Research on Reconstruction Design of Exterior Wall Materials and Structures of Industrial Architectural Heritage

With the advent of the post-industrial era, China’s traditional industrial industry has gradually declined or transformed, leaving a large number of industrial buildings abandoned and idle. A majority of these existing industrial building heritages were built with original facade design, which cannot meet the requirements of the time and no longer fits into the new urban interface. From the perspective of language relationship in architecture, building skin and building space are two vital interdependent elements, and the study of building materials as a carrier has a significant impetus to the exploration of building skin. Therefore, the external wall material has naturally become an important factor directly related to the design and performance of the renovation of the industrial building heritages. Its performance and form largely influence or determine the possible ways and means of the transformation of the heritage facades. How should material performance be used to preserve the historical imprint of industrial heritage while conforming to contemporary aesthetics? What are the rules of material performance in the renovation of industrial buildings? These are the issues that needs to be considered and studied in the transformation of industrial building heritage.This paper studies the exterior wall materials and structures in the renovation of industrial building heritage facades, and uses reconstruction theory as a methodology to sort out effective strategies and methods for the material performance of industrial building heritage facade renovation. First it summarizes and elaborates the classification and performance characteristics of the materials of heritage facades as well as the principles and methods of facades transformation. Later it focuses on the practice and development of the renovation of facades in China’s industrial building heritages, taking the reform practice of Nanjing Hutchison Factory as an example. Combing the analysis and summary of the practical project with the theory, this paper helps improve the theoretical system of architectural skin materials within the scope of architectural design theory, summarizes the design concepts consistent with the current view, and conclude the corresponding architectural skin design strategy and methods.