Lo-Fi Adaptive Re-Use in the Ouseburn Valley: What the Physical Materiality of Everyday Historical Industrial Buildings Can Tell Us About Sustaining Cultural and Creative Clusters

Abstract

In the adaptive re-use of buildings, the physicality of buildings—the way they are designed, planned, constructed and maintained—has fallen out of fashion in favour of socio-economic conceptualisations and critical urban interpretations of the redevelopment process. However, the materiality of buildings plays a key part in how locations are re-produced in response to socio-economic circumstances—in this case, the creation and sustaining of cultural and creative clusters. In response, this paper adopts a forensic approach to the characteristics of physical buildings in order to develop an original taxonomy of lo-fi adaptive features and interventions that enable the authors to infer which types and aspects of industrial buildings lend themselves to sustaining cultural and creative clusters. The focus on lo-fi interventions is an original contribution to the adaptive re-use literature where attention tends to focus on more formal and traditional design-based interactions with existing buildings. In doing so, the research utilises a comparative case study approach of several former industrial buildings associated with the contemporary independent food and drink industry in the Ouseburn Valley cultural and creative quarter of Newcastle upon-Tyne in England. The research finds that it is the functional tolerance and malleability of the case study buildings—their inherent adaptive capacity, that in part helps to sustain the cultural and creative cluster in this location.

1. Introduction

There has been considerable research into the role cultural and creative clusters play in city tourism [1], regional development [2] and the tension between regeneration and cultural uniqueness [3], displacement and gentrification [4]. However, there has been less attention paid to the characteristics and tensions that enable historical cultural and creative clusters to consolidate and stabilise in the medium to long term, particularly as it relates to the physical built environment. In response, the primary aim of this paper is to examine this situation through the lo-fi adaptive re-use of everyday historical buildings in the Ouseburn Valley in Newcastle upon-Tyne, UK. This is in order to contribute new knowledge to the fields of cultural and creative clusters, the role of the contemporary independent food and drink industry in these clusters, analysis and conservation of historical buildings, emerging analysis of lo-fi interventions in the built environment and also the broader field of urban regeneration and renewal.

The paper seeks to uncover those building typologies that enable creative businesses, and their related industries, to start up, endure and even move on, allowing new business ventures to move into the Ouseburn cultural and creative quarter. Chapain and Sagot-Duvauroux [1] argue that the terminology—cultural/creative quarters/clusters/districts (CCC)—is often used interchangeably and that there is a great deal of ambiguity in this language. In this paper, cultural and creative cluster is the main point of reference. The Ouseburn Valley is a cluster of historical and contemporary cultural (music, pottery, performing arts, literature) and creative (advertising, photography, design, publishing) industries. The term lo-fi can be just as ambiguous and is considered here to involve the informal adaptation of buildings that recognise and harness inherent imperfections. Meanwhile, everyday historical buildings in this paper are considered to be historical small to medium size brick-built buildings associated with relatively low value historical industries that are not listed (lo-fi adaptation and everyday historical buildings are considered in further depth in Section 2).

Furthermore, the paper specifically focuses on the contemporary independent food and drink sector. Successful cultural and creative clusters typically include a rich mix of businesses, exhibition and performance space and food and drink-related activity. This rich mix of activity intersects and interacts in order for the previously industrial location to self-sustain while also providing attractive conditions for local visitors and tourists [5]. The independent food and drink venues support the overall Ouseburn Valley cultural and creative quarter by providing informal meeting spaces during the day and night while also themselves hosting live music, creating pottery, and even brewing their own produce, which in itself is exhibited to visitors in a live environment.

The built environment, in this case every day non-listed historical buildings, helps make up the physical reality of cultural and creative clusters alongside infrastructure and public space [5]. While there is some literature dealing with the physical aspects of building adaptation [6], and there is also a parallel literature in the architecture domain, considering the design considerations of adaptive re-use (see a recent appraisal of the adaptive re-use literature by Lanz and Pendlebury [7], this is relatively rare in the historical non-listed building domain. However, broadly speaking, current research looks at the junctures of the built environment with external factors [8]: for example, those properties that could be suitable for conversion into new use, their concentration, their relationship with embodied carbon or the quality of the adaptation. Lanz and Pendlebury [7] are a notable exception in this field, charting a slow process towards more conceptual approaches in the architectural field, while Muldoon-Smith and Moreton [9] and Muldoon-Smith and Greenhalgh [10] have shown the relational complexity of adaptive re-use and urban planning.

The paper develops an initial set of conceptual tools that enable the analysis of the relationship between physical building and building users in cultural and creative clusters. This approach evokes the tenets of new materialism [11], arguing that materiality has the power to influence society and also psychological concepts of affordance [12], where characteristics of an object, in this case a building, frame how it can be used based on the capabilities of the user. Taking this viewpoint forward, the paper postulates a set of specifically physical relations, “material structure”, “form”, “detail” and “scale and proportion”—contending that these elements and their specific characteristics are not neutral building variables but rather act as creative interfaces that, in part, enable, (re)organise and sometimes constrain the evolution and consolidation of cultural and creative clusters. The aim of this approach is to move beyond conceptualisations of the building as a simple container towards a viewpoint that sees the building as part of an interaction with its user and the continual reproduction of cultural and creative clusters. In terms of the scope of this particular paper, the authors do not concentrate on the user/human interaction with the physical building; rather, this is inferred through the method of visual analysis deployed in this paper. The user/human narrative in lo-fi adaptation is revisited in the conclusion as an opportunity for further research.

The primary research question that guides this study is what role do the physical characteristics of historical industrial buildings play in sustaining cultural and creative clusters? The objectives of the study are to first set out a range of everyday historical buildings in the Ouseburn Valley that form the objects of this study, and then to examine the physical relations that have influenced the lo-fi adaptation of these buildings in the independent food and drink sector, before setting out the commonalities found across the sample of buildings with a view to informing future practice in this domain.

The originality of the approach rests in the conceptual utility as the first known holistic examination of building characteristics as they relate to the often-hidden lo-fi adaptation of historical industrial buildings in cultural and creative clusters. The research novelty is found in the broadening and connection of concepts found in the respective physical building, cultural and creative cluster and contemporary independent food and drink industry domains and the merging of processes taking place in all three via the attention given to specific material relations. Research significance is found in the information provided for governments, building users, policy makers and property managers around the world who are seeking to evaluate specific physical building interfaces in terms of how they influence the durability of cultural and creative clusters.

The proceeding sections of this paper first present a literature review, placing the built environment and lo-fi adaptation in the context of traditional studies in the built environment and allied subjects, outlining the gap in knowledge that guides this study and underlying research questions and objectives. It then presents the methodological underpinning of the paper before presenting the central findings and discussion based on a case study enquiry of a selection of buildings in the Ouseburn Valley district of Newcastle upon-Tyne. The paper then concludes by outlining the contribution of the paper to academic enquiry, some limitations, and consequent opportunities for further research.

2. Theoretical Background

Research into redundant buildings and consequent adaptation is not new. In recent decades, researchers have studied this transient activity through a variety of perspectives; those interested in obsolescence and depreciation [13]; those interested in the adaptation of vacant properties and the wider built environment [7,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21]; and those who want to map the characteristics of vacancy [20,21,22,23]. Indeed, it is also apparent that research into the relationship between adaptive re-use, heritage, and cultural and creative clusters [24,25,26] does exist.

However, broadly speaking, there is little consideration given to the complex intersections between the materiality of a given building and the adaptation process in research relating to cultural and creative clusters particularly as it relates to their respective longevity. However, exceptions do exist: for example, Wijngaarden and Hracs [27], De Matteis [28] and Hutton [29] with their respective analysis of the interplay between cultural and creative clusters, affective atmosphere and built form. These studies tend to focus on the comparison between location and largely surface-level analysis of building type and external analysis. To look at this material line of enquiry in more detail, we have not utilised comparative research between locations. Rather, we have used a form of comparative analysis in the micro context—between buildings and individual building aspects—in a similar way to how Howland and Keyser [8] have argued for a new set of conceptual tools to understand the interaction between the built environment, biotic and health processes.

There are several definitions of lo-fi—the term originated in music sound production and described imperfections in the recording process [30]. However, more recently, the term has taken on new meaning in wider society associated with less polished informal experimentation, a come-as-you-are attitude, recognition of imperfections, and self-sufficiency [31]. The paper applies this ethos to the building characteristics of historical buildings and how they lend themselves to lo-fi intervention—in this case, in the contemporary independent food and drink industry. The paper places particular emphasis on historical small to medium size brick-built buildings associated with relatively low value historical industries. The paper intentionally avoids looking at listed buildings, instead looking at those buildings that are perhaps less architecturally original and culturally significant but typically take up a far larger proportion of the everyday historical built environment.

The authors consider lo-fi building adaptations to be the amendment of building structure and the introduction of bespoke and pre-manufactured elements to facilitate affordable design solutions. Taking forward the idea of affordances introduced earlier, the buildings analysed in this paper provide a relatively blank canvas for building owners and tenants to carry out lo-fi adaptations without the need to radically overhaul a buildings space plan or its structural nature. Evoking Lynch’s [32] arguments of good fit between activity and built form, this is because they are relatively long life and loose-fit in terms of how they have been constructed in the first place [33]. For example, they are relatively narrow with good access to natural light. These buildings also have open floor plans without structural columns, which enables the subdivision and reorganisation of space. In addition, while these buildings are not listed, they use robust and attractive building materials. This lo-fi focus also creates the opportunity to consider a socio-material creative process of building adaptation largely hidden in the academic literature, one taking place between building occupiers and a given building without the need for architects or interior designers.

That is not to say that design does not take place; rather, the design interaction and decision-making process takes place in a great deal of cases without the third-party intervention of a professional designer—rather, often, iterative decisions are taken by the owner or occupier and occasionally with the help of a fit-out specialist. In this sense, lo-fi adaptation is a creative process itself and has some similarities with the recent literature on DIY and guerrilla urban interventions, where communities have intervened in their urban environments in the absence or disappearance of local public institutions [34]. However, while DIY focuses on the ingrained process of ‘doing it yourself,’ and in the urban sense some aspects of activism when public and private stakeholders are absent, the lo-fi amendment is different. Rather, the focus is on harnessing and then satisfaction with imperfection, as a relatively stripped back and just-enough philosophy in the choice of materials is apparent.

3. Materials and Method

In order to evaluate this process in more depth, an evaluation of the theoretical literature was undertaken, predominantly from the architectural design field, to establish and define the key characteristics and considerations for the physical analysis of this lo-fi adaptation. In establishing the criteria, it was important to identify the building characteristics that act as the primary interfaces for lo-fi adaptation as they relate to the adaptation and amendment of their interior spaces. The selected analytical and theoretical criteria for this analysis is presented in

Table 1. Conceptual framework.

Physical Relation	Definition	Literature
Material	Material has traditionally dictated the scale and proportion of buildings and limited availability of a variety of materials and thus has contributed to many distinctive traditional styles of building. During the 19th century, materials became more widely distributed. With the increased industrialisation of material production, building components achieved a greater level of standardisation, which in turn dictated aspects of scale, proportion, span, and fenestration.	Baker [35]; Brunskill [36]; Deplazes [37]; Hopkins [38]; Kemsley and Platt [39]; Unwin [40]
Structure	Structure can be seen as the arrangement of material which supports the building as a whole. As building technology has advanced, the legibility of structure has decreased. Looking at a stone building, the composition of the structure is legible, one stone arranged against another. Historically, there has been a link between materiality and structure, the legibility of which has informed many design styles and movements.	Baker [35]; Brunskill [36]; Deplazes [37]; Hopkins [38]; Kemsley and Platt [39]; Unwin [40]
Form	Form dictates the overall shape of a building externally, but it also defines the interior shape of a given building. Form historically contributed to the function and visual appearance of a given building. The predominant form in mature urban environments being four walls and a pitched roof, the 19th and 20th centuries saw a greater use of flat and mono-pitched roofs and new forms emerging alongside technological/industrial progress. Additions such as chimneys and adaptations such as amalgamation further dictate the overall form. This correlates directly with the evolution and physical changes to building design based on use and adaptation.	Brunskill [36]; Kemsley and Platt [39]; LeFebvre, H. [41]; Moore and Allen [42]; Unwin [40]
Detail	Detail can be seen as the individual material elements which make up the whole or the materials and elements in the configuration of internal fit-out and function. The selection of elements, from construction materials and components to ironmongery and finishes, can be considered details.	Hopkins [38], Unwin [40];
Proportion	Proportion is the relationship between the width and the height of the building and the relationships between individual elements and the whole. Proportion contributes to the physical and aesthetic characteristics of a building, but it also can be associated with use.	Hopkins [38]; Moore and Allen [42]; Unwin [40]
Scale	Scale influences the perception of a building and the way in which the apparent size is perceived. Scale is linked with comparison; in order for elements to seem large, others seem to be subordinated. Size is not the same as scale; the arrangement of large and small elements affects the way in which the apparent size is perceived.	Hopkins [38], Moore and Allen [42], Unwin [40]

.

This conceptual framework was then taken forward to conduct a visual survey of the case study buildings and to analyse the physical relations—drawing out commonalities and aspects that aid lo-fi interventions.

3.1. Location and Case Studies (The Ouseburn Valley)

The Ouseburn Valley (see Figure 1) is the creative heart of Newcastle upon-Tyne [43]. In recent decades, the Ouseburn Valley has been transformed from post-industrial wasteland to the northeast of England’s primary cultural and creative quarter [44], benefiting from concerted public sector investment, community-led regeneration and subsequent private sector backing [45]. The area now combines contemporary social and culture venues with the historical built environment associated with glass (in the 17th century), flour mills (18th century), pottery, lead words and iron foundries (19th century) and latterly small-to medium-sized industrial units associated with the car, paint, and scrap industries [46]. It is this interaction, and occasional tension, between contemporary building use and building history that helps define the Ouseburn’s tone and character [44]. The Ouseburn is now a mixture of rare examples of multi-storey buildings from the 17th century period (typically listed for their architectural merit), traditional brick-built mills and warehouses (typically between one and four story) and more recent single-story buildings [47,48].

Much of the traditional industry was redundant by the end of the Second World War. The area’s previous prosperity was based on the productivity of relatively lower value industries which began to decline in the 1980s due to international competition [49]. The result was a depreciating-built environment, poor infrastructure, suboptimal economic performance and higher crime and anti-social behaviour levels [46]. In response, the Ouseburn was declared an Industrial Improvement Area in the late 1970s, and public funding began to be invested in infrastructure improvements [49]. By the 1990s, the conversion of larger buildings into small units began to attract micro-businesses, particularly in the arts and crafts, music, and ICT/multimedia sectors [47] alongside a burgeoning independent music, food, and drink culture [44]. This was complemented by a succession of regeneration strategies that leveraged in international, regional, and local public sector funding in parallel with conservation management, recognising the inter-relationship between economic and social prosperity and the physical environment and infrastructure of the area [46]. Despite this success, the historical significance of the Ouseburn Valley is generally considered to outweigh its architectural merit [47]. The result is a concentration of small- to medium-sized industrial buildings, typically absent from statutory protection from government, and underpinned by relatively low rental levels. This set of physical, economic, and social conditions opens the opportunity for relatively lo-fi building interventions, the object of this study, and an exposition of how the historical development of the area continues to influence these interventions.

3.2. Object of Study: Everyday Buildings in the Ouseburn Valley

As introduced in Section 2, everyday non-listed historical buildings were chosen as the focus of study as they receive little attention in the literature but make up a considerable proportion of the built environment. The focus of the paper is on five case study buildings. The paper does not attempt to provide an exhaustive sample of all of the historical buildings in the location; rather, the methodological aim of the paper is to apply a detailed visual analysis to understand the role physical characteristics of historical industrial buildings play in sustaining cultural and creative clusters

The buildings selected for analysis share the following criteria:

• Typologically, all buildings are small- to medium-scale former industrial buildings.
• The buildings in the study are all non-listed, as the focus is on the ordinary.
• All businesses are independent and non-franchised.
• All businesses are in the independent food and drink sector.

The specific buildings are outlined below (

Table 2. Comparative case studies.

Brinkburn St Brewery, Est 2015
	Brinkburn St Brewery is located in the former Maling Pottery. Converted and adapted over a period of two years, it has been the location of a brewery, taphouse and eatery since 2015. Founded by Managing Director Lee Renforth, its ales are sold on the premises and for retail. The building comprised a flexible space for events and a kitchen, bar, and dining area. The front of house is split level with two open spaces, one incorporating a bar area and servery with fixed seating. The other is a performance space with a stage and flexible seating.
Kiln, Est 2017
	Kiln is located in an annex of the former Maling Pottery and continues this tradition. Established by an Arts graduate and potter, it functions as a bar and eatery but also a working pottery providing classes and ceramics for retail. The front of house is an open space incorporating a bar area and servery with fixed and flexible seating.
Tyne Bank Brewery, Est 2011
	Tyne Bank Brewery is located in a former tile factory. Founded in 2011 and locating here in 2016, the brewery was one of the first of its kind in the Ouseburn area, establishing contracts with leading supermarkets and seeing its ales sold in bars throughout the UK. In 2022, in the wake of the pandemic, it was taken over by new investors Project Barrel, who have retained the brewing operation and are developing its potential as an events venue. The main space is open with dismountable seating and furniture.
The Grove, Est 2023
	The Grove is located in a former stables and adjoining industrial unit in Byker, Newcastle. The reconfiguration of the buildings and their unification took over a year with input from friends and associates with a variety of related skills. Primarily a performance venue and bar with outdoor spaces, garden, and roof terrace, it stocks locally produced craft beer and has become a popular venue for local and national bands. The front of house is two linked open spaces, one incorporating a bar area and servery with fixed seating. The other is a performance space with a stage and flexible seating.
The Old Coal Yard, Est 2018
	The Old Coal Yard was set up by brothers-in-law Andy Aitchison and Carl Kennedy who started Northern Alchemy Brewery. Wanting to establish an events space and brewery, they took on the current building, which is a former coal yard and distribution unit. At present, it houses the brewery and a bar, with basic dismountable pub furniture, with a view to developing and investing in the building fit-out as the business grows.

).

The buildings examined in this paper share similar characteristics in terms of period, material and construction. Brinkburn Street Brewery and Kiln are both located in a former ceramics factory building split over two floors. Prior to the establishment of both businesses, the upper floor was a music studio and rehearsal space with the lower floor largely unused. Tyne Bank Brewery occupies a former tile-making factory, which was under the original ownership reconfigured to house a brewery with little change to the existing plan. The Grove and The Old Coal Yard both occupy smaller-scale industrial units/workshops that date to the early 20th century; during their lifecycles, they have been garages and small industrial workshops.

The Grove was an old stable and separate industrial unit which had been used as a garage. Both buildings were joined to create the current building. The Old Coal Yard was a vehicle workshop, one of many in the local area, prior to it being used as a brewery and events space. The activities conducted in these buildings all required open space, either for manufacturing processes and storage or different aspects of engineering, such as vehicle maintenance. It is the open nature of the primary spaces in these buildings which makes them suitable for adaptation and facilitates their use in accommodating sit-down customers in restaurant and bar contexts.

Visual analysis was employed to record and understand the respective materiality of each building and the broader location of each [40]. The analysis technique allowed the authors to understand the materiality of buildings by examining how different materials are used, perceived, and interacted with during building change. The objective of the method, in this case, is to understand the lo-fi adaptations users are making to each building to sustain their business, evaluating how each space was serving its particular function, how the identified building characteristics had helped frame this process and assessing how easily the spaces were adapted by the respective users.

The on-site visual analysis was carried out over a two-week period in the Ouseburn Valley during the spring of 2024 using handheld and supported camera equipment in both internal and external conditions. Consent was obtained from all owners and/or duty managers to undertake the study by direct contact in person or via email. The timing of the data collection was organised around quiet periods, primarily pre-lunchtime service. This was arranged so that it did not inconvenience staff or customers, as the venues tend to be busy. This also benefitted the study as it allowed for a more in-depth investigation of each of the spaces, allowing for greater freedom in recording and interpreting them. It also afforded the opportunity to access bar areas and record the spaces from vantage points that would otherwise be in use.

Photography was conducted to align with the analysis criteria, so on-site observation could take place but also reflective analysis from the data collected. The same approach was used for all of the sites, firstly capturing the space holistically from the entrance, then the opposing end, before examining the structural and architectural details within each space. This enabled a succinct record of the subjects to be captured, which aligned with the criteria being examined; this process of visual analysis is described in

Table 3. Process of visual analysis.

Material	Including visual analysis of material, recorded via notes and photography; identification of primary and secondary structural elements and their use/location; impact of this on internal space, fixture, and finish; comparative analysis across sample
Structure	Including analysis of building structure in terms of legibility and adaptation; recording and analysis of legible structure and its relationship to internal space and dynamics
Form	Including analysis of characteristics of buildings in terms of space in relation to shape, volume and freedom of plan
Detail	Including evaluation of existing and retrofitted elements in relation to ease of adaptability and legibility of services and functional elements, considering interior fit and finish
Proportion	Including visual analysis of the size of the spaces encountered and the impact of the built form and typologically on the suitability of spaces for adaptation and amendment
Scale	Including interpretation of spaces in terms of size, use and function

. Although not pivotal to this specific study, the premises were also visited during peak periods, lunch service and dinner at weekends, so the operation of the main service areas could be observed and understood.

4. Summary of Results

The theoretical criteria were reduced from six to four attributes for ease of analysis: “material and “structure”, “form”, “detail” and “proportion and scale”. This is because the analysis of buildings often focuses on the interplay and interrelatedness of elements and concepts. Material and structure in relation to the buildings examined in this paper are inexorably linked due to the modular and structural nature of masonry construction [40]. Similarly, the use of imperial brick in the relevant buildings creates an interplay between scale and proportion with the dimensional properties of brickwork informing the proportional characteristics of these structures. Due to these interplays and for the purpose of this study, material and structure and scale and proportion have been combined to provide a more holistic examination of both sets of analytical characteristics [42].

To aid presentation, a summary of results is presented in Figure 2 combining visuals of the respective building characteristics with analysis of adaptation and lo-fi interaction before a proceeding discussion.

4.1. Material and Structure

The buildings surveyed were constructed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which is significant in terms of material and construction. The primary structure in all instances is masonry: in these examples, imperial brick. The secondary structure in all instances is steel either as beams or unitised roof trusses apart from the Old Coal Yard. There is a commonality across the buildings surveyed in terms of primary and secondary structure. All examples are from the same period, are former manufacturing units and draw upon similar construction materials and techniques. There is a legibility to their assembly and familiarity for trades and owners, as similar construction techniques and materials are found in domestic buildings of the period. The unitisation of primary structure allows for amendment and intersection with other building elements, providing greater opportunities for the unification of spaces and adjoining buildings as well as the incorporation and addition of contemporary structures. The minimal structural reconfiguration required in these building types makes them ideal for lo-fi intervention, reducing the overall cost of conversion.

Major structural changes are limited to The Grove, which sought to unify two existing buildings. Minor amendments to openings in the building’s fabric, such as windows and doors, are made easier for similar reasons, as they share a proportional relationship with unitised brickwork. In these instances, structural work was carried out by professionals and proved to be the costliest aspect of renovation. Lightweight roofing materials and structures provide flexibility and allow for more controlled offsite manufacture. Pre-manufactured elements provide standardisation in terms of size and quality but also, due to the volume of production, cost-effective alternatives to more traditional roofing components and materials. The majority of these solutions are typical of industrial buildings such as factories and warehouses. In turn, this maintains a material link with the existing building but also contributes to the overall aesthetic. In summary, the buildings examined all had shared characteristics; the use of masonry construction is still in keeping with the majority of domestic construction in Britain. Therefore, the understanding and skill sets required for amendment and alteration are commonplace within the building industry. Although it is the costliest example, The Grove did not require specialist contractors to unify both buildings, as the processes and material requirements differ little from the amendment of older domestic properties due to shared materiality and construction techniques.

4.2. Form

The primary form of the buildings surveyed is similar and reflective of long-established building practice in the UK. All of the buildings carry variations of pitched roofs and are largely rectilinear and open in plan. The open-plan spaces required for manufacturing activities provide opportunities for amendment in terms of internal form, subdivision, and the reconfiguration of ceiling heights and spaces. Deviations from this form are dictated by the road layout, possibly influenced by earlier development, as in the example of Kiln with its tapering plan. The regularity of plan and density of historic development allows for greater opportunity to link separate buildings, as seen with The Grove, joining two adjacent buildings of different sizes to create a food and drink venue with a separate performance area. This also reduces the need for non-standard elements and allows for greater ease of plan and expansion. The industrial nature of these buildings housing manufacturing and storage necessitated open spaces in plan, providing large areas of floor space, ideally suited to both brewing and dining, with little need for amendment. The large open plan of The Tyne Bank Brewery was ideally suited to integrating a functioning brewery and associated customer space. For the most part, the spaces are rectilinear and in turn reduce the need for complex interior design solutions.

4.3. Detail

The shared characteristics of factory-type units provide open spaces that lend themselves to bar/dining areas and can be subdivided for function and use with lightweight stud walls. The introduction of lightweight structures and partitions has been utilised by all examples to plan and shape the space. In all instances, it was the owners and non-professionals who reconfigured the interiors of these buildings. The materials used in all of the schemes lend themselves to the construction of stud walling, servery and seating arrangements, all of which are comprised of sheet materials and timber carcassing, making use of in situ carpentry and joinery. There is also an associated cost efficiency to the aesthetic response in terms of materiality, with elements being recycled and reclaimed, reinforcing the lo-fi response to this typology.

The open spaces also allow for a more flexible use of pre-manufactured furniture in terms of arrangement and use. The services in all instances are applied to the internal surfaces of the buildings and routed at the ceiling level over longer distances via the existing structure or suspended service trays, again reducing costs. It is also evident that there is a shared pool of knowledge and advice around such adaptations. The community that has arisen in the Ouseburn has formed a network of people linked socially and professionally, forming a community of advice and assistance. Populating these open spaces, with lightweight structural interventions, was facilitated by a lack of compartmentalisation, allowing prospective businesses to install furniture and fixtures but also where needed further subdivide these spaces based on the proposed function and use, as was the case with Kiln establishing a working pottery adjacent to the dining space.

4.4. Scale and Proportion

The suitability of many of these spaces as venues for bar/dining, events and performance is linked to their scale, which is an inherent characteristic of the typology. Factories required good lighting and the space for machinery, workers, and production. High ceiling heights in many of the manufacturing or storage areas of the examined buildings are a shared characteristic which has in effect shaped selection and use. Spaces with lower ceiling heights, and or those which have been reconfigured through screening or segregation, tend to be used for dining purposes, providing a more intimate experience. There is a difference in emphasis between The Old Coal Yard and Tyne Bank Brewery, in comparison to the other examples, in that as largely individual unified spaces, while both have food offers, their focus is on the brewery and bar aspect of operations. The scale and proportion of these buildings makes them ideally suited for accommodating large groups of people, allowing for bar-related footfall and, in the instance of dining establishments, the comfortable accommodation of covers. This is particularly relevant to Brinkburn Street Brewery and The Grove who also accommodate stages and areas for live music.

5. Discussion

It is fair to say that a variety of creative uses (or uses that are supportive of creative uses) could have taken root in these buildings. The fact that these particular uses (brewery, pub, live music, restaurant, café, pottery), rather than others, have sustained in the area is due, in part, to the nature of the creative development in the area, the respective regeneration strategy and local economic conditions. Following Montgomery [5], this can be as a result of the policy objectives that go into making cultural and creative clusters, the approach to ‘making’ places which are deemed to be more rather than less artistic and cultural in the broader senses of the word, and the methods and mechanisms for implementation and ongoing management.

However, following the arguments of Wijngaarden and Hracs [27], we know less about how post-industrial workspaces are assembled, experienced, and leveraged by workers and managers (for example, the unification of the previously adjacent former stables and workshop buildings at the Grove enabled the formation of a unified space that now houses a bar and small concert venue). In particular, we know little about the role the buildings themselves play in the evolution and sustaining of such areas (the robust structure and open plan nature of all five case study buildings provide open, divisible and durable spaces). In this paper, there is an apparent disjuncture between transience—continual change, and the challenge of sustaining cultural and creative clusters, which suggests something more permanent. However, evoking the work of Bauman [50] into liquid modernity, it is the very transience of the buildings—their ability to continually adapt—that enables businesses of this nature to sustain over a period of time (for example, the open plan and the modular nature of brick construction has enabled the Brinkburn Brewery to be a ceramic factory, garage, music studio and rehearsal room and now brewery and pub). As the businesses either individually adapt as their trading conditions change or as new business tenants take over buildings from previous occupants (for example, as the current owners of the Old Coal Yard took over from the previous garage use). Buildings of this nature allow the tenant to readily make changes (for example, the retention of the original floor surface in Kiln enabled the immediate installation of a bar and service area). These changes are implemented often in a stripped-back and low-cost but effective way, particularly in the visually aesthetic sense, which is often key to enabling food and drink-based uses to remain contemporary in challenging economic circumstances (for example, the existing internal roof structure of Tyne Bank has been painted black to emphasise the roof structure and the internal lighting scheme). The converse of this situation would be a more restrictive building that does not allow an existing tenant to adapt or attract a new tenant in the same sector.

This helps to substantiate some of the historical arguments from Montgomery [5], building on Canter [51], who set out the importance and interconnection of ‘activity’, ‘built form’ and ‘meaning’ in cultural and creative clusters—particularly the variety and adaptability of existing building stock. Indeed, Montgomery specifically points out the importance of diversity of uses, particularly as it relates to café ‘culture’—food and drink, in the wider diversity of uses in cultural and creative clusters. Furthering this research has looked at the adaptability of existing building stock, and specific aspects in such buildings, to gain a better understanding of how cultural and creative clusters grow and sustain themselves. Following Hutton [29], it can be seen that existing historical buildings, and their features, are implicated in new industry formations in the Ouseburn Valley—in this case following specialised but quite lo-fi adaptation in the independent food and drink sector (for example, the use of inexpensive stud walling to delineate a space for pottery activity at Kiln).

Furthermore, following Markus [52] and Hutton [29], these same relatively non-descript buildings enable elements of functional continuity in the Ouseburn Valley that help underpin the continuing integrity and authenticity of the area. The historical nature of the buildings and the associated aesthetics enable a defence against the banalisation often seen with more modern commercial buildings.

Findings indicate that the historical affordances built into the case study buildings themselves are structurally conducive to adaptation. This reflects the observation described by Markus that engineers during the period of construction had an ‘intuition that a building was a moving, adjustable object, with a need for empirical controls, analogous to those on machines’ [52] (p. 279)—hence the initial avoidance of design complexity and intentional segregation of space in each building. This is particularly seen in the side-by-side existence of food and drink and brewery production, pottery and music in each building, indicating that the distinctive spaces and built environments in the Ouseburn Valley have been conducive to the ‘revival of specialised industrial production, as well to a (re)creation of spectacle, consumption and entertainment’ [29] (p. 1840).

6. Conclusions

In response to the underlying research question explored in this paper—the role the hysical characteristics of historical industrial buildings play in sustaining cultural and creative clusters—this paper finds that representing key moderating characteristics of buildings goes a step beyond the current literature that rarely examines the particular aspects of buildings, rather only focusing on type or external commentary [27,29]. Our findings reflect how building users interact with these characteristics—in this case through lo-fi building adaptations in the independent food and drink sector. The findings indicate the following:

• The non-descript former industrial buildings in the Ouseburn Valley provide the opportunity for relatively cost-effective adaptation.
• The existing building fabric provides a cue for less formal design and aesthetic interventions that more orthodox or higher-status buildings would not allow for.
• Many of the materials and solutions employed have such connotations, from the use of oriented strand board and plywood for fixed furniture, more reminiscent of do-it-yourself projects, to roofing solutions more associated with industrial buildings.
• This generates a design approach and execution that is more ad hoc, embracing imperfections like other cultural uses of the term lo-fi; this in turn generates a less formal social atmosphere and a distinct identity in the Ouseburn location.

The conceptual approach adopted in this paper sheds further light on the interaction between building characteristics, the interface between physical buildings and the lo-fi building user and the role this plays in sustaining and supporting cultural and creative clusters. This approach opens up a new perspective that (a) links the physical building into more complex understandings of location, moving buildings beyond physical surfaces or containers, (b) opens up a discussion around lo-fi building changes that are largely hidden in the building analysis, design and also creative industry literature and (c) indicates how such buildings, and the independent food and drink sector that uses them, support and sustain cultural and creative locations. Indeed, the lo-fi amendment of these buildings can be seen as a creative process in itself.

While these approaches have utility in guiding limited public funding in cultural and creative clusters, they also help to provide a framework for lo-fi building users considering the adaptation of buildings and also by revealing the lo-fi interaction, shedding light on this often-hidden practice in cultural and creative clusters. The paper argues that this hidden process of lo-fi building change suggests the need for a more active role for materiality in the social sciences, and in this case the development of cultural and creative clusters. Evoking some of the tenets of new materialism, the paper argues that the materiality of buildings, and wider matter within location, is every bit as important as the nature of the business and the cultural activity itself. The lo-fi adaptation of the buildings on the Ouseburn Valley is creative in itself but has also underpinned the sustaining of the cultural and creative cluster by helping to retain and attract businesses. There is considerable potential for those researching cultural and creative clusters and allied subjects to take this approach forward, giving greater attention to the physical concepts seen in the new materiality domain.

Despite these findings, it is important to note some limitations with this research. In arguing for a more interactive understanding of building characteristics and their lo-fi users, the authors are very aware that the users themselves are largely hidden in this paper. Rather, the paper utilised a detailed visual analysis, and its outputs, to depict the process of interaction with the building—by exhibiting these interactions within the paper. While there was not enough space to present the building interface and the user narrative, this potential for additional research is picked up in the remainder of this conclusion. In addition, the authors are conscious that they have only concentrated on a subset of buildings and only one location and specific building use.

That being said, by revealing this under-researched area, the authors hope to provoke new conceptual and practice-based activity in these areas. The research presents a mere first staging post; there is considerable potential for additional enquiry into which building asset types lend themselves to lo-fi interventions and which set of contextual factors support this process. In addition, there is considerable scope to examine in further detail the iterative process of adaptation, particularly as it relates to lo-fi building adaptation. It was very clear the lo-fi interaction with building change was not a sudden process but rather one that takes place intermittently and erratically and typically quite slowly. In addition, the underlying methodology only covered visually singular aspects of a given building, conforming with standard visual analysis typologies. There is considerable scope to examine unique ‘contaminations’ from previous uses and how lo-fi adaptation could be implemented to manage and take advantage of this situation. In addition, the analysis in this paper has focused on ‘front of house’ and visible building aspects; there is additional potential to consider technical buildings systems, such as heating, cooling, or ventilation in relation to adaptation. Complementing this line of enquiry, there is considerable scope for biographical accounts of the building users as they carry out their creative journey. Finally, the authors have concentrated on the contemporary independent food and drink industry; there is considerable potential to study lo-fi building adaptation in other parts of the cultural and creative industries, for example music, cinema, and theatre.