The heritage of industrial fringe belts in the logic of a modern city development

Logunova Elena Nikolaevna Assistant at the Urban Design and Planning Department, Institute of Architecture and Design, Siberian Federal University 660018, Russia, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Krasnoyarsk, Svobodny Avenue, 82, art. 6 el.lgnv@yandex.ru

Domestic urban planning is focused on the development and reconstruction of existing settlements instead of new construction. Since the beginning of the XXI century, urban development programs have been adopted aimed at achieving the compactness of cities, compacting their development and unlocking the potential of the existing urban fabric, taking into account modern requirements.  This leads to an inventory and search for irrationally functioning urban lands. According to Rosstat research, more than 60% of urban areas are used inefficiently, and the total number of stagnant urban areas is more than 950 ^[1]. According to the estimates of the European Environment Agency (EEA), about three million inexpediently exploited sites have been identified in European settlements ^[2]. At the same time, their reconstruction and re-profiling is more economically justified than the development of new territories due to their advantageous location along transport arteries and the availability of developed infrastructure.The periods of the origin and prosperity of industrial activity have left a particularly vivid trace in the structure of modern cities in the form of an interlace of industrial and residential areas.

Subsequent modernization at the end of the XX-beginning of the XXI centuries, the liquidation of production facilities or their removal outside the city limits provoked the search for ways of large-scale transformation of the urban fabric, achieving spatial and functional connectivity and reintegration of industrial conversion territories into the city plan.

The researchers note the need for a special attitude to degrading industrial conversion territories and making informed decisions on their renovation and the purpose of rational land use.For this kind of unprofitable spaces, various definitions are used that characterize their insufficient functioning efficiency. Spanish architect and theorist I. de Sola-Morales describes unused areas in the structure of the city as an "indefinite landscape" (from the French "terrain vague", "vague" has meanings as "indefinite and at the same time" "unoccupied", "free") – voids in urban space, spontaneously derived from economic, social processes of the city. The transformation of such places, as the architect believes, should not be immediate and should be guided by methods of forced assignment of functional content, but should be carried out gradually and based on the analysis of adjacent territories and identification of the needs of urban space ^[3]. H. Armstrong introduces the concept of "landscapes of contempt" (from the English "landscapes of contempt"), based on from the general attitude of designers and residents to urban areas that have fallen into disrepair. In her opinion, the presence of voids in the urban fabric is an important component of it, which on the one hand makes it possible to identify problems of urban planning, on the other hand, provides a resource for compacting urban development, and their reorganization requires deliberate decisions ^[4]. R. Tranchik identifies "lost spaces" as part of American cities (from the English lost spaces) – unused territories of the city, without clear boundaries, which do not make any positive contribution to the life of the city, violate the connectivity of its territories, while having the potential for transformation. The lost spaces, in addition to inactive public spaces, also include non-functioning port zones, railway stations, territories of former military institutions and sites of industrial enterprises outside the city ^[5]. I. V. Kukina defines zones of obsolescence and marginalization as failures of the urban fabric and emphasizes that they arise as a result of the fact that "the city...is a consequence of reflexive projects "according to the law", which lead to the formation of independent rules, laws, norms, processes, random, subjective and unregulated" ^{[6, p. 68]}.

Urban marginal beltsIn the foreign theory of urban morphology, the historical and geographical approach to the study of the existing urban fabric allowed us to justify the appearance of specific marginal belts (from the English "urban fringe belts") in the structure of the city, including, among other things, industrial conversion.

It is established that at each stage of the development of the planning structure of cities, marginal territories are formed spontaneously and chaotically, encircling urban development ^[7-10]. The conditions of occurrence are reflected in their spatial and functional structure as a whole: peripheral territories, as a rule, have an intricate street and road network and a pattern of land surveying sites, low density of development, extensive types of land use, such as communal storage and industrial, recreational facilities, territories of gardens and vegetable gardens, sports, religious and public institutions. In the future, with the expansion of the city, new buildings appear on undeveloped lands, crossing the established periphery, since morphological characteristics and the structure of land use make it difficult to integrate it into the territories that have developed according to project plans and cause the complexity of the outskirts to transform ^[11]. Thus, previously marginal areas are included in the internal structure of the city, forming a single system, heterogeneous in plan and functions and remain unchanged for a long time as a characteristic imprint of the previous stages of urban development, regardless of the design decisions made in the master plans. The appearance of marginal belts is associated with fixation lines – barriers to the development of the city (river valleys, terrain features, city walls, railways and highways, economic cycles, industrial enterprises and complexes) ^[12]. Depending on the depth of the city's history, several marginal belts can be found in its plan, which reflect its functional profile of a particular historical period. Examples are the green rings of boulevards on the site of fortifications around historical centers, a system of religious sites that were once located on the border of cities, as well as green belts created to curb the expansion of urban development, Periods of industrialization and the development of rail transport affected the particularly extensive nature of the outskirts of cities, which later entered the city limits. In the structure of a modern city, industrial and industrial marginal belts disrupt transport and functional connections, and the physical characteristics of the sections of marginal belts that have lost their primary functional purpose directly affect their inclusion in the processes of the city's vital activity.

The system of distinctive industrial-conversion territories is observed in the structure of cities of various cultural contexts. For example, in the plan of the city of Nantes (France), the industrial marginal belt of the XVIII-XIX centuries stands out, in the plan of Istanbul (Turkey) – the middle of the XX century; in Chicago (USA) – the industrial-industrial marginal belt of the XX century.

 Analysis of the formation of industrial marginal zones and their transformation in the structure of a modern city

In the international practice of urban planning, the transformation of industrial and conversion heritage is carried out mainly locally, without taking into account the patterns of origin of such territories and neighboring ones.

Depending on the availability of valuable buildings and the size of the site, reconstruction may involve both the introduction of a new function with the preservation of architectural volume, and the total demolition of the existing buildings and the formation of a new spatial solution. The main trends in the reorganization of industrial conversion territories are their conversion into office and business centers, residential buildings, cultural facilities ^[13-17].

Three industrial and industrial marginal zones have been identified in Krasnoyarsk. The first marginal belt of the second half of the XIX century borders on the central core of the city, it includes communal storage enterprises, a steam locomotive repair plant (EVRZ) based on railway workshops, the territory of the former Krasnoyarsk Combine harvester plant. The next industrial-industrial marginal belt of the first half of the XX century has a linear character, its formation is associated with the construction of a railway bridge over the river. The Yenisei (1899) and the tracing of the Trans-Siberian Railway on the right bank, where by 1927 a brick factory, a sawmill, sawmills, a backwater harbor appeared. This marginal belt was gradually compacted by large industrial enterprises in connection with the first stage of industrialization of Krasnoyarsk, then during the evacuation of production facilities during the Great Patriotic War and in the postwar period. On the left bank, the marginal belt of the first half of the XX century has a fragmentary outline and was formed from the west, near the Nikolaevsky cemetery (1908), a slaughterhouse and a sausage factory (in 1939 united into a meat processing plant). By the beginning of the 1950s: in its structure, a site was allocated for the Krasnoyarsk TV factory "Iskra". The third industrial-industrial marginal belt of the second half of the XX century was fragmentally formed on the left bank and is associated with the second stage of industrialization of the city. It includes an aluminum plant and a branch from the Trans-Siberian Railway to ensure its production processes. Along the dead-end branch of the railway and the Northern Highway, commercial and communal storage and manufacturing enterprises are concentrated.

To date, the processes of transformation of industrial conversion territories of various scales have been noted.The buildings of the TV factory and the plant of photosensitive materials "Kvant" have been re-equipped with shopping and entertainment complexes TC "On Svobodny" and TC "Kvant".  Radical changes have occurred at the site of the Krasnoyarsk Combine Plant, where, after the liquidation of production, a multi-apartment residential development of the Novoostrovsky district appears. The existing street and road network, the presence of valuable architectural objects determines the parameters of the new district, which are tied to the existing context. In addition, in the structure of the marginal belt of the second half of the XIX century, it is proposed to build a business complex Krasnoyarsk City. Reconstruction is observed at the sites of the Krasnoyarsk Woodworking Plant and Shipbuilding Plant in connection with their liquidation or transfer outside the city. Residential development of the Southern Coast, Quiet Dawns and the Platinum Arena sports stadium appears in these territories in preparation for the Winter Universiade 2019. The loss of the former function made it possible to place a large sports facility in the inner structure of the city in transport accessibility. Such significant changes will affect the territories of the Krasnoyarsk oil depot and shipyard, areas of which, according to the projects, are allocated for residential development.

Similar decisions are made in other cities of the Russian Federation. Thus, there are several industrial marginal zones in the structure of Moscow, the size of which is increasing from the central core to the periphery, which is associated with the development and increase in the scale of production activities. The most extensive territories are occupied by the industrial-industrial marginal belt of the late XIX-first half of the XX centuries. The impetus for its active development was the construction of the Moscow District Railway in 1908, traced through forests, swamps, agricultural lands and industrial sites adjacent to the city. In the future, the city border was established along the line of the Moscow District Railway, and numerous industrial facilities continued to concentrate along it during the following five-year plans. In the second half of the XX century, with the development of mass housing construction, the development crossed significant territories of the industrial-industrial marginal belt of the late XIX-first half of the XX centuries. (Figure 1).

Fig.1. Industrial-industrial marginal belt of the late XIX-first half of the XX centuries: on the left – on the plan of 1925, the location of industrial enterprises on the outskirts of Moscow is recorded; on the right – sections of the industrial-industrial marginal belt in the structure of the modern city (Sources: retromap.ru , yandex.ru/maps )

Currently, after the removal or liquidation of industrial enterprises, the railway tracks laid near the historical part of the city made it possible to organize a system of railway passenger transport – the Moscow Central Ring integrated with the metro, as well as transport hubs. Industrial conversion territories have become a resource for the appearance of such objects as the Moscow City business center (on the site of the Dorogomilovsky quarries), the ZIL residential district (on the site of the Likhachev Plant), the Arma business quarter (on the site of the Moscow Gas Plant), etc. Under the program "Redevelopment of the industrial zone", transformation is provided industrial enterprises of the industrial-industrial marginal belt of the late XIX-first half of the XX centuries, "Upper boilers", "Varshavskoe highway", "Grayvoronovo", "Hammer and Sickle", "Western Port", the territory of the Riga cargo yard.

In addition, the isolated specifics of the functioning of enterprises allowed the preservation of buildings with historical and cultural value.

Industrial conversion territories are a resource for the formation of a polycentric structure of the city, the placement of necessary social and public facilities in transport and pedestrian accessibility. The status of a new facility often has a local or regional level, less often – state or international. For example, in London (Great Britain), the industrial and industrial marginal zone of the second half of the XIX-early XX centuries. on the territory of the world's largest port and the adjacent Docklands area, during the change of the city's profile from an industrial center to a financial one, a special economic zone "Isle of Dogs" was organized and a business and residential area was built.

In the city of Lille, once the industrial capital of France, the reorganization of the industrial and conversion heritage in the marginal zone of the XVIII–XIX centuries allowed to revive the economic potential of the city after the closure of the city-forming textile industries in the second half of the 1960s. During the point reconstruction in the 1980s, some production areas were adapted to new functions, mainly related to the service sector. The location of the sections along the railway line and the modernization of urban transport ensured the accessibility of previously isolated territories. The site in the eastern part of the marginal belt, favorably located relative to transport links, underwent the largest transformations, where the Eurolille project was implemented (master plan development - OMA company). As a result of the reconstruction of the railway tracks for the movement of high-speed trains connecting Lille with other European cities, international business, office, shopping centers and residential development have concentrated in the adjacent territories. The former peripheral territories have become an administrative and financial area of international importance (Figure 2).

Fig. 2. The formation of the industrial-industrial marginal belt of the XVIII-XIX centuries. Lille.

From left to right: the outskirts of the city on the 1880 plan, the marginal belt is included in the urban development, the 1967 plan, aerial photography of 2022, the Eurolille project implementation site is highlighted in red (Sources: cartes-livres-anciens.com , www.historicpictoric.com , yandex.ru/maps )

An example of a more comprehensive transformation of the industrial and conversion heritage is the Green Rays of Milan project. On the outskirts of Milan, as the main industrial hub of Italy in the XIX-first half of the XX centuries, large production facilities of various profiles were concentrated: from the production of fabrics to automobiles, as well as a large number of chemical industry enterprises. This was clearly reflected in the modern plan of the city in the form of an industrial-industrial marginal belt of the XIX-first half of the XX centuries.

At the beginning of the XXI century, with the withdrawal of all enterprises from the city limits, a thorough analysis of empty plots was carried out and the concept of "Green Rays of Milan" was proposed. According to the designers, the territories of the industrial-industrial marginal belt of the XIX-first half of the XX centuries and the marginal belt of the XXI century are connected into a single system by radial linear spaces from the city center to the suburbs. In this system, the territories of former industrial enterprises are nodal elements and are compacted by public and residential buildings.To date, the Portello Park project has been implemented at the Alfa Romeo plant site (authors: Charles Jenks, Andreas Kipar, LAND Bureau, 2000-2013). In the territories of the Porta Nuova station, which has lost relevance due to the construction of Garibaldi station, business complexes and residential quarters have been erected (LAND Milano, 2004-2017). On the site of the Falck steel mill (author of the master plan Renzo Piano, 2005-present), the project provides for the preservation and conversion of several objects of industrial architecture, the placement of a park and residential development.

Legislative aspects of the transformation of industrial and conversion heritage

Separately, it is worth highlighting the approach to the transformation of industrial-conversion heritage from the point of view of legislation, which implies a more holistic view of solving the problems of these territories. In Berlin (Germany) in the last decades of the XX century, one of the large-scale processes of liquidation of industrial enterprises took place. At the same time, the city authorities decided not to abandon production facilities within the city, the total area of which was 4,500 hectares, but to preserve the original purpose with the reorientation of production activities, which, of course, is of strategic importance for any city, at least to streamline traffic flows. In order to avoid widespread repurposing of sites that have lost their industrial function for office and business development, about 1,700 hectares have been reserved in the urban development plan since 1992. to accommodate high-tech industries, educational and research centers with priority for small businesses and environmentally friendly technologies. About 2,900 hectares in the structure of the city have already been transformed into actively functioning industrial enterprises. ^[18-19]. In the USA at the beginning of the 1990s, the concept of "brownfields" was legally established in order to comprehensively solve the problems of industrial conversion territories, implying degraded, previously developed territories that are not used according to their potential ^[20]. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) The program "Brownfields Initiative" was adopted. The purpose of the program is the restoration and reuse of such territories. Nevertheless, these legislative decisions do not consider the commonality of the emergence and interconnectedness of such territories. In addition, the spatial characteristics of the sites are not taken into account, which to a greater extent affect the possibilities of reconstruction of industrial conversion territories and the degree of their integration into the surrounding context.

ConclusionAnalysis of the theoretical basis and practical experience of reconstruction of industrial conversion territories shows that their transformation is carried out mainly locally and is not interconnected, without taking into account the historical stages of the formation of the city and considering these sites as an integral structural part of the urban fabric, which is assumed by the theory of marginal belts.

The study of the mechanisms and laws of the formation of marginal belts, their features and influence on the subsequent stages of the development of the city allows us to explain the physical composition of the existing planning structure and more reasonably and realistically predict the possibilities of its development and reorganization. In this regard, it is relevant to identify industrial and industrial marginal belts as an integral interconnected structure, which will allow to assess to a greater extent the urban development potential of industrial conversion territories and the conditions for their integration into the surrounding space of a modern city.