China eyeing European know-how to breathe new life into industrial buildings
Adaptive reuse of long-neglected urban structures is popular in London and other European cities, and in Australia, prompting interest from China. But the projects are not easy to accomplish
For 150 years, they dominated the London skyline: the towers of Pancras Gasworks, a spectacle of behemoths up to 25 metres high and 40 metres in diameter. An engineering marvel of the 19th century, they manufactured gas converted from coal, and stored it to warm homes and businesses through the long, cold English winters.
By the time the gasworks were decommissioned in 2000 – and dismantled to make way for the channel tunnel rail link – they had been grade-two heritage listed. New purposes were sought for these mighty landmarks of Britain’s industrial past, to be relocated adjacent to Regent’s Canal as part of a larger development of the city’s King’s Cross area.
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One now houses a park and event space (designed by Bell Phillips Architects, and opened in November 2015); another set of three linked gasholders – numbers 10, 11 and 12, known as the Siamese triplet – are being converted into an ambitious residential scheme by WilkinsonEyre.
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Adaptive reuse projects are not uncommon in the UK and Europe, albeit less so when the new purpose is residential. Among the more notable projects is The Frosilo, a radical waterfront conversion of 1960s concrete silos located in the old harbour area of Copenhagen, where Dutch architecture firm MVRDV “hung” a series of glass apartments onto the structures’ exterior, leaving the empty interior preserved.
At the other end of the scale, a disused block of public toilets in Keswick, northwest England, has been converted into small flats to help solve issues of housing affordability in the Lake District town.
In Australia, Hassell architects is transforming Sydney’s historic Flour Mills at Summer Hill into contemporary apartments as part of a new residential precinct. Stages one and two are under construction (due for completion during 2017), while stages three and four are seeking final development approval.