An old steel factory in Shanghai’s former industrial heartland has metamorphosised into an awe-inspiring greenhouse and cultural park.
“Repurposing an old building is always more sustainable than demolishing it,” claims the UNESCO magazine, the UNESCO Courier. This former steelworks in China is a fantastic example of how transformative repurposing architecture can be.
Pudong was once a sparsely populated industrial suburb of Shanghai, home to a coal-fired power plant and a steelworks. Now, both extensive carbon-emitting structures have been turned into a sustainable greenhouse and cultural park, the Expo Cultural Park Greenhouse.
This follows the city’s decision to repurpose this industrial infrastructure as a high-quality leisure area. Having been involved in a number of greenhouse projects worldwide, Austrian design house, Delugan Meiss Associated Architects (DMAA), was charged with breathing new life into the site. It used the steel structure of what was a former industrial hall to create a geometrical superstructure enhanced by organically shaped glass pavilions.
Typically, greenhouses consume large amounts of energy in heating and cooling, but DMAA was briefed to create a zero-energy building. To this end, single glazing was chosen as it was calculated that any reduction in heat loss caused by double glazing would be cancelled out by the impact of the artificial lighting required by the plants. Opening windows in the roof can be adjusted to help air flow through the structure and allow passive cooling to produce the optimal climate for the planting, and a pool adjacent to the property provides additional cooling and supplies energy to the greenhouse from PV panels fixed just below its surface.
The site is divided into three pavilions, one mimics the dry sandy environment of a desert, another the rich green landscape of a rainforest and the third contains vertical flower gardens, which aim to deliver greater biodiversity.
Commenting on the build, a spokesperson for the structural engineers on the project, Bollinger+Grohmann, said: “The entire greenhouse was constructed using steel and aluminium profiles. The existing structure was partially rebuilt where necessary due to corrosion and reinforced in the area of the visitor platform to support the additional load.”
Construction began in January 2020 and was completed in September 2024. The project is estimated to have cost €300 million.
As more effort is put into repurposing, as opposed to demolishing, buildings we look forward to seeing more steel buildings being given a second life.