TO MAKE SYMBIOSIS: ADAPTIVE REUSE OF PORT HERITAGE IN THE REGENERATION OF URBAN WATERFRONT. A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Globalization and advancement in technology have driven lots of port cities shelved their original functional territory, leaving bunches of factories and warehouses abandoned; whereas expansions from the inner cities are longing for the land and resources accumulated at the water edge to optimize the urban development, which causes the emergency of these controversial historical elements at the same time. Even knowledge and experience from icons of renewal projects with long history have inspired us what extent of significance and profitability the port heritage can be when managing waterfront regeneration strategy, yet the specific measurement to deal with those old port-related pieces rather than demolition, typically, for many small-scale inner port cities is far more than necessary. In this paper, a scheduled plan for port heritage is revealed that the vacancy and recession is just temporary, adaptive reuse of port-related constructions will contribute to the waterfront revitalization for the city through symbiosis settings as multi-functional generator, culture and recreational deliver, and landscape infrastructure in corridor. The article is motivated by the previous case studies and literature reviews, while for local case study (Yong Li Dockyard), a hypothetical design using strategy mentioned is proposed. The transformation result finally reveals that regeneration of port heritage can be a very useful bridge to connect waterfront itself and city, past and future, and fully applicable to other cases with different urban context.