Pearl River Brewery Phase II / Atelier cnS

Curated by 韩双羽 - HAN Shuangyu

Architects: Atelier cnS
Area: 10690 m²
Year: 2021
Photographs:Siming Wu
Lead Architects: Zhiyuan Zhu,Guanqiu Zhong, Gang Song

Review: From beer factory to "Party Pier." ZHUJIANG BEER is one of a local famous and influential bran in Guangzhou, China, and part of the citizens' memory, which witness the city's development， and the enterprise is finding a way to transform and upgrade itself. Through the practical projects like these, CNS has been continuously working to protect and revitalize the industrial heritages in Guangzhou for more than ten years. Before the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010, CNS designed and renovated the factory's Coal Transportation plants to "Party Pier", a waterfront bar street along with many cultural-leisure programs, which later became a highlight in Guangzhou's nightlife and attracted fashioned and creative youths. The waterfront Railway brought even more people after the "Party Pier" station was set.

During the design of "Party Pier", there were strict urban control specifications that restrict the volume of the building, and the Beer Brewery Factory still use the waterfront to transport raw materials and goods at that time, conflicting with the circulation of the bar street; and a tunneled city road passed below the site, making it difficult in the foundation structure design. We solved these problems in a single way of "landscape integrated architecture ", a consistent folding structure that made the building volume into a natural grass slope, leaving a maximum opening to the river view meanwhile minimizing the impact on the scenery along the Pearl River. The factory production and transport circulation were covered under the landscape. The landscape-architecture made the bar street unique in space and experience, but also allows the use of the shallow foundation.

Revitalization of The Steam Turbine Factory. After totally relocating the production plants, ZHUJIANG BEER GROUP hopes to turn the old factory site into a commercial-cultural project called "BREWERY", a culture and fashion landmark in Guangzhou. It starts with some detailed basic work on the remaining buildings and facilities near the waterfront. In 2018, CNS began to work on the most complex building, the former steam turbine room and its adjacent equipments (later referred to as " turbine factory "), to make into the office building for ZHUJIANG BEER GROUP. Once the turbine factory was a power core that enable the entire factory, Now we hope it become a new "power core" and enable the entire park.

Implement and deepen the spirit of public space. As an office building project, the riverside part was defined as open public space. The waterfront greenway, the outdoor platform, and the mechanical maintenance walkway are combined into a multi-level consistent pedestrian system, introducing different viewpoints and walking experiences in both horizontal and vertical dimension, the riverside public space is greatly enlarged, with diversity in program and outstanding feature in public image. Other elements in the site are also taken care in a way to preserve the original spirit as much as possible, so the new and the old can have a conversation that tells the change of the city.

"Beer +" City Development Trend Forecast. Due to the particularity of the site, the turbine factory will be made into the headquarters office in the short term, but in the long term, there is the possibility of transforming it into leased office, shared office, cultural-commercial complexes, or a mixture of multiple programs. Therefore, the design doesn't aim to be a "genre building", like they do in most situation. Instead, it starts with the consistency of the public circulation, pedestrian experience, landscape interface, etc, and finally leaded to a result of ambiguity.

Reservation and Revitalization of Industrial Heritage. The industrial heritage preserved at the ZHUJIANGBEER GROUP site has unique style and value, but the protection codes and regulations of industrial heritage are still in the drafting phase so that the practical way of doing it is still an exploration. The turbine factory was originally a building dealing with coal, steam, and electricity, The scale is magnificent but dark and suppressed in a very unfriendly way. How can the industrial characteristics be kept while a comfortable and pleasant environment can be achieved？ After lots of work on-site investigating and evaluation, we are able to formulated a utilization plan for each building element, including machine component. Through in-situ maintenance, relocation, demolition, and reconstruction, etc., they can blend into the scene of modern office and lifestyle.

The expression of industrial memory. We are trying to find the most particular industrial memory, and write it into the regenerative genes of“Pearl River Brewery”, so that it can be expressed quietly in the revitalization, people can step into this space Intertwined the new and old with a story to be heard.

The former building has a distinct industrial style featuring rationality and classical. Our facade inspirations come from the malt silo， coal storeroom，warehouses in the site, the material response the original granitic plaster, they become a feature of the entire project. The original concrete trusses and the orderly arrangement of the windows are maintained, "repair as how it was", to preserve the history traces and memories as much as we can. Meanwhile, modern large-scale glass emphasizes the visual impact between the old and new elements, making a drama on the main building facade facing the city.

Pearl River Brewery Phase II / Atelier cnS - Interior Photography, Facade — details. Image © Siming Wu

The "beer bubble" element was put into the curtain wall. It seems to invite you to have a cup of beer and live a little. The sun beats down, light and shadow are interlaced, intertwined pipe machinery in the platform crawls in and out, painted in the theme color of the beer history, as if time walks slower here. In the future, the new urban space will be a fertile soil awakened by industrial heritage and relics, growing more and more art, culture, and lifestyles. The“Pearl River Brewery” will take part in a cultural fermenting and brewing in the city as it has always do.