Between Preservation And Creation

Urbanus transforms the former Kingway Brewery in Shenzhen into a playful, engaging and useful public space that celebrates both the old and new.

- Luo Jingmei

Urban reuse of super large-scale facilities can be a tricky affair. There is the consideration of the urban image and engagement, as well as the need to incorporate some form of human scale so that users can be personally involved. Urbanus’ intervention to the brewery of Kingway Brewery in Luohu, the downtown district of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in China, provides a good case study that balances both aspects.

“Urbanus believes that the preservation and regeneration of a historical industrial site not only can restore a place, but also a spirit. 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,” says Yan Meng, the firm’s co-founder.

capsule for collective memory

The project takes into consideration the collective memory that Shenzheners have of the brewery, particularly the early immigrants who came to pursue their dreams of a better life as China developed the city as the forefront of its reform during the noughties when the country opened up.

A substantial portion of the building’s standing structures were demolished following the city’s aggressive urban development and drive for industry, shifting from a manufacturing to a smart economy. Urbanus worked with the remaining rectilinear site of about 11,600 sqm following the concept ‘Space as Exhibition’. The first step was to uncover – or rather, rediscover – and transform the site’s spatial features in relevant and innovative ways through working with these leftover structures and facilities. The programme was a series of cultural facilities suited to urban life.