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Parks where creativity can flourish
By Xu Wenwen |
October 11, 2012, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
CULTURE and creativity are not confined to the four days of Hangzhou Cultural and Creative Industry Expo, as the city government is constantly striving to shape Hangzhou into a center of innovation.
In Hangzhou there are around 10 creative parks, home to advertising companies, design firms and art studios.
Typified by Beijing?s 798 Art Zone and Park Guell in Barcelona, a good creative park is a city landmark, and Hangzhou?s are popular with residents and visitors alike ? some are a frequent backdrop for wedding and portrait photographs.
Here are four creative parks popular with Hangzhou locals.
Ideal 166 (??áa166)
Ideal 166, named after its factory name and street number, is a creative industry zone and an industrial heritage site of Hangzhou.
It was once the renowned Hangzhou Silk Printing and Dyeing United Factory - the first silk factory to use machines for mass production after the founding of the People's Republic of China - and was designed by former Soviet Union experts and the construction was supervised by German architects.
Part of the factory is still operating, but 6,600 square meters' space is now devoted to the Ideal 166 creative industry zone, containing visual design companies, artwork auction companies and art galleries.
An attraction for hungry or thirsty visitors is the Metoo cafe in the creative park, which provides an ideal stop-off.
The light-filled renovated cafe run by a group of designers was opened in 2008. It had been a meeting place for managers of firms within the creative park, however, it soon turned into an artistic attraction in itself.
It is a stylish cafe - the ceiling is high, there's a loft. Some old-fashioned equipment as well as exposed industrial pipes, fittings and ducts still remain. French windows face south, the exposed brick walls are painted white and the floor, tables and chairs are made from wood recovered from scrap furniture at flea markets.
Address: 166 Lishui Rd
Phoenix Creative International (·???′′òa1ú?ê)
Located in Zhijiang Cultural Creative Town, Phoenix Creative International is next to Xiangshan campus of China Academy of Art, and is one of 10 industrial zones of culture and creation supported by the Hangzhou government.
It is located in the 28,000-square-meter 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
Mao Geping Image Design Art School (???ê??D??óéè???§D￡)
Among Hangzhou celebrities is makeup maestro Mao Geping, one of China's top stylists, known for creating dramatic cosmetics and costumes.
Mao runs his Mao Geping Image Design Art School in Hangzhou. The school is also a creative park, promoting Hangzhou's cosmetics and style industries.
It's in downtown and covers two-thirds of the 7,500 square meters of office space. The entire creative hub covers 15,000 square meters in a renovated old electrical machinery factory. The complex includes four buildings in a German architectural style, featuring lots of glass and steel.
The former factory's dining room now features a T-shaped stage and fashion runway.
In 1998, Mao founded his first Mao Geping Image Design Art School in Hangzhou, and in October 2008 he opened a vast school in the Hangzhou Fashion Hub, the city's only creative hub dedicated to fashion and cosmetics.
The hub contains more than a dozen enterprises related to fashion, cosmetics, costume design and photography.
It also hosts fashion shows and clothes, makeup and art exhibitions. So it's common to see models in outlandish and dazzling outfits walking about in the neighborhood.
Every year around 2,000 students graduate, working in photographic studios, fashion, TV and film, performance companies and beauty salons.
Address: 16 Jiangcheng Rd
Loft 49
Built in the 1950s as a chemical plant, the design of Loft 49, with its unique wave-shaped roof, was ahead of its time. Now it is home to a group of creative firms in crafts, design, advertising, architecture, fashion and animation.
Zhejiang Province's first creative park, it was founded in 2003. The building is designated a municipal historical building under protection.
The industrial past is not forgotten, as the rusty factory gates, the pitted concert pavement and even slogans on the walls are retained.
Loft 49 has become a calling card of Hangzhou's cultural and creative industry.
Address: 49 Hangyin Rd
In Hangzhou there are around 10 creative parks, home to advertising companies, design firms and art studios.
Typified by Beijing?s 798 Art Zone and Park Guell in Barcelona, a good creative park is a city landmark, and Hangzhou?s are popular with residents and visitors alike ? some are a frequent backdrop for wedding and portrait photographs.
Here are four creative parks popular with Hangzhou locals.
Ideal 166 (??áa166)
Ideal 166, named after its factory name and street number, is a creative industry zone and an industrial heritage site of Hangzhou.
It was once the renowned Hangzhou Silk Printing and Dyeing United Factory - the first silk factory to use machines for mass production after the founding of the People's Republic of China - and was designed by former Soviet Union experts and the construction was supervised by German architects.
Part of the factory is still operating, but 6,600 square meters' space is now devoted to the Ideal 166 creative industry zone, containing visual design companies, artwork auction companies and art galleries.
An attraction for hungry or thirsty visitors is the Metoo cafe in the creative park, which provides an ideal stop-off.
The light-filled renovated cafe run by a group of designers was opened in 2008. It had been a meeting place for managers of firms within the creative park, however, it soon turned into an artistic attraction in itself.
It is a stylish cafe - the ceiling is high, there's a loft. Some old-fashioned equipment as well as exposed industrial pipes, fittings and ducts still remain. French windows face south, the exposed brick walls are painted white and the floor, tables and chairs are made from wood recovered from scrap furniture at flea markets.
Address: 166 Lishui Rd
Phoenix Creative International (·???′′òa1ú?ê)
Located in Zhijiang Cultural Creative Town, Phoenix Creative International is next to Xiangshan campus of China Academy of Art, and is one of 10 industrial zones of culture and creation supported by the Hangzhou government.
It is located in the 28,000-square-meter 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
Mao Geping Image Design Art School (???ê??D??óéè???§D￡)
Among Hangzhou celebrities is makeup maestro Mao Geping, one of China's top stylists, known for creating dramatic cosmetics and costumes.
Mao runs his Mao Geping Image Design Art School in Hangzhou. The school is also a creative park, promoting Hangzhou's cosmetics and style industries.
It's in downtown and covers two-thirds of the 7,500 square meters of office space. The entire creative hub covers 15,000 square meters in a renovated old electrical machinery factory. The complex includes four buildings in a German architectural style, featuring lots of glass and steel.
The former factory's dining room now features a T-shaped stage and fashion runway.
In 1998, Mao founded his first Mao Geping Image Design Art School in Hangzhou, and in October 2008 he opened a vast school in the Hangzhou Fashion Hub, the city's only creative hub dedicated to fashion and cosmetics.
The hub contains more than a dozen enterprises related to fashion, cosmetics, costume design and photography.
It also hosts fashion shows and clothes, makeup and art exhibitions. So it's common to see models in outlandish and dazzling outfits walking about in the neighborhood.
Every year around 2,000 students graduate, working in photographic studios, fashion, TV and film, performance companies and beauty salons.
Address: 16 Jiangcheng Rd
Loft 49
Built in the 1950s as a chemical plant, the design of Loft 49, with its unique wave-shaped roof, was ahead of its time. Now it is home to a group of creative firms in crafts, design, advertising, architecture, fashion and animation.
Zhejiang Province's first creative park, it was founded in 2003. The building is designated a municipal historical building under protection.
The industrial past is not forgotten, as the rusty factory gates, the pitted concert pavement and even slogans on the walls are retained.
Loft 49 has become a calling card of Hangzhou's cultural and creative industry.
Address: 49 Hangyin Rd
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