The Conservation and Reuse Project of Liddell Bros. Packing Plant, Wuhan Won UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards For Cultural Heritage Conservation in 2019

Liddell Bros. Packing Plant in Wuhan, China (photo/ the Publicity Department of the Jiang’an district committee)

Recently, the conservation and reuse project of Liddell Bros. Packing Plant, Wuhan, China received UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards For Cultural Heritage Conservation in 2019, which was also the first one to win the award in Wuhan.

Since the establishment in 2000, the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation Programme, has recognized the efforts of private individuals and organizations that have successfully restored and conserved structures and buildings of heritage value in the region. In 2019, China received four rewards of conservation and one award of New Design in Heritage Contexts.

The UNESCO conservation experts praised that the conservation of Liddell Bros. Packing Plant contributed to preserving China’s richly diverse industrial heritage, celebrating an early 20th -century architectural typology that is rapidly disappearing. The project team showed their respects for the site’s former state, taking the approach of minimal intervention as seen in the careful repairs and the preservation of the building’s historic patina. They also successfully balanced the protection of its historical significance with modern requirements for its current and future use.

Liddell Bros. Packing Plant, founded in 1905, is located in Qingdao road, Jiang’an district in Wuhan, China. It was the first cotton packing plant established by British, serving as a key industrial heritage to witness the development of modern industry and commerce in Wuhan, and now it is listed as Municipal cultural relic protection sites.