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March 19, 2014

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Historic block will join revived creative centers

By Xu Wenwen and Xia Yuanjie | March 19, 2014, Wednesday | Print Edition

There are too many stories to tell about the block of Fenghuang Hill in the south of Hangzhou. It was the central point of the city when it was established over 1,400 years ago; it housed the central government 1,000 years ago when the city was a dynastic capital; and it became a state-owned tobacco factory once the PeopleÕs Republic of China was built.

However, the block gradually became suburban, and three years ago the factory moved. The block was almost empty.

But a fashionable mall, named Shining City 1157 (for the year the major government departments of the Southern Song Dynasty — 1127-1279 — officially started operations in what is now Hangzhou) was founded at the old tobacco factory. It is under construction and is expected to revive the prosperity of ancient downtown.

The entire factory and the nearby area covers 60,000 square meters and is to be developed into a complex of “crisscrossed Chinese-style lanes, and designed fashionably,” said Shen Xiao, deputy general manager of Hangzhou Ziyan Investment Co, the developer of the block.

He cites Shanghai’s Tian Zi Fang as a teaching example that “mixes Chinese culture and Western lifestyle very well.”

The revamp is organized jointly by the state-owned company and local government. The mall is expected to open next year.

Plans call for turning the old factory’s 9-meter-high first floor into an “indoor shopping zone crisscrossed with lanes,” and its second and third floors into a place of restaurants, bars, cafes and boutiques.

Transformation of old factories is not done in just one way in Hangzhou, as the city aims to establish itself a leading cultural and creative city in China.

In 2008, Hangzhou authorities proposed to build a “Creative Hangzhou,” and a key part of the brand building is a citywide transformation of old factories into creative industry parks.

The added value of the city’s cultural and creative industry amounted to 135.9 billion yuan (US$22.1 billion) last year.

Today Shanghai Daily tours other creative parks created from obsolete factories.

Jolo Fifth Creative Park

In Jolo Fifth, two four-floor orange buildings with graffiti-covered walls and modern interiors give barely a clue revealing their appearance three years ago: textile mill warehouses.

Situated on Genshan No. 3 Sub-Road, the creative park covers 10,000 square meters. The mills were adapted into a place more suitable for office use after adaption of power and water supplies.

So far 24 companies have moved in Jolo Fifth. And 22 among them run architectural design businesses, such as landscape design and interior design.

“Here the rent is lower, the area is spacious, and we are free to design the facade or paint on the walls. That is what we designers like about this,” an employee surnamed Cong said.

The park is not very large but to walk inside it refreshes your mind because of the novel design everywhere, such as meeting rooms containing a manmade white birch forest, with walls made from plants.

Also, at a stair corner and in front of Lisun Design, there’s a portrait of a man in a suit, with the man’s face on the ceiling and the body on the wall. “It is painted by disabled artists to present different views about the arts,” said Zhong Biao, vice president of Lisun Design.

Address: 5 Genshan No. 3 Sub-Road

Hemu 555

Some people are persistent, like Hangzhou local Jin Fangyong, who has collected over 10,000 vinyl records, and opened his vinyl workshop to share his collection in the old Huafeng Paper Mill, located at 555 Hemu Road in north Hangzhou.

Weathered walls and discarded machines make the place smell old, but the new firms, including JinÕs workshop, are eye-opening.

Jin rented a warehouse, averaging 8 meters tall, good for listening to music. JinÕs huge collection, in all kinds of styles including classical, rock and hip-hop, are waiting for fans. They are available for sale, from dozens of yuan to thousands of yuan. Jin’s customers are from home and abroad.

Also highlighted in his workshop, besides the music, are the furniture and design. Lockers for the records are made of used wood from a boathouse, and vessels used to hold paper pulp are still hanging from the ceiling and above people’s heads. Worn-out and rusty pipes are naturally the interior design.

In the creative park Hemu 555, other places, like photo studios and design firms, also deserve a look. And next to the park there is a food street.

Address: 555 Hemu Rd

Phoenix CreativeInternational Park

In Zhuantang Town in south Hangzhou there were just mountains and farms, but the entry of Xiangshan campus of the China Academy of Art and Phoenix Creative International Park have brought the town into the art world.

It is located in the 28,000sqm area formerly used for manufacturing and housing by the Shuangliu Concrete Factory and still retains huge chimneys, rusty steel stairs and all kinds of obsolete factory equipment. The former workshops are now offices and exhibition rooms.

The space, consisting of four huge cement barrels, is now a studio for design brand Hesign, run by famed Chinese designer He Jianping.

An old workshop is now a cartoon studio and exhibition room for Tsai Chih Chung, the renowned Taiwan cartoonist who spends a third of his time working and living in Hangzhou.

The space also hosts exhibitions by both mature designers and young college students.

Address: 1 Chuangyi Rd

Hangzhou


 

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