Page 194 - Beyond Decommissioning

Experience and lessons learned 175

The Manufaktura complex at Ło ´dz´, Poland was once a five-story spinning mill and
ancillary plant, completed in 1878. The former industrial site was used as the film set
of Wladislaw Reymont’s book, The Promised Land. Next to the textile industry, sev-
eral industries and services expanded, for example, machine repair and construction,
ironworks, a foundry, a locomotive shed, gas-works, a fire department, warehouses,
railroad track sections, worker houses, and the mill proprietor’s residence.
Currently an art institute, shopping center and entertainment complex, Manu-
fakture opened in May 2006, after 5 years of planning and four more years of construc-
tion. The total site area is 27 hectares. The redevelopment was intended to preserve the
historical atmosphere of all buildings, consisting of the original industrial architecture
with exposed red brickwork. The Manufaktura can be entered through the monumen-
tal archway of the former spinning factory. A top-class hotel was inaugurated in 2009.
One exception to the site’s preservationist approach is the new glass-and-steel
shopping hall. However it was designed to be lower than the adjacent old buildings
in brickwork, and is invisible from the outside.
The wide square inside Manufaktura exhibits the longest fountain in Europe
(300 m). In addition to stores, restaurants, cafes, pubs etc. Manufaktura hosts -among
others- car parks, two museums, and a leisure center (including a multiplex theater,
bowling lanes, a gym center, etc.) (Manufaktura, n.d.).

Pending projects (at the time of writing)
The Brunel Goods Shed, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK was built in 1845 as part of the
Stroud Railway Station infrastructure. It is a specific example of industrial architec-
ture in Tudor Gothic revival style with fine buttresses, stonework and arches. Until
1966, the Goods Shed was a busy interchange for transferring goods to road vehicles.
When it fell out of use, the building was open to vandalism and deteriorating. In 1984,
British Rail removed the slate roof which had become dangerous to the public. The
building was listed Grade II in 1985 on request of Stroud Preservation Trust.
This elegant, industrial building had been considered a good preservation project
soon after Stroud Preservation Trust was founded. In 1986, after 2years of complex
negotiations, the Trust agreed a 40-year lease with British Rail. Major repairs and
improvements, including a new slate roof, stonework repairs, and installation of some
services, were carried out in 1988. By that time Goods Shed had been rescued from
abandonment but needed a user to secure its future.
It has taken years to find a promising future for the building. Numerous proposals
were assessed but they all proved either expensive, impractical, or unacceptable to
English Heritage (this is a registered charity that manages the National Heritage Col-
lection, over 400 of England’s historic buildings, monuments, and sites). Proposals
included, among others, a theatre, a restaurant, a Music Resource Center, a museum
and a Real Tennis court. By 2000, all proposals were hindered by a new transport
interchange planned in the station area which would have entailed major
redevelopment.
Throughout this time the building, which was on English Heritage’s Buildings at
Risk list for many years, had been vandalized by graffiti, fires, and stone quarrying. In
2010, Stroud Preservation Trust decided to secure the building with roller shutters to