Page 52 - Beyond Decommissioning

The fundamentals of industrial redevelopment 33

buildings’ past and the local culture of today. The two questions are: how to merge
local culture (intangible) into the old industrial buildings (tangible)? or conversely,
how to upgrade local culture through the redevelopment of industrial buildings?
“Culture symbolizes the sense of belonging in specific places as a source of images
and memories. Culture plays a leading role in redevelopment projects based on the
historical preservation or local heritage, or in other words, local culture …. Local cul-
ture mainly refers to the culture that is rooted in local place and is passed down from
generation to generation together with the ethnic cultural characteristics. Local culture
is a combination of historical tradition and modern life. The tradition is one part of the
local culture, and the multidimensional modern life featured by the pop music, the
graffiti and all those modern razzamatazz are also parts of the local culture. Local cul-
ture refers to the lifestyle of the locality, the geographical features, local natural
resources, the art activities of the place (both modern and traditional) and of course,
the local history.” According to Wei Zhang (2012) five aspects seem most relevant
when integrating local culture into industrial redevelopment:

(1) Use the original elements of the site.
(2) Identify the characteristics of the buildings and use them to promote and expand local
culture.
(3) Integrate geography (e.g., mountain, rivers, and the climate) and vegetation (native plants).
(4) Respect and promote the local art activities (e.g., the industrial buildings have generally
large spaces, which are suitable for art activities).
(5) Give new functions to old buildings. The functions should have both economic and cultural
benefits in order to preserve the local culture.
In summary, “as a form of culture, industrial heritage and adaptive reuse seem to form
a mutualistic relationship. Through adaptation, a community’s industrial heritage can
be conserved, but without the transfer and/or maintenance of that industrial heritage’s
essence into the new use, adaptation fails to capitalize on that transfer or regeneration
of culture. This finding backs up the aforementioned definition of what constitutes
successful adaptive reuse. The retention of cultural heritage value through adaptation,
therefore, is an indicator of a successful adaptation” (Sugden, 2017).
And finally, a statement that can reconcile conflicting views “Werte kann man
nicht lehren, sondern nur vorleben (Values cannot be taught, they must be lived)”
(Viktor Frankl, 1905–1997).

2.3 The link and tension between preservation and
adaptive reuse

In an industrial society which confuses work and productivity, the necessity of pro-
ducing has always been an enemy of the desire to create.
Raoul Vaneigem (1934– )

Different forms of redevelopment may be needed, but a common objective is to
create an economic use that ideally provides all of these: enough value to cover