Working with industrial buildings and landscape, Nanjing

UNSW/SEU joint architectural and landscape architectural studio
Monday, 11 – Saturday, 30 January 2010
Friday, 23 April – Wednesday, 5 May 2010

Project
Saliently cross-cultural and interdisciplinary, this is the sixth of a series of joint intensive studios between UNSW Built Environment and distinguished Chinese universities, sponsored by UNSW Built Environment and by the School of Architecture, Southeast University. Fifteen architecture and landscape architecture students from BE worked intensively in Nanjing with 17 postgraduate students from the Southeast University, on the adaptive reuse of part of an industrial building complex—the Chenguang Machinery Plant (now aka 1865)—and the design of its landscape in Nanjing, China.

Studio Work
Four major themes constituted part of the objectives of the studio:

• cross-cultural engagement
• architectural adaptive reuse
• integration of architecture and landscape architecture
• concepts and notions of converting industrial site to civil and commercial use

The project involved analysing the site and its surrounding areas, exploring diverse planning and design strategies by paying particular attention to the historical and cultural dimension of the scheme and to an improvement of the architectural environment of the area, pursuing the selected proposal in adequate depth and documenting reasonably detailed resolutions, and detailed design of key parts of the project. Each group of 4 was formed by students from the two institutes.

Achievements
In this inter-institutional and cross-cultural setting of the architectural design course, achievements of the studio are principally manifested in three respects:

Challenged by the complexity of urban setting and strong historical and local references, the studio output is remarkable in the impressive scope of work, ranging from strategic urban landscape design through sound structural and constructional resolutions.

Alternative pedagogical approaches and techniques are pursued and tested—including theoretical interpretation, pragmatic planning and design, technological resolutions, and environmental concerns—to which the two collaborating institutes have contributed and from which they have benefited.

The studio helps consolidating BE’s link with SEU, and continues to pave the way for continuous academic collaborations with the Southeast University.