While the midsummer with its scorching sun has come to an end, the development and construction of Beijing Park of Shougang is still in full swing. Recently, our reporter came to the site of the Three Blast Furnaces Transformation Project and learned about its aesthetic facelift up close and personal. At present, the interior decoration of the 9.7-meter platform is completed, the sanitary ware is installed, and the surface treatment of the outdoor concrete flooring is carried out. At the end of May, as the venue of Shijingshan District Branch of China International Fair for Trade in Services in 2019, the four subsidiary halls were officially launched and running, attracting the attention of participants from all walks of life both within and without Shougang.

The Three Blast Furnaces located on the south side of the Xishi Winter Olympic Square of Shougang are the most typical production line in the smelting system of the old factory area of Shougang. They made outstanding achievements in the development history of iron-making of Shougang in the past nearly a hundred years and contributed a lot to the national iron and steel industry, epitomizing the development of modern iron and steel industry in Beijing and even in the whole country. In the transformation process of the industrial heritage park, the Three Blast Furnaces has also become the first transformed project and a modern exhibition hall will soon be unveiled.

The Three Blast Furnaces Transformation Project includes the main body of the blast furnace, four subsidiary halls A, B, C, and D, the underground garage, the exhibition hall, and so on. In terms of design, the concept of combining static protection with dynamic renewal was adopted and the design concept of “preserving the old, removing the surplus, weaving and repairing the new” is implemented. By “preserving the old,” it means preserving the old as naturally as possible through the study of painting technology in honor of  its history; “removing the surplus” means carefully removing unnecessary structures by starting a conversation between industry and nature; “weaving and repairing the new” means moderately increasing “the new” while shaping a unique charming line to guide visitors to walk between natural scenery and industrial remains, and to complete a devout interpretation of the base from the bottom of its heart.

Magnificent change of Three Blast Furnaces themselves

In the transformation of the Three Blast Furnaces themselves, much original technological spaces were dedicated to the urban exhibition hall. The four maintenance platforms with different elevations in the furnace cover and the original cast house platform serve as the core space experience field, providing a shocking experience of industrial heritage. The six maintenance platforms outside the cover fully provide the interactive space between human and nature as well as the city. Air bar, exhibition ground, new product release and display, popular science education, community communication, and cultural stage are presented in the air. The former high-altitude platforms show a strong multi-dimensional pop-up urban meaning. Diversified urban behavior is organically interwoven with the original structures through multiple moving lines, which ultimately transforms the industrial nature into the urban nature.

Three Blast Furnaces is improvising while showcasing their functionality. On November 23, 2018, the launch of the new Mercedes-Benz sedan in China was successfully held here, which was the praise of the town.

Wang Gang from the Engineering Construction Department of Shougang Construction Investment Company said, “The effective volume of Three Blast Furnaces is 2,500 cubic meters. There is no precedent at home and abroad for such a large-scale industrial structure to be transformed into a civil building, and there is no reference from the design scheme to the construction specification. After completion, it will be of milestone significance, and it is a transformation project that creates a historical exemplar.”

Glass landscape platform is a sub-project of the Three Blast Furnaces Main Body Transformation Project. A glass landscape platform is built on the roof crane beam of the original Three Blast Furnaces with an elevation of 70.1 meters. The platform is a cuboid with a length of 18.6 meters, a width of 11.54 meters, a height of 2 meters, and a building area of more than 200 square meters. The glass laid on the ground of the landscape platform is “tempered glass with four layers of glue, each piece of glass is 10 millimeters thick”. Each square meter of glass can bear a load of more than 400 kg and has the characteristics of strong pressure, wear resistance and impact resistance; the side panel is “tempered glass with two layers of glue, each piece of glass is 12 millimeters thick” while the top is open. The supporting skeleton of the glass landscape platform is made of H-type high-strength steel, which forms a mesh plane with high safety factor.

Our reporter learned that the glass landscape platform is designed with full respect for the space, comprehensive consideration of the surrounding landscape, and rational use of the unique resources of the park, and ultimately forms a unique sightseeing glass platform. For the glass landscape platform, its middle part uses “super white glass”, and the facade transparent panel is 360 degrees open so that visitors can look around.

Boarding the landscape platform and looking into the distance, you can have a broad vision. With rolling hills, superimposed green peaks and beautiful natural scenery, Shijingshan District first comes into sight; looking closer, you can see the Shijingshan, known as “the first fairy hill in Beijing”, the Ski Jumping Platform Project of Shougang, the “four ice cube” venues of the Winter Olympic Training Hall, the scattered industrial remains, and so on. These landscapes enhance each other’s beauty and are a feast for the eyes.

The subsidiary halls with special styles and various functions

On the west side of the Three Blast Furnaces, four special-shaped halls, A, B, C, and D, which relate to them have been transformed into the lecture halls, the exhibition hall and the restaurant, and are put into use.

A parking garage is built at the bottom of Xiuchi affiliated to blast furnaces to solve the common parking problem of industrial remains. Through the juxtaposed underwater art exhibition hall, people can immerse themselves in the lake to study the century-old history of Shougang, interact with works of art in the exhibition hall, and have a dialogue with the Three Blast Furnaces standing in the distance.

The urban square in the south part of blast furnaces provides a rich social activity venue. The lecture halls, temporary exhibition hall, derivative cultural and creative product sales and supporting restaurant affixed to the four subsidiary halls of the Three Blast Furnaces are all separated from the blast furnaces themselves and arranged independently along the shoreline, providing the possibility of maximizing social vitality spillover. The form of roof greening in soil also sutures the spatial relationship between Xiuchi and the Three Blast Furnaces.

In 2019, the Organizing Committee of the China International Fair for Trade in Services established the Shijingshan District Branch of the China International Fair for Trade in Services in the Three Blast Furnaces Area. The successful fair was highly applauded by the organizers. After the fair, the Organizing Committee sent a letter of thanks to Shougang Group, saying, “As the host of the Shijingshan District Branch of the China International Fair for Trade in Services in 2019, Shougang Beijing Park shows the achievements of Shougang as the official urban renewal service partner of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games and the Winter Paralympic Games in urban renewal, industrial site reuse and other aspects, and the perfect link between Shougang’s heritage repair and the Winter Olympic ice and snow industry. It publicizes the adjustment of industrial structure and the reconstruction of urban function driven by the new development concept, and perfectly interprets the theme of ‘ice and snow opportunity and urban development’ in Shijingshan District Branch, which has achieved good results and made positive contributions to the successful holding of China International Fair for Trade in Services in 2019. We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to your company!”

In the overall project construction, Shougang Construction Investment Company undertakes the tasks of pre-planning, planning and design, mid-term construction, post-operation, etc. of the four subsidiary halls. Duan Ruofei of the Engineering Construction Department of the company said that in the whole construction process, all departments worked together and closely cooperated to maximize the construction efficiency. The technical team of the Engineering Department is responsible for the built-in design in the early stage of the project, the design of the deepening drawing of curtain wall according to the construction plan, the implementation of the construction stage and the design and cooperation of work; the project team is responsible for the control of the specific progress of the project site; the Planning and Design Department is responsible for organizing the design units to do the architectural and electromechanical design; the Investment Promotion Center is responsible for the activity planning; the Operation Department and the park service company organize the specific operation work of various halls after their completion, such as the layout of exhibition halls and the leasing of exhibition halls. At present, the construction and interior decoration of Halls A, B and D have been completed, and a series of commercial activities have been successfully held. The construction and internal infrastructure of Hall C have been completed. The investment promotion team of the Shougang Construction Investment Company is contacting some famous catering enterprises to settle in Hall C.

The overall structures of the four subsidiary halls are designed to be irregular geometries, which are very complex, and have unique ingenuity in material selection for interior and exterior decoration. Some materials were developed independently, and the overall effect was different. The construction of the four halls was not easy. Due to the particularity of design and material selection, the actual difficulties of the Shougang Construction Investment Company in construction were much more than those of the previous projects. In addition, the construction period was very tight. In order to ensure that the project progress of each node could be completed on time and with high quality, all the departments involved in the project construction of the company seized every minute and second and made every effort to complete the project plan. At the same time, work communication, coordination, and cooperation between project teams and external units were also actively promoted through weekly coordination meetings (every day when the time limit is tight). When the drawings conflicted with the actual situation in the construction process, the responsible persons of the relevant units arrived at the construction site in the shortest time to analyze and propose solutions. All the members of the project teams participating in the transformation of the Three Blast Furnaces were elite teams who experienced the construction of the Winter Olympic Stadium in Shougang Park. When the project duration needed to be shortened, they arranged all kinds of regular meetings after work time to make more time to advance the project progress. The company also encouraged people to complete tasks more efficiently through the incentive system.

Seeing the transformed project presented perfectly before us, the cadres and workers who participated in the construction said that the achievements here witnessed the beautiful memories of everyone fighting together. Whenever they see the buildings here, they would be proud of their past affectionate devotion.