Campus Culture Competition - Railway Theme Park Renovation and Cultural Discovery
Foreword
Since its foundation, North Central University has been a school founded on military industry. To this day, the school's campus culture is still dominated by military industry culture. However, as a non-military student, we have very little access to military-related things, which leads to a distance between us and the campus culture, and even more so for ordinary people in the society.
Our school has a lot of unique scenery, like the Erlong Mountain, the railway station and so on, all of which are popular attractions. Why not make these features part of our campus culture? A unique culture that is closer to life will allow students to increase their sense of identity and belonging to the school, and it will also allow people in the community to be more willing to come and learn about our school. Just like whenever I go home for holidays and talk to my high school classmates about our university, I don't say that my university is the first school of the People's Military Industry, which is alienating to most people. I'm all about the fact that we had a railway station on our campus that still had trains parked on it, or that we had a mountain on our campus that we could go up every weekend to see the view.
However, the current Railway Theme Park at our school only transforms the railway line into a walkway, and the parked trains are not open. Students are unable to get close to the trains and the platforms are in a state of disrepair. The platforms are also closed due to the COVID-19, resulting in a plummeting presence of the railway theme park, which should be a scenic spot on campus.
Visible Culture - Railway Theme Park Renovation
A train carriage is like a person. Even if the appearance is good-looking, just put there, over time will produce distance. The only way to let people really feel her charm is to enter her heart.
Under this scenario, we propose:
Is it possible to carry out a more in-depth transformation of the existing Railway Theme Park, so that the enclosed train carriages can be turned into convenient facilities providing various services to teachers and students?
This is not a pipe dream, and as of now there have been numerous cases of train transformation across the country. Take Dalian's Train Town as an example, in 2017, the Dalian government transformed 20 abandoned train carriages to create a youth entrepreneurial community integrating culture, creativity and commerce, which includes a variety of convenient projects such as convenience stores, florists and chain restaurants.
Modelled on a train town, and with reference to the actual needs of teachers and students at school, we can use the existing double-decker 25B carriages, or use other abandoned carriages, to renovate the interior. Expected renovation goals include but are not limited to: restaurants, beverage shops, study rooms, lounges, recreation rooms, etc. The main body of the interior still maintains the interior style of the original SYZ25B, with new water and electricity pipelines and fire prevention facilities, supplemented by historical information and photo exhibitions of Shanglan Village Station. In addition, several carriages can be provided for the exhibition and sale of students' creative projects and design works. In terms of external painting, the original orange and white paintwork of SYZ25B can be restored, and the train section signs can be posted in the middle of the outside of the carriages, and the contents can be customised to be related to North University of China. Below is the schematic diagram of the renovation:
1. Restaurants and beverage shops that provide dining services to students and teachers
2. Exhibition halls and galleries as railway theme park expansion
3. Bookstores and study rooms for students
For the part of peripheral facilities, the wooden platforms are restored, and elements such as rain shelters, clocks and station signs are added in the style of modern Chinese stations. Or collect pictures of Shanglancun Station and restore its platform style. In order to prevent students from entering the interior of the railway, railings can be added to the carriages' joints, before and after the platforms.
Untouchable Culture - Uncovering Railway Culture
When it comes to the actual transformation of train carriages, we must not forget the deep history and culture behind them.
As the only railway station in China located on a university campus, Shanglancun Station is inextricably linked to North University of China. Before it ceased passenger service in 2008, two pairs of trains ran daily to provide commuter service to downtown Taiyuan for all students, faculty, and staff of the university and the villagers of Shanglan. In order to commemorate these historical footprints, we proposed the ‘NUC Express’ IP, through which we hope to incorporate the theme park into the university's overall publicity, and issue NUC-themed train tickets, train-themed metal pendants and other cultural and creative content internally. Externally, the theme park will be widely publicised as a special feature of North University of China.
Based on this IP, we have initially designed two souvenirs:
1. The ‘NUC Express’ badge, inspired by the locomotives of the trains stopping at the Railway Theme Park, with the addition of images of the main building of North University of China and the station building of Shanglancun Station.
2. ‘NUC Express’ train section signs. The number of commuter trains that used to run between Taiyuan and Shanglanchun stations is used, and the former ‘Ordinary Rapid Train’ logo has been changed to ‘NUC Express’.
Conclusion
As a university student, and as a railway enthusiast, I am aware that there are a number of railway enthusiasts and photography enthusiasts on campus who used the station, trains and tracks as a location prior to COVID-19, and there is no small amount of enthusiasm and anticipation for the campus railway. Although the interior of the railway is now closed for COVID-19, we hope that the university will upgrade the train section of the railway theme park and look forward to opening it again to students and the community with a new look sometime in the future.