How does one go about revealing the many histories of a city? Cities are ever-evolving machines, mutating silently and seemingly instantly. Often, areas that carry vital collective memories for local communities tend to get appropriated or sometimes get lost, only found as ghost signs and decaying concrete shells of buildings. How does architecture contend with this perpetual transformation of a city? Instead of projects treating a city as a tabula rasa, can architecture work with the existing to address the evolving needs of the population? This question of seeming permanence and adaptive reuse is something design practice continues to grapple with—an issue made more urgent in the face of growing concerns over the availability and feasibility of land and resources—how do we make do with the old? What structures do we adapt, and how do we go about adapting them?

With the original ‘industrial relics’ preserved on-site as mnemonic totems, the renovation of Kingway Brewery by Chinese architecture practice URBANUS showcases how design can preserve and celebrate the legacy of a place while updating it for the needs of the dynamic present.

Located in Luohu, the 11,025 sqm site for the cultural centre planned by URBANUS was a former brewery of a popular Chinese beer that held a special place in the memories of the local population—mostly migrants to the industrial belt of Shenzhen. Lying derelict, most of the structures were slated to be demolished to make way for new developments following the inevitable transformation of Shenzhen from traditional manufacturing to a smart economy. If the brewery were demolished, it would erase as it were "the city’s industrial heritage, urban development and memories of past endeavours, glories and entrepreneurial pioneering spirit," as the architects lamented.

To this end, URBANUS decided to revive the site by keeping the remaining industrial buildings intact and strategically interjecting elements converting it into a vibrant public space for the community. As Yan Meng, a partner with the practice explains, “URBANUS believes that preservation and regeneration of a historical industrial site not only can restore a place, but also a spirit.” He mentions the notion of “making on-site” to ensure Kingway Brewery becomes “a showcase of the city’s unique spirit while preserving its original architectural aesthetics, collective memory and intrinsic character of an era.”

Hence, the design scheme for the restoration of Kingway Brewery involves the integration of past and present through clever spatial interventions. While old structures are refurbished, the new interventions employ the colour red, allowing visitors to distinguish between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’. For the architects, the design involved thinking of "space as an exhibition," allowing them to create a spatial journey that not only allowed visitors to indulge in the past but ensured that each new element played off and complemented the old.

A raised plinth, designed by the architects to counter a difference in terrain on the rectilinear site unifies the different functions, with the visitors entering the site through an underground public square on the south. This plinth includes exterior exhibition spaces, recreation areas, and walkways dotted with courtyards and gardens, adding a sense of liveliness. As one enters, one is greeted by a red observation tower reminiscent of a demolished water tank which acts as the first marker of the site’s former function. Other interventions include a refurbished wastewater treatment plant and an aeration tank. These house exhibition areas, galleries, an auditorium, and offices.

At the northern end are the most symbolic industrial structures on the site. Here, the brewery's former fermentation building becomes a multipurpose auditorium with inverted conical tanks creating the illusion of a functional brewery. Three of the large tanks on this building’s roof were removed to make space for an open-air theatre. As it seems, the walls in all the existing buildings on site have been intentionally left untreated, reiterating the industrial aesthetic of the spaces. The floor and stairs are covered with handcrafted flame-coloured bricks, juxtaposing the muted grey with moody tones of red, a colour palette reminiscent of Lina Bo Bardi’s SESC Pomplea and the Museum of Art of Sao Paulo.

The various functions on the vast site while disparate, come together visually and spatially through a sunken courtyard design. This converted sedimentation tank acts as a common congregation space, with the vibrant red ribboned railing tying everything together. The various open spaces on-site allow visitors a choice to either loiter or to follow the spatial narrative created for them by the architects. The overarching idea for the refurbishment of the Kingway Brewery is to immerse its visitors into the industrial architecture of the building, recalling the legacy of the site, while encouraging community engagement.

It becomes crucial, when talking about adaptive reuse to think about the symbols that architecture chooses to preserve and celebrate. The industrial aesthetic has long informed cultural spaces, galleries and artists’ studios. Whether it is because the bare concrete architecture of factories provides an appropriate canvas for the display of artworks the spatial layout allows for flexibility in planning or the fact that these venues often act as sites for regeneration for the larger locality. The question for cities moving on from traditional modes of production becomes, how do we choose to remember the past? Do we just remember industry as crumbling relics of a bygone era? On the other hand, can architects sensitively integrate these areas to meet new functions and requirements?

As Meng goes on to comment, "A city’s industrial heritage should not become merely another consumer product in the post-industrial age. Its rich memory and legacy should be rediscovered, highlighted, and amplified so that it will take on a new life with productions of new ideas and infinite new possibilities.” By allowing past and present to co-exist in their design for Kingway Brewery’s former site, the project argues that imagining many versions of the city is possible, even encouraged.

Project Details

Name: Kingway Brewery Renovation
Location: Luohu District, Shenzhen, China
Year of completion: 2022
Area:
Site area: 11,025 sqm
Floor Area: 12,309 sqm
Design team:
Principal Architect: Meng Yan
Project Architect: Wen Ting (Design Development), Milutin Cerovic (Bidding)
Project Manager: Zhang Haijun (Design Development), Wendy Wu (Bidding)
Team: Ni Ruoning, Cheng Zhidi, Yuan Ruizhe, Dong Wenhan, Yue Ran, Lin Yanyu, Liao Guotong (Design Development) | Zheng Zhi, Yue Ran (Bidding) | Li Rui, Rachael H Gaydos, Huang Jingxian, Wang Yuchu, Lin Kan, Gao Qingyue, Chen Yining, Zhang Chengjie, Zhou Jie (Internship)
Landscape Design: Zhang Xuejuan | Project Manager: Li Guanda | Team: Zhu Jiangchen, Gao Yufeng
Research & Curation: Wendy Wu (Director) | Wu Siying, Liu Yuxin (Execution) | Yang Ruixin, Wang Qinxue (Exhibition Research) | Wang Qinxue (Bidding, Development) | Mo Sifei, Zhu Hongrui (Bidding) | Song Yu, Peng Yuanlu (Internship)
Consultants:
(LDI) Structure/ MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing) Collaborator: China Academy of Building Research
Interior Design: Studio 10 Co., Ltd. / Shenzhen Jiusi Interior Design Co., Ltd.
Technical Support and Construction of Cast-aluminum Installation: RoboticPlus.AI
Curtain Wall Design: TUANHOOC
Graphic Design: SURE Design
Lighting Design: zdp (z design & planning)