Re-envisioning the future of Industrial Parks: Case studies in Suzhou

Description

ABSTRACT
This research aims to explore the future of industrial parks and to provide a vision for new urban-industrial complex. Industrial parks have played an important role in facilitating industrialisation and urbanisation in China in the past thirty years. In return, the Integrated City-Industry Development mode has been considered important in China’s New-Type Urbanisation. While due to the transformation of socio-economic structure, the arising of emerging technologies and the upgrading of affiliated industries (e.g., big data, artificial intelligence, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and low-altitude economy, etc.), some existing industrial parks can no longer effectively accommodate the relevant activities (e.g., research & development, prototype testing, manufacturing, operation, etc.). There is an urgent need to regenerate these industrial lands to foster future urban-industrial complex, which has been considered as one of the key tasks in the Action Plan for New-Type Urbanisation in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) and thereafter. To provide an insight into this, this paper reviews the development history of industrial parks in Suzhou, including typical cases located in the Old Town of Suzhou (Gusu District) and in Suzhou Industrial Parks (SIP). Based on a systematic analysis of the interrelationship between “traditional & emerging technologies – the corresponding socio-economic activities and lifestyles – the spatial layout of industrial parks” from a longitudinal perspective, a theoretical framework on industrial park renewal strategies and the associated business models are summarized against a timeline. It is expected that some findings from this research would help re-envision urban-industrial complex in future and thereby inform the renewal of the existing industrial parks towards sustainability standards.

Keywords: Industrial Parks, Urban Renewal, Industrial Upgrading, Urban Morphology, Building Typology.

Period	26 May 2025 → 27 May 2025
Event title	The 6th UNNC Symposium 2025: Urban Transition and Renewable Energies
Event type	Conference
Location	Ningbo, ChinaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International