Purpose and background
Located in Danzhai County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, China. The project aims to revitalise the abandoned Danzhai mercury mine site, restore the population return and promote economic development of Danzhai County. Danzhai mercury mine was founded after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (1949).
In its heyday period the rich mercury mineral resources made great contributions to the national economic construction in the heyday period, but due to the exhaustion of mineral resources and backward technological means, the mining area was abandoned in the 1990s.
Nowadays, Danzhai County has gradually begun to develop tourism with the support of the state. Danzhai mercury mine site has a certain scale of industry architectural complex with great development potential.
Planning and design
In terms of planning strategy, I make full use of the terrain advantage of the site which is located in a valley, with the goal of building a site park for orienteering, hoping to enhance regional visibility by holding large-scale professional events, and then promote the development of regional tourism and economic income.
The design makes maximum use of the industrial site buildings in the mining area, extracts the prototype of the existing buildings for further evolution, retains the structure of the damaged buildings and uses new materials to repair and reinforce them, so as to show the original appearance of the industrial heritage to tourists.
The construction of the orienteering park and the protection of industrial heritage are complementary, and will finally make the abandoned mercury mine become a new driving force for the development of the county.