Hengyang, China – The Hengyang Jianxiang Industrial History Museum (Industrial Tourism Park) project, designed by CITIC Design, has been awarded the Gold Medal in the Architecture category at the prestigious Berlin Design Awards.

Internationally Acclaimed Recognition

The Berlin Design Awards, under the BETTER FUTURE platform, is a globally renowned design accolade. Its international jury comprises leading scholars, innovators, architects, and industry pioneers worldwide, recognizing visionary designers and their groundbreaking works across categories including architecture, interior design, and graphic design.

Industrial Heritage Sprouts Cultural Shoots

Hengyang City in Hunan Province—one of China’s 26 historic industrial bases—boasts a rich industrial legacy. The former Jianxiang Diesel Engine Factory, established in 1950, epitomizes this heritage. It pioneered Hunan’s first diesel engine and grew into Central South China’s largest medium-small diesel engine production hub, becoming a proud industrial symbol of Hengyang and Hunan. Amid industrial restructuring and urban transformation, the factory faced renewal challenges.

Covering 290,000 sqm with a gross floor area of 120,000 sqm, the Hengyang Jianxiang Industrial History Museum project revitalizes the original factory complex. It preserves 4 provincially protected heritage structures and 22 historically significant buildings, serving as a key exhibition site for the Third Hunan Tourism Development Conference.

Xiangjian·Jianxiang: Where Heritage Meets Innovation

Centered on industrial heritage preservation and cultural-tourism integration, Xiangjian·Jianxiang transforms former workshops into a vibrant industrial culture block featuring tourism, creative industries, education, and leisure. It has garnered multiple honors, including:

National "Industrial Culture Study Practice Pilot Base"

Provincial Industrial Heritage Site (Hunan)

Provincial Industrial Tourism Model Base (Hunan)

Urban Renewal as an Industrial "Textbook"

Within the block, towering Soviet-style factory buildings line broad avenues. Red-brick walls, giant iron-hinged doors, vintage wooden-framed windows, and grease-stained legacy machinery—lathes, milling machines, and grinders—silently narrate the passion of industrial history, unfolding like a vivid "textbook" of Hunan’s industrial evolution.

Design Concept: "Hengyang Scroll · Metamorphosis of Jianxiang"

Drawing inspiration from Hengyang’s iconic elements—wild geese migration, the Xiang River, Mount Heng, and Jianxiang’s industrial spirit—the design blends old and new through adaptive reuse. Preserving the factory’s original character, its "one core, one axis, six zones, multiple nodes" layout integrates community services with functional spaces. Highlights include: artistic stepped seating areas, pathways and gathering spaces beneath iron towers, exhibits of electromechanical relics.

Shared green spaces

These elements create an "urban living room" that fosters community identity and enhances residents’ quality of life.

From Rust to Renaissance

Transforming derelict factories into a cultural landmark, the Jianxiang project breathes new life into industrial heritage. It revitalizes Hengyang’s industrial identity, merging preservation with innovative industries and urban upgrades to create a sustainable model for urban renewal. This achievement also offers a globally resonant case study in design-cultural exchange.