Page 201 - Beyond Decommissioning

182 Beyond Decommissioning

to be sustainable not only in terms of energy and the environment, but also from an
economic standpoint as it profited from recent legislation and incentives for renew-
able energy generation (Manni et al., 2017).

6.2.2.4 Blast furnaces
“A blast furnace is a large structure in which iron ore is heated under pressure so that it
melts and pure iron metal separates out and can be collected “(Collins Dictionary).
The heritage value of blast furnaces built before 1900 has been recognized already
for a long time, and most preserved installations from the 19th century are now
museums or are anyhow open to visitors. However, the recognition of more recent
mass production blast furnaces as industrial heritage is relatively recent. Until recently
it has been pretty normal to demolish blast furnaces after their deactivation and either
replace them with newer models, or to clear the entire site for redevelopment. The first
modern blast furnace not to be dismantled is situated at Starachowice, Poland (shut
down in 1968), followed by the last blast furnace of Yahata Steel Works at
Yahatahigashi-ku, Kitaky ush u, Japan (shut down in 1972) and the “Carrie Furnaces”
at Homestead, PA, USA [shut down in 1978 (Abandoned America, 2018)]. One of the
two blast furnaces at Neunkirchen, Germany (shut down in 1982) was the first blast
furnace to be not only preserved as-is, but refurbished for the purposes of preservation.
The installations built in the last century were normally part of large industrial
compounds where multiple blast furnaces were in operation side by side to improve
efficiency. Raw materials were delivered to the site by freight trains and loaded into
the furnaces by external elevating mechanisms; the trains carried off the smelted pig
iron in ladles.
In many cases, the preserved sites have been despoiled to minimize maintenance
costs; besides, many blast furnaces have been dismantled. The policy was to keep only
one or two furnaces and related installations at each site: this was deemed enough to
explain the mechanical and chemical processes to visitors. Currently, most preserved
furnaces are used as museums. Typically, colorful light installations brighten these
furnaces at night. A comprehensive description of the redevelopment of a blast fur-
nace site is given in ICOMOS (2007).

6.2.2.5 Postindustrial living in Milan, Italy
Long ago there were actual factories inside Milan. Alfa Romeo’s manufacturing plant
“Portello” was well within the city borders until the 1970s. There were factories pro-
ducing everything saleable: car parts, air conditioners, electronics, pharmaceuticals,
household appliances, furniture, etc. They were encircled by a vast network of stores
and workshops, and a population of workers and their families who lived close to their
businesses. As of today, the factories have shut down or relocated far outside Milan.
Some of the old industrial districts have been demolished and replaced by tall residen-
tial or office buildings. But some factories—or their remains—survive, and attract real
estate developers, both professionals and amateurs.