A Study on the Origin of China’s Modern Industrial Architecture and Its Development Strategies of Industrial Tourism

Abstract

Due to the unique cultural attribution and facade aesthetics, China’s modern industrial architecture, built in the 1950s, played a significant role and expressed a specific historical value in the process of human industrial civilization. The objective of this study was to reveal the origin of China’s modern industrial architecture, meanwhile understanding the content, the channel, and the process of the global transfer of modern industrial architecture from the United States to the Soviet Union and then to China. With a literature review, we summarized the United States’ achievements of modern industrial architecture at the beginning of the 20th century and described the formation and evolution process of the Soviet Union’s modern industrial architecture from the 1920s to the 1950s. Through field investigation and measurement into China’s modern industrial plants, we comparatively analyzed the inheritance and changes among the United States, the Soviet Union, and China from the perspective of the planning concept, design theory, and structural technology. Finally, two sustainable development strategies of industrial tourism were proposed for China’s modern industrial heritage according to the comprehensive assessment, and two typical development patterns were presented based on their respective advantages.

Regional development through industrial tourism: a literature review

“…The uniqueness of industrial tourism is strongly related to a given region's culture and industrial heritage, depending, among others, on local social and cultural values and the relationships between the local population and the environment. To improve the sustainability of both architectural and cultural space, we should classify industrial heritage sites and implement different measures to preserve the manufacturing process equipment (Han et al, 2020), advising the creation of a database of industrial heritage resources for future reference and better management.…”

A Comparative Study on Planning Patterns of Industrial Bases in Northeast China Based on Spatial Syntax

“…A series of particular requirements, from principles to technical engineering details, were involved in the Soviet Union's industrial base planning pattern; these were specifically reflected in the following five contents: (1) The land of the industrial base must be compact and reasonable while determining its scale. Excessive land use and scattered workshops will lead to the lengthening of traffic lines and various pipelines in the plant, which will greatly increase construction and operation costs.…”

“…The committee members all agreed that "the selection of construction land for a new industrial base or the expansion of existing industrial plant needs to be carried out with the selection of urban service land at the same time" in the resolution. Four specific principles were proposed as follows: (1) The locations of the production zone and the living zone should be considered and arranged to maintain the possibility of cooperation between municipal facilities and water and heat supply systems of the plant. (2) The production zone should not "cut off" or "isolate" the living zone to prevent difficulties in connecting transportation and cultural life services.…”

“…The spatial morphology of industrial cities in Northeast China was deeply influenced by the Soviet Union's industrial base planning theory and technology in the 1950s. From 1953 to 1957, under the industrial aid of the Soviet Union, a large number of giant industrial bases attached to the main railways were built in the suburban areas of the original cities [1]. With the completion and running of these industrial bases, two positive changes emerged.…”