The Legal Dilemmas in Achieving Sustainability Goals in Old Factory Redevelopment and the Response Pathways of Design Thinking

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62517/jmsd.202512626

Author(s)

Yongyi Li

Affiliation(s)

Foshan University, Foshan, Guangdong, China

Abstract

Old factory redevelopment plays a critical role in urban renewal and ESG-oriented sustainable transformation. However, the achievement of sustainability goals is frequently constrained by legal bottlenecks, including rigid land-use regulation, ambiguous industrial heritage protection standards, and insufficient enforcement of green building requirements. Existing studies often address legal or design issues separately, lacking an integrated interdisciplinary perspective. This study constructs a “Legal Barriers–Design Responses–ESG Value Transformation” analytical framework and conducts a comparative case analysis of representative projects in China, Europe, and the United States. The findings reveal that China primarily faces procedural complexity and vague regulatory standards, while Europe and the United States are characterized by highly codified legal systems and rigid institutional constraints. Across regions, design thinking-through functional flexibility, reversible renovation, prototype testing, and modular green retrofits-emerges as a mediating mechanism that enables sustainable transformation within regulatory boundaries. Based on the comparative analysis, this paper proposes a Legal–Design Collaboration Toolkit to support policymakers and designers in aligning regulatory compliance with design innovation in old factory redevelopment.

Keywords

Component; Old Factory Redevelopment; Legal Dilemmas; Design thinking; ESG; Industrial Heritage; Urban Renewal

References

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