Renovation of Nanjing Combat Machinery Factory | Mix Architecture

Mix Architecture unveils Nanjing Combat Machinery Factory, located on the west side of Hongshan, in the northern part of the city, near the Nanjing Railway Station.

The factory was built in the 1950s. With the expansion of the city and industrial development, the production department moved out, which left the factory idle. In 2006, attempts were made to renew the factory, hoping to reopen it as a creative industrial center, but the building failed to attract attention.

After the reconstruction, new walls were built, bricks were paved, and the whole building was painted, thus covering up its industrial memory. Over 20 years, vegetation had gradually spread to the factory area, partially covering the facade. Naturally corroding, the forgotten factory stood at the edge of the city.

At the end of 2020, the owner entrusted MIX Architecture to renovate and update the factory, hoping to make it a composite emerging park with an office as the main body. Besides protecting the existing trees, architects needed to showcase the history of the building, and to ensure that its renovation followed the design language of the city. During the design process, the architects were most inspired by a red brick wall that was an attractive characteristic of the original building.

"Red" emerged as a theme of the renovation, as a primary characteristic of the factory. The reasons are complex but simple. First, the factory is located on the west side of Hongshan. In Chinese, “hong” means red. Second, the factory was established around the 1950s, a period often referred to as “red memory”. Third, the red brick building can be considered a “red building”. After consideration, Mix Architecture decided to use red bricks, red concrete blocks, red terrazzos, and red face bricks as the main materials, obtained from different periods, and relating to different construction methods. Following the renovation, the park would follow the language of the city in a more comprehensive way, thus reshaping people’s memory of the factory in both familiar and unfamiliar ways.

After deciding on the materials, the next goal was to enhance the uniqueness of each building in the park, and to establish the relationship between humans and nature. The position of the wall and the different rhythm of each space inspires the design process. The low courtyard wall has been placed with the on-site vegetation, separating the public space from the individual space. It eliminates the height difference of the site, fills the gap between the buildings, and gives each building unique space under the premise of the integrity of the site. The solid and substantial wall is the important part to guide people from the road to gradually walk into the zone and enter the interior space. The continuity of indoor and outdoor spaces provides a complete experience. Each building has a window with vistas of the surrounding mountains or nature. As visitors enter the building, the strong, dense red color gradually substitutes nature.

In general, Mix Architecture wants people to understand the renovated building through three steps —acknowledging, feeling, and experiencing. The architecture becomes a connector, using the changes of space and materials to create a dialogue with the city, historic buildings, and nature on a variety of levels. Doing so connects the city, its history, and its nature. People will first understand the existence of the building first and, while walking around it, will recognize its historic core through the materials. Once inside the building, their attention will be drawn to the external scenery through the windows, thus establishing connections with nature.

Technical sheet

Project Location: Huangjiayu Drive, block 41-1, Hongshan high-tech factory, Gulou district, Nanjing

Project Owner: Nanjing Construction Machinery Works, Co, Ltd.

Project director: Mix Architecture

Design Team: Ziye Wu, Suning Zhou, Haoran Yin, Renjiao Shen, Bin Peng, Ke Yang, Tao Tang, Daoyuan Zhu, Suxuan Zhang( Intern), Bo Dong ( Intern), Shuyi Li (Intern)

Landscape and planning design: Ziye Wu, Renjiao Shen, Haoran Yin, Bin Peng

Structural Consultant: Shanghai Wilderness Structural Des. Firm Inc.

Lighting consultant: Lumia lab

Construction drawings: Nanjing Xinghua Architecture design and Research Institute Co, Ltd.

Landscape construction drawings: Nanjing 2nd Architecture Design Institute Company

Logo Design: Nanjing Shiye Design Club

Construction team: Nanjing QianCai Construction Engineering Co.LTD (Architecture), Nanjing Hengzi Environmental engineering Co., Ltd(Landscape), BETONBAU(F16 RedHouse)

Construction Material: Red brick, fair-faced concrete, terrazzo, weathering steel, aluminum, glass

Design from Dec 2020 to Jul 2021

Finish time: Apr 2023

Construction area: 11,224 square meter

Photography: Haiting Sun, Xiaobin Lv, Arch-Exist

Video: Xia Zhi