Old industrial spaces undergo creative makeover

When the rusted steel skeleton meets the agile artistic creativity, and the roaring mechanical sounds gradually transform into the aroma of coffee and the rustle of book pages, Jiading's old factories in memory are being transformed into new trendy spots with a mix of "industrial style and literary buff."

Art hotel

The La Maison Des Vignes Shangha was formerly a colored pencil factory. The stationery factory in Dayu Village, Malu Town, has been turned into an art hotel, providing visitors with an immersive living experience.

The hotel's design has retained the old industrial foundation, with wood and rusting iron providing a gritty retro feel.

The leftover paint traces on the ground serve as inspiration for the lobby walls, while the hotel's public area is a gallery, displaying a variety of artworks.

Each guest room shows ingenuity. The walls look like pencil holes, the frames are inlaid with fine colored pencil powder, and the designer's ideas are converted into unique wallpaper tiles.

Video clips base

Yaoji Technology Park, once a poker production base in Jiading, is experiencing a resurgence.

In 2020, Yaoji converted the empty old factory into an industrial park for live broadcasting and product promotion – the Shanghai International Short Video Clips Center.

This year, the park will finish the outdoor base with 5,000 square meters of city walls, markets and pavilions, creating an immersive environment for ancient costume dramas.

Technology park

Xiaomei Technology Park in Nanxiang Town, once home to Shanghai Yahou Wood Co, has turned its 22,000-square-meter industrial property into a modern, intelligent manufacturing industrial park that includes R&D, office and exhibition facilities.

The park targets intelligent manufacturing and the robot industry as its primary investment draw. It has preserved the old primary structure and created a quiet and convenient working environment for established businesses by reconstructing walls, inserting soundproof boards, and altering floor heights.

Art center

Artron (Shanghai) Art Center was established in 2012 at the site of the former Shanghai No. 16 Towel Factory. The main building complex, which includes a library-style art bookstore, an art gallery and cafes, has sparked interest since its construction.

Among these, the creative inspiration for the park's icon, the Ding Yi Building, came straight from the works of artist Ding Yi.

The designer turned the painting's 48 different "rice characters" into custom-fired clay bricks made in Foshan, Guangdong Province, which cover the building face and create a rich light and shadow rhythm in the sun.

The indoor coffee shop is particularly unusual, including massive image albums with each page as gorgeous as wallpaper. It's similar to wandering through an art museum's exhibition halls.

Fashion hub

The North Hongqiao Fashion Creative Park was once an old factory near Jiangqiao on the Wusong River's north bank.

The focus is on the fashion, cultural and creative industries; it has introduced and incubated a number of high-quality firms and brands, including LAGOGO and UTO.