北京798艺术区所在的地方，是前民主德国援助建设的“北京华北无线电联合器材厂”，即718联合厂。718联合厂于1952年开始筹建，1954年开始土建施工，1957年10月开工生产。
　　

718联合厂是由德国德绍一家建筑机构负责建筑设计、施工，这家建筑机构和当年的包豪斯学校在同一个城市，两者在建筑精神层面上是共通的。其主要特点是：注重满足实用要求；发挥新材料和新结构的技术性能和美学性能；造型简洁，构图灵活多样。这种学派后来被称为包豪斯学派。
　　1964年4月上级主管单位撤消了718联合厂建制，成立了706厂、707厂、718厂、797厂、798厂及751厂。2000年12月，原700厂、706厂、707厂、718厂、797厂、798厂等六家单位整合重组为北京七星华电科技集团有限责任公司。为了配合大山子地区的规划改造，七星集团将部分产业迁出，为了有效利用产业迁出空余的厂房，七星集团将这部分闲置的厂房进行出租。因为园区有序的规划、便利的交通、风格独特的包豪斯建筑等多方面的优势，吸引了众多艺术机构及艺术家前来租用闲置厂房并进行改造，逐渐形成了集画廊、艺术工作室、文化公司、时尚店铺，于一体的多元文化空间。由于艺术机构及艺术家最早进驻的区域位于原798厂所在地，因此这里被命名为北京798艺术区。

The area occupied by Beijing 798 Art Zone was once the place for Beijing North China wireless joint equipment factory (namely, 718 Joint Factory), which was designed and built by the experts of former G.D.R in the 1950s. The Joint Factory was designed to be built in 1952 , constructed from 1954,put into production in October 1957.
The designing task of the 718 Joint Factory was in the charge of a German architectural institution in Dessau, which lied in the same city with Bauhaus school at that time and they two shared the same architectural spirits whose main characteristics are meeting the practical demands; bringing the technical and aesthetic property of new materials and new structure into effect; designing simply and composing pictures vividly with flexibility. That is the genre what later called Bauhaus.
On The April ,1964, the supervisor units canceled the organizational system of 718, established 706,707,718,797,798 and 751. The former six factories of 700, 706, 707, 718, 797, and 798 were reorganized and incorporated into Beijing Sevenstar Science and Technology Co., LTD in December, 2000. To cooperate the reforming plan of Dashanzi Area ,the Seven Group rented out these plants for short term. Attracted by ordered designing, convenient traffic, unique style of Bauhaus architecture, many art organizations and artists came to rent the vacant plants and transformed them, gradually formed a district gathered galleries, art studios, cultural companies, fashion shops etc. As the earliest area where the art organizations and artists moved in located in the original area of 798 factory, this place was named as Beijing 798 Art Zone.