the cylindrical "Art Science Center" as the main building, the large exhibition space and art exhibition hall will be a good place to take photos, and the other industrial relics in the refinery area have been preserved, and it will be the main venue for various art seasons and festivals in the future.
The remaining tanks will also have their own functions, some will be rebuilt from the original structure, some will be rebuilt, and some will be built on the original tank site with a circular walkway to mark the industrial memory of the area.
At present, the construction of the "Grand Canal Future Art and Technology Center" has started and is expected to be fully completed by the end of 2026.