人教高中英语高二上UNIT3-3

Everywhere in the world old buildings, such as schools, hospitals, factories and even churches are left empty because they are no longer needed. It is usually difficult to find other companies to move into the old buildings, because the floor plan -- the size and the number of halls -- does not fit their company. Often, these buildings are pulled down after having stood empty without use for many years.

       Factory 798 in the east of Beijing was a building like that. Once an important army factory in Beijing, Factory 798 was designed by East German architects 1 and built with Russian help in the early 1950s. It is one of the most important examples of factory architecture 2 left from that time. The huge factory halls of brick 3 and glass were built in the 1920s modem 4 style. They are decorated with small round windows that remind you of ships, bent 5 roofs and twenty-foot high walls of glass that make them special when compared with other architecture from the same period. The simple style of the buildings and the fact that they are German set them aside as very different from Chinese architecture.

       When the army factory moved some years ago, the factory buildings were no longer used. Until about a year ago most of the workshops in the factory stood empty. Some art companies asked if they could move into the empty space and rent parts of the factory. This was the beginning of the development of this area into a centre for the arts, bringing together Chinese artists, art companies, musicians, a Japanese teahouse, a Sichuan restaurant, a bookshop and a dance club.

       Old factory buildings have many halls and workshops of different sizes. Painters and other artists can move into the smaller rooms to use them as studios 6 to paint, while music bands rent space to practise. Smaller halls can be changed into shops and restaurants while the main factory hall can be used for concerts, parties and dance festivals.

       Young, beginning artists and musicians often do not have enough money to rent studios or other buildings to practise, perform or even work and live in. They like these buildings because the rooms and halls are often very large, which is good for artists who want to make large objects. Besides, many of these buildings were constructed far from the city, so that people in the neighbourhood are not disturbed when rock musicians move in and practise for a concert.

       Many large cities, such as Liverpool 7 and New York, have had experiments of this kind, with old factories turned into successful arts centres. In almost every city around the world, new uses are given to old buildings. It is a great way to save the architecture from the past.