Our reporter Lai Rui
Walking on the back street of Beijing Dongcheng Art Museum, the summer sun shines on the blue bricks and gray tiles.
On a street corner full of traffic and pedestrians, the 77 Cultural and Creative Park is quietly located here, integrating with the surrounding residential buildings. From time to time, groups of young people come in and out, and the air is filled with lightness and ease.
77 Cultural and Creative Park, located at No. 77 Back Street of the Art Museum, was formerly the Beijing Offset Printing Factory established in the 1950s.
Under Beijing's urban renewal idea of "controlling increments, promoting reductions, and optimizing stock", this has also quietly changed.
Entering the 77 Cultural and Creative Park, the small building with red brick walls has a strong atmosphere of the times, and industrial relics such as large chimneys, bronzing and die-cutting machines are preserved, linking the past and the present.
It is said that many elderly people from offset printing factories often come to the park to look for memories of their youth.
Renovated in 2012 and officially unveiled in May 2014, 77 Cultural and Creative Park has been a themed cultural and creative park with film and television and drama as its core content since its inception.
This is inseparable from its geographical location and the surrounding cultural environment.
Along the winding steel staircase in the park to the top of the building, you will suddenly see the light in front of you. There are the National Art Museum of China and Sanlian Bookstore across the street from the park. It is the Central Academy of Drama.
"We found during our research that the surrounding theater and film resources are very rich, so we considered positioning the park in line with the direction of Dongcheng District's promotion of the construction and development of a 'theatrical city'." The operator of 77 Cultural and Creative Park, the general manager of Dongfang Daopu Company Li Ming said.
The 77 Cultural and Creative Park itself is enclosed, and the operator even incorporated the concept of "theatre" at the beginning of the planning.
The main cultural landmark in the park, the 77 Theater, was formerly a machine repair workshop.
The operator strengthened and rebuilt the original building structure to make it a modern theater that meets the current operating conditions.
The 3-ton gate of the theater can be lifted as a whole, which can transform the theater, which is closed on four sides, into an open space surrounded by three sides.
In this way, the 77 Theater becomes a stage, and the entire courtyard becomes an auditorium.
In order to strengthen the "theater" concept, the operator also added rust balconies to the outer walls of the red brick buildings on both sides of the theater, which look like small boxes in the theater.
With the support of Beijing's policies on optimizing the business environment and urban renewal, 77 Theater obtained the performance qualification in 2018.
It is reported that the theater can accommodate more than 200 spectators. Cultural activities such as the Cross-Strait Small Theater Art Festival and some performance units of the Beijing International Youth Theater Festival have been held here.
And this is only a part of the drama ecology of 77 Cultural and Creative Park.
There are also many well-known enterprises such as Jia Zhangke Studio, Wuwu Living Space, and Dan Liren Culture, which aggregate the distinctive theme ecology of the park and promote the cooperation between upstream and downstream enterprises in the park.
77 Cultural and Creative Park is a microcosm of Beijing's old factories being reclaimed and utilized, and cultural empowerment of urban renewal.
In recent years, Dongcheng District has actively used old factories and other space to relieve and vacate the construction of cultural industry parks, and expanded the development model of "creative factories in Hutongs".
At present, there are 42 cultural industry parks in the area, with a total area of more than 730,000 square meters and more than 5,000 enterprises.
In addition to the 77 Cultural and Creative Park, projects such as the First Intangible Cultural Heritage Chanting Park, Damofang Cultural and Creative Park, Xinlongfu Cultural and Creative Park, Xuelian·Liangguang Cultural and Creative Park, Nanyang·Sharingjie and other projects have also been launched, which have become the national culture for the transformation and development of old factories. One of the most concentrated and typical demonstration areas of the industry.
From functional city to cultural city, is a prominent law of urban development at home and abroad.
"It is precisely because of the traction of culture that cities can better inherit the material relics, space and memory of the past, and activate them into new industries and new scenes that meet the needs of modern production and life." Deputy Director of the Institute of Creative Industry Technology, Renmin University of China Dean Song Yangyang believes that culture plays a very important role in the process of urban renewal.
As a national cultural center, Beijing has a profound history and rich cultural resources, and has a natural advantage in developing cultural industries.
Song Yangyang said: "Beijing has explored a characteristic mode of cultural empowerment of urban renewal in the renovation of old factories and old blocks, that is, a mode of respecting the original appearance, planting culture, cross-border integration, and multiple scenes."
At present, the cultural industry park has entered a new stage of transformation and upgrading and seeking high-quality development. It not only needs to strengthen the stock renewal and expand the carrying space of the cultural industry, but also needs to open the "enclosure" for the park to integrate and coexist with business districts, communities and blocks to realize cultural The organic unity of production, commercial consumption, and urban life.
"Using culture to fully activate assets and blocks in the traditional sense from both ends of demand and supply." Song Yangyang said.
Under the guidance of the relevant policies of the Beijing Municipal Government, cultural industrial parks with distinctive characteristics are becoming a carrier of urban renewal, an innovative place for cultural and technological integration, a gathering place for high-quality cultural enterprises, and a punch-in place for citizens' cultural consumption...
A city is a place to live and a place for the soul.
The cultural industry park not only revitalizes the old city of Beijing, but also gives urban residents more space and possibilities for a better life.
Looking forward to the exploration of cultural empowerment of urban renewal, the coordinated development of the city, the environment and the industry, and the fragrance of culture to nourish more people.