Page 45 - Beyond Decommissioning

26 Beyond Decommissioning

There is something amazing about how the degraded appearance of these buildings
has turned into something attractive. It is the history of these structures that gives them
a special character. The concurrent view of an initial history of achievements and suc-
cesses, later abandonment and degradation, and final redevelopment into something
striking and culturally rich, makes these sites meaningful. This history is a symbol of
creation prevailing over greed and neglect. Through the redevelopment we make these
symbols part of our own culture, which in return gives them new values. In a way,
these buildings are not only reminders of a past world (which would rather be the task
of a traditional museum), they do belong to us entirely (University of Texas, n.d.). On
the other hand, the growing interest in our industrial past is a part of a more general
trend (sometimes nicknamed “Industrial Chic”) toward the merging and the harmo-
nization of industrial artifacts and exposed construction materials into everyday life:
this concerns not only the use of household appliances but also the decoration of
shops (Fig. 2.5).
One example of tourism based on the industrial heritage is given here. In 1907, the
Don Valley Brick Works, Toronto, Ontario, Canada employed 200 workers with an
annual production of 25 million bricks. By the 1970s, the annual production had
amounted to 60 million bricks. Then, the brick-making site was closed down. Ever-
green, a Canadian nonprofit organization has managed the former brick-making site
since 1991. They have converted the abandoned buildings into a cultural center. This
included structural renovation and new constructions. The general objective of the
project was adaptive reuse. In this way, the historical image of the Don Valley

Fig. 2.5 The inside of a clothes shop, Vienna, Austria.
Photo by Laraia (2018).