TURNING POINT

From a Power Plant to Tangshan's New Identity

As one of the most significant industrial cities in northern China, Tangshan is moving toward deindustrialization and facing challenges of her incompetitive economy, aging population, and environmental pollution. Tangshan Power Plant emblemizes these challenges with its scheduled termination in 2030. Turning Point refers to not only the river meander bounding the site but also the opportunities presented as the power plant transforms from an icon of heavy industry into an opposite figure that serves the future of Tangshan in environmental remediation, production, education, and public engagements of a new urban identity.

Given the limited size and the critical location of the site, our objective is to transform the power plant into a demonstration park in which cutting-edge technologies and strategies for environmental remediation and urban agricultural production are proposed, tested, and demonstrated to the public. The demonstrations not only perform as educational instruments for active learning, but also serve as paradigms for the rest of the city to take further actions on relevant topics. In addition, the site will also reintegrate into the public life of the local population with recreational amenities for the youth and programs for social interaction for the elderly. [Project of MIT-Tsinghua Joint Studio 2019, Teammate: Charlotte Ong, Instructors: Brent Ryan, Lorena Bello]