The Impact of Images on the Adaptive Reuse of Post-Industrial Sites

ABSTRACT

The adaptive reuse of industrial heritage has the potential to create distinctive cityscapes. Based on a comparative study of the regeneration of two former brownfield sites in Norway, we analyse the role industrial heritage plays in the initial planning phases. By using branding and brandscaping as a point of departure, we ask how textual and visual presentations are integrated in the early planning documents as a way to signalise the role assigned to industrial heritage. The method used is referred to as an intertextual plan study and combines two methodological stances: a critical reading of planning documents and case study approach. Key terms such as culture, history, quality and conservation are frequently used in the reports. Although a considerable group of photos and images provide positive associations to evoke atmosphere, the actual number of historical buildings and infrastructures selected for adaptive reuse is limited. In the initial planning phases industrial heritage through text and images functions primarily as a rhetoric means in branding the sites’ future character.

KEYWORDS:

• Regeneration
• adaptive reuse
• industrial heritage
• brandscapes
• urban transformation
• cultural heritage

Introduction

Recently, society has recognised the role that heritage plays in contributing desirable and unique qualities to urban spaces. Urban living has become attractive, and the preservation of cultural heritage is now considered a significant factor, seldom identified as a real conflict area within urban planning. Former brownfield sites hold much potential for being transformed into attractive urban neighbourhoods. The two important factors are their proximity to city centres and harbour areas. The heritage dimension of such brownfield sites is an additional potential quality. By adaptive reuse, we mean turning existing buildings, technical structures and land use into flexible and multifunctional units allowing other functions than the original to be performed. Adaptive reuse may be done according to the cultural heritage authorities’ ascertained conservation standards. But adaptive reuse can also be based on a series of other reasons such as economic or environmental concerns.

Post-industrial remains may still hold personal memories for local citizens,¹ and adaptive reuse can add character and uniqueness to large areas undergoing regeneration.² The growth in the adaptive reuse of industrial buildings has been thoroughly investigated by scholars from diverse theoretical backgrounds.³ Much attention has been paid to the rise in waterfront projects⁴, along with the redevelopment of redundant industrial and brownfield sites.⁵

However, the industrial past can also hide difficult memories.⁶ Certain industrial buildings and structures are redefined and included as new categories of monuments, thereby acquiring special relevance as ‘rediscovered’ historic buildings,⁷ or as ‘post-industrial relics’ with refound beauty.⁸ These older buildings also have a shape and size appropriate for new creative uses⁹ and can be seen as one element in a wider municipal plan to enhance culture in its broadest sense for example art, architecture, creative industries, museums).¹⁰ A series of international studies of culture-led regeneration of post-industrial sites exist today.¹¹ It is a research theme that is situated within the well-established broader field of tourism, marketing and placemaking that experiences a continuous flow of contributions from critical researchers as well as professionals within marketing. ¹²

Conflicting interests have emerged between partners involved in larger transformation projects, and Overmann and Mieg underline two major contrasting interests: culture-led initiatives, on the one hand, and the demands on production of contemporary architecture, on the other.¹³ Common to many urban regeneration projects is their entrepreneurial character, and there is a risk involved that transforming industrial districts/waterfronts can lead to a gentrified and commercialised practice overlooking the social needs of future users.

A conservation-based approach requires using a different matrix for adaptive reuse than if the intent behind regeneration is to ‘reimage the city’. In the latter, the focus is on the future reuse rather than past identity as a marker of distinctiveness. There is no universally shared matrix for how to revitalise the remaining structures through adaptive reuse in urban transformation and regeneration. Whether such revitalisation plans are discussed as a sustainable option in pending transformation plans depends on several factors. Locally, plans may differ considerably regarding the degree of remaining buildings left from when the actual planning process started. This necessarily affects the extent to which the adaptive reuse of old structures is a relevant discussion topic. An even more important factor may be the extent to which heritage management experts play a proactive role in placing industrial heritage on the agenda. Cultural heritage plans are used by heritage managers at the local, regional and national levels as a means to assign heritage value to specific sites or objects. Therefore, these plans represent important guidelines for future choices in how they suggest the regeneration, preservation or full transformation of heritage sites. The term ‘regeneration’ is used in our study to describe plans for establishing new neighbourhoods on post-industrial sites in or close to the city centre. As a rather broad term, regeneration can refer to transformation and preservation. It is the intentions, forms and degrees of adaptive reuse of industrial buildings, structures and technical remains that decide whether the preservation of industrial preservation is a most suitable characterisation of the ongoing processes.

In the current paper, we use a selection of initial planning documents related to two large former industrial sites: Klosterøya, Skien, and Verket, Moss. We provide an analysis of the early planning stages of these two regeneration projects while raising the following questions:

• Is the adaptive reuse of industrial heritage integrated in the early planning phases of the transformation of the two former industrial sites – and if yes, in what forms?

• How are textual and visual presentations integrated in early planning documents to portray the role assigned to industrial heritage?

• What role does industrial heritage play in branding the sites’ future character?

The remainder of the present article consists of five sections. In the conceptual framework section, we highlight some problems that we later use as a basis for examining the two case studies. ‘Brandscape’ is used to better understand what happens when private parties wish to develop an area. In the methodology section, we list the sources selected for the study and describe the intertextual plan study. After a short presentation of the two sites in question, the main findings are presented as a comparative study of the two initial planning phases via a critical examination of texts and images. We underline the approaches used by the consultants behind the planning documents (and reports) when said consultants profile the area’s industrial heritage. Based on the findings in the discussion section, we further reflect on the role the images play in branding the sites’ future character.

Conceptual Framework

‘Brandscapes’ – Commodification or a New Means to Establish ‘Rights to the City’?

Branding has generally been identified as a campaign aimed at increasing commercial success. When branding involves urban neighbourhoods or cities, its role in establishing certain symbols or landmarks is often acknowledged. There are numerous studies that show how brandscaping have taken place internationally. Some cities and regions use food as their selling-point,¹⁴ fashion,¹⁵ large sport-events, or their connection to car-production.¹⁶ Some real-world examples highlighted are Madrid, Tuscany, Catalonia, Wales, Aalborg,¹⁷ Barcelona,¹⁸ Hamburg, Liverpool, Bilbao,¹⁹ Johannesburg,²⁰ London,²¹ Montreal and Toronto.²²

The concept of ‘brandscapes’ reflects how such processes of conversion leave imprints on the landscape. We introduce this concept because it typifies many of the processes that large urban development projects undergo, emphasising the entanglement of economic considerations and visual symbols. Branding is part of a wider discussion that has taken place in urban studies since the 1990s about culture-led regeneration, which forms the foundation of our discussion.²³ However, rather than dipping into this vast literature, we confine our focus to industrial heritage and the extent to which industrial heritage plays out in the ‘branding’ of the places. According to Klingmann, ‘branding in architecture has been largely equated with commodification, with signature architecture and icon making, and/or a wider notion of selling out’.²⁴ When used in connection with urbanism and cities, branding is defined as a ‘specific form of place branding, which involves the creation and promotion of a designated identity for a city’.²⁵ Branding can also be understood as a strategic marketing effort to remove consumer’s negative perceptions of places. However, branding is not just about removing negative perceptions, but rather, it is about promoting positive perceptions, even ‘putting places on the map’, that is, getting people to know places they have never heard of before. According to Klingmann, branding is used by, for instance, ‘political leaders to build attractions and create symbols to make their city economically viable and to promote an image of distinction’.²⁶ Willim discusses the establishment of industries in relation to the concept of a brandscape. According to Willim, brandscaping involves the linking of production to consumption – for example, when industrial buildings are used to display the company brand.²⁷ Industrial buildings are considered resources in an experience economy, providing a mixture of services, including cultural and recreational adventures. They become historicised and aestheticised and are used as part of a brandscape. Although references to the past may be used, reprofiling post-industrial urban areas this way can, from a heritage point of view, be criticised for being ‘vague images of former landscapes and appear as new construction that are completely detached from specific places’.²⁸ Although culture-led urban initiatives can include industrial heritage as assets, the tight-knit relationship between the urban landscape and its historic fabric too often fails to be acknowledged.²⁹ These views are in line with Klingman, who states that the organising principle in these landscapes becomes ‘simply a visual theme’ if references to specific social and material contexts are lacking.³⁰ However, because ‘brands and branding are powerful material and discursive forms and technologies with important economic, cultural and social implications for the places and the people who inhabit them’,³¹ they need to be taken more seriously by urban scholars.

Urban Transformation and the Impact of Visual Expressions

Many early discussions about branding and brandscapes have centred on the negative impacts of these processes by imposing standardised forms on urban landscapes, leading to the homogenisation of places.³² More recently, scholars have focused more on how branding can be linked to user participation and establishing citizens’ rights to the city. Here, the need for a socially responsible approach has been underlined.³³ Indeed, branding has been interpreted as engagement in counter-branding tactics, or what Masuda and Bookman refer to as ensuring ‘an alternative view’.³⁴ Klingmann proposes a viewpoint as ‘an experiential perspective – by outlining the start of a larger movement in which architecture can play a critical role as a catalyst to generate an authentic identity for people and places’.³⁵ By proposing these critical approaches, Klingmann advocates for introducing strategic communication processes between users and architects as a means of producing lasting and meaningful transformations. According to Fredholm and Olsson, in theory, image-making and the inclusion of the public are the core foundations for both place branding and heritage management. However, their close-up examination of planning practices in Sweden indicates that a correlation between the two rarely exists.³⁶

As this review shows, architects and social scientists have generally adopted a critical stance regarding the tendency of branding efforts to standardise and unify formerly heterogeneous cityscapes. Various disciplines within the social sciences have a longstanding tradition of reflecting on the abstraction that has taken place regarding the physical and visual, underlining the impact ascribed to the visual. The discourse has evolved from a series of classic works by De Certeau, Foucault, Lefebvre and Harvey (1989), just to mention a few.³⁷ Sennett (1990) interprets the physical fabric of the city as a mirror of Western society and culture. ‘The Gaze’ has turned into something close to a scholarly concept after Urry wrote ‘The Tourist Gaze’ (1990), in which he also attributes a full chapter to gazing on history.³⁸ Boyer labels the 1980s onwards as ‘The City of Spectacle’, a period when the city has been decomposed and appears as ‘theatricalised image spectacles’. Her analysis is an in-depth study of how the gaze becomes a dominant approach to the city and how visuality becomes a prominent feature: ‘This city is an artifice that is meant to be looked at, it is a city on exhibition flaunting its image as if in the theatre, the museum, the photograph, or the cinema’.³⁹ Anthropology and critical heritage studies can provide a supplement to architects’ emphasis on form and style. Such multidisciplinary knowledge building involves a combination of both methods and theories. Stender (2017) proposes an architectural anthropology, in which she finds the possibility of combining the anthropological focus on actual use and users of places and spaces with the creative practice of form and design in architecture.⁴⁰ Although anthropologists usually work in the present, architects focus on the future use of environments. These positions complement each other, according to Stender, because ‘it is not just the present group of users whom is worthwhile taking into account, but also future users, neighbours, passers-by, and even society as a larger socio-material context’.⁴¹ Although Klingmann (2007) and Stender (2017) are approaching the transformation of cityscapes from different angles, there are some clear links between them: a request for perspectives and methods that can strengthen communication processes between users and architects, including urban planners.⁴²

Methods

The present paper addresses the planning process by focusing on branding and representation of the area through text and images. Planners, architects and their consultants use planning documents that consist of text and images (photos, sketches, tables, maps, digital illustrations and graphics) to mediate their visions for an area. Sometimes industrial heritage is actively included as such processes of brandscaping sites in transformations, and here the role assigned to industrial heritage in the two selected cases is approached by examining how textual and visual presentations are integrated in the early planning documents.

The current analysis combines two methodological stances: a critical reading of planning documents and case study approach.

Although we bear in mind some of the methodological directions of critical discourse analysis when exploring planning documents, the intention of the current article is to contextualise the plans in terms of time and place. We refer to the analysis carried out as an intertextual plan study. Discourse analysis is the critical examination of how meanings are articulated.⁴³ A discourse is formed through articulation and can be a way of talking or writing about something.⁴⁴ Words can have different meanings, but when a certain word is used in a certain discourse, that word is linked to a specific meaning.⁴⁵ Central to our approach is the ability of a critical examination of texts and images to integrate visual and textual representations on an equal level. According to Rose, intertextuality is the key to understand discourse analysis, because it ‘refers to groups of statements which structure the way a thing is thought, and the way we act on the basis of that thinking’. Intertextuality depends not just on the meanings of one text or image, but also on those carried by other images and texts.⁴⁶

Although text and images have often been examined separately, there is now a more general understanding that the way they are combined plays an essential role in mediating meaning. Today, intertextuality is partly used in a synonymous manner with multimodality. How multimodality is used depends on disciplines and research traditions,⁴⁷ and it can be practiced in combination with other methods (i.e. social semiotics and systematic functional linguistics). (The method is described in detail later). Illustrations, typography, figures and layout interact with the written text and are an essential part of creating and mediating meaning.⁴⁸ It is through the interaction of text (wording) and illustrations (photo, drawing) that we can fully examine the impact of images. Many researchers prefer examining the phrasing of textual material rather than understanding the wider context in which the discourse takes place, while others pay more attention to the practices of social institutions.⁴⁹ In our examination of urban redevelopment plans, we approach the documents by combining rhetorical and institutional approaches to mediate the messages. Here, rhetoric here to the persuasive modes in which the visual and textual presentations are expressed in the planning documents. Persuasion – whether verbal, visual or both – takes place on two levels of communication, that is, in the choices of content and through the means of implementation.⁵⁰ By paying special attention to intertextuality, we first read the plans as integrated documents, where the text and visual presentations play equally important roles. Here, intertextuality refers to whether and how the analysed text and images relate to and obtain meaning from each other. Images, photos and pictures are often composed in a way that hides or enhances certain elements and are used to say things unable to be communicated with words. Second, we underline the importance of the social context in which the documents are supposed to function – that is, we discuss who wrote them, who the audience was and so on. In addition, it is important to underline that the planning of these sites is carried out as public – private enterprises. Although the final decision to develop these sites must be made on the superior political municipal level, the preceding reports in these cases are produced by consultants in cooperation with various actors, including municipal authorities.

The case study methodology allows us to compare two former industrial sites: Klosterøya, Skien (case 1, see Figure 1), and Verket, Moss (case 2, see Figure 2). Case studies involve a wide range of different data sources and analytic strategies⁵¹ and have been described more as a research framework than a specific approach.⁵² When cases are compared, the underlying assumption is that the selected cases are both similar and distinct enough as examples of the same general phenomenon.⁵³

The selection criteria for the cases are the following:

• former industrial sites within walking distance to the city centre

• currently undergoing major transformation from brownfield to new neighbourhoods with housing, workplaces and cultural activities

• located in historic towns on the margins of the Oslo region

Short Presentation of Two Sites

Klosterøya, Skien

Figure 1. Klosterøya is situated on the southern side and within walking distance of the centre of Skien. Its origins can be traced back to a monastery from the mid-twelfth century, and the first industrial companies from the 1850s were related to hydropower and wood processing. The site is surrounded by a lake, waterfall and river. Skien is located 130 km southwest of Oslo, and after the industries closed down, it has primarily been a commercial and administrative centre, with approximately 54,000 inhabitants. Map: Geovekst/Nils Aage Hafsal, Monica Kristiansen, NIKU.

Verket, Moss

Figure 2. Verket is situated on the northern side and within walking distance to the centre of Moss. The river, with its impressive waterfall, provides the natural southern border, while the fjord, with the former disembarkation harbour, defines the border in the west. The oldest remains of industry stem from Moss’ iron works (1704–1876), and more recent traces stem from a paper and cellulose factory (M. Peterson & Søn, est. 1883). Moss is located 60 kilometres south-east of Oslo, and the municipality has 33,000 inhabitants. Map: Geovekst/Nils Aage Hafsal, Monica Kristiansen, NIKU.

Main Findings

In our analysis, the primary sources were a selection of planning documents. The planning documents belonged to two different categories: municipal cultural heritage plans and site-specific area plans. We used the cultural heritage plans to obtain a general idea of whether cultural heritage managers’ attitudes towards industrial heritage changed during the 1991–2017 period. For the in-depth analysis of the relationship between the text and visual presentations, we chose a planning document from the initial stages of the two regeneration projects; below, the documents are described in detail. Despite their rather different character, the two site-specific plans share a common denominator: they were prepared by private consultants in dialogue with the municipal authorities.

Cultural Heritage Plans

We analysed four cultural heritage plans, two for each municipality. The plans for Skien are from 1991 and 2013,⁵⁴ and the plans for Moss are from 2009 and 2017.⁵⁵ The cultural heritage plans have formed a part of the municipal planning process. Until the planning process commenced, both sites were classified as commercial areas, meaning that the extent to which these sites were included in cultural heritage registers and strategy documents at the municipal and county levels varied. The planning involved a large change in land use, transforming the areas from industrial sites to becoming multifunctional neighbourhoods, which involved various degrees of housing, workplaces, trading, education and cultural arenas.

The examined heritage plans mirror the general change in attitude towards heritage and preservation that occurred in cultural heritage management during the 1991–2017 period (see more details in Tables A1 and A2 in Appendix).

Although the early plans prioritise and underline the importance of the age, uniqueness and authenticity of buildings and heritage sites, the focus changes to protecting larger contexts rather than single objects and structures. This shift in approach is noticeable in the Municipal Cultural Heritage Plan of Skien for the 2013–2024 period. However, the focus is still mostly on single buildings rather than on whole environments; the goal is to obtain a representative and balanced selection of building types from various historic periods. It states that urban preservation and development should be considered in conjunction with each other. Stimulating new activities in old buildings and environments is considered a means of preserving cultural and historic values.

A similar change in focus is also visible in the Municipal Cultural Heritage Plans of Moss for the 2009–2021 and 2017–2029 periods. The document states that the preservation of entire residential neighbourhoods will safeguard the areas between the buildings and ensure that densification and development do not inhibit the need for free areas, social meeting places and the like. According to the heritage plan, cultural historic value is preserved by creating new activities in old buildings and environments. In addition, the focus should be on entire environments, not just on single buildings. Research has found that conflicting interests often emerge in urban development.⁵⁶ It is worth underlining that cultural heritage management has mainly been absent in the initial planning stages of the redevelopment of the two sites in question (except for providing hearing statements), and industrial heritage is barely mentioned in the examined cultural heritage plans. Therefore, we have concluded that the main purpose of the cultural heritage plans is to provide information – not necessarily to promote action.

Site-Specific Area Plans for Klosterøya, Skien, and Verket, Moss

These reports have filled several purposes, such as assessing the feasibility of development, future potential for development, motivating parties and enabling consent in the final political decision-making. The reports were originally prepared by consultant firms in close contact with municipality planners. Although both were prepared during the initial phases of the process, the reports differ from each other in both their format and length and are also linked to slightly different planning processes. In Klosterøya, Skien, the final plan presented for political decision-making was based on a series of environmental reports and hearing statements. In Verket, Moss, all environmental assessments were included in a single planning document.

Our examination of Klosterøya has included two of the reports from 2006. The reports are clearly linked, but they serve a somewhat different purpose and aim at partly different audiences. As its title indicates, the first report (R1), ‘Klosterøya – New Possibilities’, synthesises the potential and resources of the site. The report includes the main report and appendixes, and a considerable part of the main text consists of illustrations.⁵⁷ The second report (R2) is one of several basic ones prepared at the start of the planning process. Its main purpose is to detail the qualified characteristics of the place, stressing historical remains and landscape formations.⁵⁸ The purpose and vision of the plan for Verket is to create a framework for the sustainable and long-term development of Verket as an urban area, with an emphasis on environmentally friendly transportation, good urban space and recreational areas that benefit the entire city.⁵⁹ Brandscaping is suited to describe the way planners, consultants and architects who are involved in regenerating and transforming cityscapes try to mediate their visions while their ideas are still unfinished and in process. Differences in the year when the planning started and in land ownership structure have played a role in the process. In the strategic report where the visions for Klosterøya are described, it is portrayed as an upcoming and creative neighbourhood intending to house a series of cultural services and arenas situated in pleasant green and healthy surroundings.⁶⁰ In branding Verket, the consultants profile a vibrant new neighbourhood that will supplement and function as an extension of the old papermill close by. Much of the modern architecture includes some elements that give associations to the British industrial architecture’s use of ‘the red brick’.⁶¹

The Interplay Between Text and Images

Examination of the Text

We started our intertextual plan study by searching for the terms ‘cultural heritage’ and ‘cultural environment’. After quickly discovering that these two terms rarely appear in the selected documents (13 times in both reports from Klosterøya and only three times each in the document for Verket), we selected the following terms instead: protection, identity, value, quality, culture, history/historic, conservation, uniqueness, anchoring and resource. The choice of new keywords was related to our research questions. Neither cultural – or industrial heritage are terms frequently used by the public. History, protection, conservation and quality on the other hand give familiar connotations. Identity, value, culture, uniqueness, anchoring and resource were selected to give a better understanding of the way the urban planners have mediated their ideas of a future cityscape, since they are likely to raise positive associations.

Table

Frequency of the 10 selected terms:
	Klosterøya (R1)	Klosterøya (R2)	Verket
(1)	History/historic (30)	Protection (12)	Culture (53)
(2)	Quality (26)	Quality (10)	History/historic (51)
(3)	Identity (16)	History/historic (5)	Conservation (20)
(4)	Value (14)	Uniqueness (3) Conservation (3)	Value (18)
(5)	Conservation (13)		Identity (12)
(6)	Culture (12)	Identity (2) Value (2) Culture (1)	Quality (11)
(7)	Uniqueness (8)		Protection (10)
(8)	Anchoring (4)
(9)	Resource (3)
(10)	Protection (2)

‘History’ is among the three most important descriptive terms in the reports in Klosterøya (R1, R2).

In both these reports, history performs a structuring function in the description of the time periods and in the account provided of the structural remains found at the site. Because the specific purpose of the report (R2) is to examine the uniqueness of the place, this partly explains the report’s emphasis on protection (R2) and why protection is barely mentioned in the other report (R1). The frequency of the term ‘history’ can be interpreted as a sign of the strong impact that the consultants’ work had in terms of the knowledge input for the subsequent planning process. ‘Quality’ is the second most important term in both reports (R1, R2). ‘Quality’ is a rather imprecise term that generally brings positive associations.

‘Culture’, ‘history’ and ‘conservation’ are the three most common terms in the document on Verket. The quotation below is an example of an occasion when these three terms appear together along with several other selected terms:

The city centre plan has included a consideration zone H570 to ensure the conservation of the cultural environment. In this zone, culturally and historically valuable buildings and urban spaces, including streets, squares and green areas, shall be sought to be conserved. An area’s distinctive environment and character must be readable and further developed based on existing qualities.⁶²

The quotation represents the document at large: culturally and historically valuable buildings in Verket should be conserved. Industrial buildings are described as having great intrinsic value and as the building blocks of identity.⁶³ Some buildings are described as being in poor condition, and the document states that it would be too expensive to prepare them for new uses. In these cases, the document suggests that elements from such buildings should be used as artistic decorations in the area to preserve symbolic value. Emphasis is placed on transferring the cultural historic qualities that existed in the industrial area to the new Verket (3). The area’s distinctive character should remain readable, and further development of the area should be based on existing qualities (48). Industrial buildings are considered resources for the expansion of Verket; they provide identity and structure to the site, while cultural heritage offers identity.⁶⁴

Examination of the Visual Material

Visual material can perform different functions in a written text, such as providing factual knowledge, variation or design values. In the case of Klosterøya, there is a marked difference between the two reports in terms of the degree and attention paid to the visual material.

A considerable number of the photographs depict situations of positive association, such as photos taken from angles where the various former industrial plants are reflected in the river, presenting a calm and aesthetically pleasant situation.⁶⁵ A considerably smaller group of photos depicts sociability by showing people participating in various activities and enjoying each other’s company. The maps and tables provide facts to supplement the information in the text. Therefore, the photos primarily contribute variations to the written presentation while providing positive associations. The text comprises 34 pages supplemented by 34 images (R1).

The majority of the visual material in R1 is factual and objective photos. The photos show the area as it is at that specific moment. However, on the last page of the document, there are three illustrations depicting the possible future of Klosterøya (see Figure 3).⁶⁶ Common to the three illustrations is that they are in bright colours and that there is water in each of them. In the illustration at the top of this page, the production halls PM 6 and 7 are depicted. The illustration shows a possible reconstruction of the buildings and the waterfront; this is stated in the caption of the illustration. There are several trees near the buildings, and a dancing woman is painted on one of the façades. The sky is blue, and the skies are clear. The illustration on the bottom left is set at night. Several buildings and trees are drawn along the waterfront. There are bright lights coming from the buildings, which are reflected in the water. The caption states that the illustrations depict a possible future situation in which some of the industrial buildings are preserved, some have been demolished or reconstructed, and some are new. In the final illustration at the bottom right, a park is depicted. It is daytime. There are several trees and bushes and a lawn. There are two modern buildings in the background and in the foreground are two people passing over a bridge.

Figure 3. The last page of the document for Klosterøya with the three illustrations that show the possible future of the site. The page is from Skien kommune og Norske Skog, ‘Klosterøya – Nye muligheter’ (2006), page 34. Part of planning documents available to the general public. Photocopy: NIKU.

In two of these three illustrations, industrial buildings play a prominent role. They have a clear place in the illustrations and in the future of the area. The title of the document, ‘Klosterøya – New Possibilities’, correlates with this: there are new possibilities for both the area as a whole, and its older industrial structures. However, the placement of the illustrations on the last page of the document gives these illustrations and their content lower priority, making them almost hidden.

The use of illustrations has a different function in R2.⁶⁷ Here, visual images are given major attention, indicating that the way the text and visual images supplement each other is part of the consultants’ methodological toolkit. An examination of the visual images supports the assumption that these images are used for different purposes in the two reports. The text comprises 23 pages and is supplemented by 103 images (R2).

The illustrations in the plan for Verket are a mixture of photographs, maps, and digital illustrations. The digital illustrations can be seen as atmosphere enhancers: they enhance the content of the plan, implying that the authors want the reader to establish positive associations with the new Verket. The illustrations symbolise fellowship, leisure, outdoor life, and cultural activities. Common factors include water, bright lights, a mixture of old and new buildings and human relationships. These illustrations portray a modern community among older buildings, bringing depth to this otherwise modern community.

On the front page, the area from the other side of the water is shown as if the reader is watching it from a distance (see Figure 4). The illustration takes place at night, but there are many people outside; they sit by the water in the restaurants, and they take walks together. In the middle of the illustration is a modern building with a façade constructed of what appears to be glass. The building is full of light. The other buildings are also modern, but there are also what look like older industrial brick buildings. At the far end is Konventionsgården. As stated in the brief historical overview, Konventionsgården is an important building, not only for Moss, but also for Norway’s history. There are also several trees, giving this otherwise urban area some elements from nature. The sky is dark blue, and there are bright lights from the buildings reflected in the water.

Figure 4. Front page of the document for verket, which shows the possible end result of the development of verket. The page is from Moss kommune, Asplan Viak AS, ‘områdereguleringsplan for verket. Planbeskrivelse. November 2015’ (2015). Part of planning documents available to the general public. Photocopy: NIKU.

Because the front page is the first thing a reader sees, it is important that the central message in the document is reflected and reinforced through the illustration on the front page. In this case, the illustration shows the possible end result of the development of Verket. It portrays how life will look if the proposed changes are implemented. Through these illustrations, Verket connotates modernity and communion, as well as deep-rooted history and identity, through the presence of Konventionsgården and the industrial buildings.

This can be seen in contrast to the document from Klosterøya (R1), where the illustrations of the possible future of Klosterøya are almost hidden on the very last page. In this context, the document for Klosterøya seems more modest compared with Verket.

In another illustration in the document for Verket, the industrial buildings are the focus (see Figure 5). Here, brick industrial buildings are depicted both in the foreground and background. There are three or four structures. Even the ground seems to be made of brick. There is also water and a fountain. There are people who are visiting a bakery, while others are walking their dog or casually leaning against a brick wall. One of the buildings, which contains the bakery, has large glass windows on the first floor. In the background, there appears to be a new modern building. This can be seen in contrast to the front page of the same document, where it is the opposite: an older building, Konventionsgården, is seen in the background, with modern buildings in the foreground. The caption of the illustration reads: ‘From the industrial historical axis behind the halls’.⁶⁸

Figure 5. Illustration of the possible development of Verket. Buildings in brick are depicted both in the foreground and background. The page is from Moss kommune, ‘områdereguleringsplan for Verket. Planbeskrivelse. November 2015’ (2015), page 23. Part of planning documents available to the general public. Photocopy: NIKU.

The illustrations not only depict industrial heritage, but they also connotate contemporary urban areas. This illustration brings to mind other contemporary urban areas where industrial brick buildings are preserved and reused. Here, it appears that the industrial buildings in Verket that are being preserved for the future are made of brick. In Verket, there are other types of industrial buildings, but they are hardly represented in the illustrations that portray the future of Verket.

The lack of representation of other industrial buildings tells the reader that these brick buildings are representative of the industrial era. This is in contrast to the illustrations of the future Klosterøya, where industrial buildings in brick are not included.

Overall, the illustrations enhance and complement the message of the written document for Verket; industrial (brick) buildings provide identity, depth, and structure to the new, modern area. Only one seemingly old photograph in black and white is included (5), but in reality, this is a new photo taken in black and white (see Figure 6). The text comprises 64 pages supplemented by 79 illustrations.⁶⁹

Figure 6. The only one seemingly old photograph in the document for verket. In reality, this is a new photo taken in black and white. The page is from Moss kommune og asplan viak AS, ‘områdereguleringsplan for verket. Planbeskrivelse. November 2015’ (2015), page 5. Part of planning documents available to the general public. Photocopy: NIKU.

The Relationship Between Text and Image

Practicing planners, consultants and designers use a series of methods and tools to provide input and results to stimulate urban changes, one being referred to as textual and visual rhetoric. According to Pojani and Stead, the area of visual rhetoric in relation to urban planning and design is relatively underexplored.⁷⁰ It is not merely a means of communication but can function as a powerful tool when used strategically to persuade audiences to accept proposed ideas and prospects. In textual communication, certain recurring narratives can be discovered, while various colours can be used in images to instil emotions and affects.⁷¹ The critical textual and visual rhetoric approach discussed by Pojani and Stead has several commonalities with intertextual planning analysis.⁷²

In our examination, we have found examples of intertextual communication where the authors have strived to be truthful to a documentary purpose, as well as examples where the purpose primarily has been to mediate convincing imaginations. Rather than preferring one style, the two are combined but to different degrees, as the following points illustrate:

• The way text and images interact is important: although certain key words are used rather frequently (history, quality, culture), it is in combination with images that an atmosphere is provided.

• The future potential of the site can be mediated through a primarily factual style (R2). However, it is when we look closer at the relationship between the actual text and number of images (i.e. layout, maps, contemporary and historic photos) that the importance of the intertextual relationship becomes obvious.

• Prospects of an attractive future can also be alluded to by using images of people socialising in pleasant modern environments where industrial buildings provide a certain degree of identity, depth, and structure. Recurrent colours are blue and green: a clear blue sky reflecting in water and green alluding closeness to nature.

Discussion

The transformation of the two former brownfield sites has represented large opportunities and challenges. They are both located close to the historic town centre and waterfronts (river, fiord, lake), which add to their attraction as residential areas. This is an international trend.⁷³ Dependency on hydraulic power and shipping ports has determined the location of many former industrial plants in Scandinavia. Although some of the findings from this case study are place specific, we consider that parts have transfer value to the regeneration of post-industrial areas in parts of Scandinavia and Europe.

Today there is a rich store of research that has highlighted processes of place-making narratives arising in the aftermath of massive shutdowns of major industries. Critics and reformers, alongside city officials, journalists and travel writers take part in mediating new perceptions and images that gradually appear.⁷⁴ Such processes have been described as ‘constructing industrial pasts’, where heritage, historical culture and identity-building are used as means to ease structural economic transformations. Examples from Manchester, Glasgow, Wales, Cornwall, Milano, Ruhr, as well as selected regions in Romania, Hungary and China are showing that the meanings of the heritage often remain deeply contested.⁷⁵

The first research question we have raised is whether the adaptive reuse of industrial heritage has been integrated in the early planning phases of the transformation of the two former industrial sites. If so, in what forms? The size of the former factories rendered a variety of land use options,⁷⁶ which instigated rapid actions among planners and developers. This is illustrated by the short interval between factory shutdown and the start of the regeneration in both cases (see Figures 7 and 8). As pointed out by Oevermann and Mieg,⁷⁷ there has been a clash of discourses concerning reuse of former brownfield sites. They place industrial heritage in the crossover between two conflict lines, underlining how different instruments and objectives are reigning between culture-led urban development and the demands on producing contemporary architecture. Heritage management seldom participates in the discussions on these agendas.

Figure 7. The eastern part of Klosterøya is facing the river and viewed as a potential for compact building. The photo shows how Spriten, a designated former industrial building and now cultural centre and art gallery, is becoming surrounded by new development (2021). Photo: O.H. Hagen.

Figure 8. The first stage of the regeneration of verket is closest to the city centre and includes mixed functions. The photo illustrates the mix of former industrial buildings adapted for reuse and new development (verket, 2020). Photo: I.M. Ødegaard.

Because the present paper is based on a close-up examination of documents from the early phases of the regeneration processes, interviews with stakeholders have not been included, nor have in-situ observations of the transformation in progress. As our examination of the municipal heritage plans has shown, there is a shared understanding on a general level that heritage benefits from being contextualised and viewed as parts of larger urban environments (cultural landscapes). It points to a shift towards a new policy on municipal, regional, and national levels. However, industrial heritage has, for various reasons, not been included in this general turn in heritage policies, that is, from being perceived as single objects towards contexts.

Several factors can shed light on why heritage management has played a minor role in the initial phases of the regeneration processes in question. Two of the municipal heritage plans were drawn up at a time when both sites were defined as active business areas. Most of the buildings and structures were considered by their owners (and municipal authorities) as part of the infrastructure, and changes had to take place continuously based on the introduction of new production systems. The cultural heritage authorities did not consider decision-making to be within their sphere of responsibility. However, some buildings and structures situated near the former industrial sites that were already designated as heritage locations were included in the regeneration project.

During the early stages of the regeneration process, the municipal plans describe the role of these buildings more as future potential than as the primary basis of regeneration efforts.⁷⁸ Adaptive reuse is not problematised in any of the examined documents. The explanation for this is simple: the plan’s main goal is to develop new cityscapes. Although the plans for Verket emphasise the combination of providing workplaces, services, commerce, residential areas and recreation, the examination of the plans indicates that the focus for Klosterøya is more on zoning. One zone is primarily a dedicated residential area with proximity to greenways and the riverbank, while the other zone holds a combination of offices, a secondary school and smaller flats supplemented by green public spaces. The relationship between existing structures and new developments is not elaborated on to any considerable degree; in Verket, the street is viewed as a parallel street that is partly closed in by a planned ‘wall’ of modern residential buildings. However, viewed from the waterfront area, the street is defined as part of ‘a cultural axis’ that includes the four preserved buildings. The four buildings are all built of brick, and this visual impression is planned to be partly continued in the new buildings. The river plays a central role: there is an old restored main iron bridge, a new pedestrian bridge and a railway bridge planned for combined future use as a pedestrian and bicycle track. The illustrations function as atmosphere enhancers, portraying a modern community among older buildings.

In Klosterøya, the main theme – that is, the monastery period – encompasses diverse initiatives to create various green oases. There is also a combined pedestrian and bicycle track that connects the eastern and western parts of the island, and two of the former five transport tunnels are now included in this track, which encircles and unites the various parts (zones).

The second research question concerns how textual and visual presentations are integrated in early planning documents to portray the role assigned to industrial heritage. The use of qualitative (and partly normative) terms – such as protection, identity, value, quality, culture, history/historic, conservation, uniqueness, anchoring and resource – is pervasive in the planning documents. From a critical stance, the use of qualitative terms linked to heritage can be described as rhetorical devices—a means of providing positive associations to evoke atmosphere. The examination of the impact of these images has identified the significant role that the visual and aesthetic aspects of the built environment and landscape have been assigned in the initial phases of the planning process. In Klosterøya, this is particularly evident because most of the large industrial structures are photographed from an angle, emphasising their proximity to the river. In Verket, it is the picturesque old street and stately historic building that figures mostly prominently in the references to the site’s history and heritage. The actual number of historical buildings and industrial structures selected for adaptive reuse is limited, and in the plans, these buildings and structures can be interpreted as fragments left in a continuously evolving landscape. In the initial phases of the planning processes, reflections, and considerations of alternative forms of adaptive reuse of industrial heritage seem to have played a minor role in indicating the future development of these two former brownfield sites.

It is timely to reintroduce the concept of ‘brandscape’ in light of the role industrial heritage plays in branding the sites’ future character. We start by considering the extent to which the examined planning documents, including text and images, should be interpreted as tools to facilitate commodification. It would be incorrect to state that these buildings are being strategically used for branding new neighbourhoods. It would be suited to ponder whether a small number of physical remains are left as a form of justification to develop new neighbourhoods based on current urban planning ideals. Boyer’s characteristics of ‘the city as a spectacle,’ for which the manipulation of architectural fragments ‘to insert them into contemporary context’⁷⁹ is a significant trait, only partly reflecting what the planning documents indicate regarding the future development of these two new neighbourhoods. Indeed, these industrial structures are left as post-industrial fragments to be surrounded by new residential and business buildings. In the initial planning phase, a series of choices and options are available. Future decisions will determine how we can best characterise the new cityscape in progress. Do the former industrial buildings signal their uniqueness by stressing their differences? Are they juxtaposed but integrated with surrounding buildings and landscape features? Or are they ignored, indirectly signalling the indifference of the planners?

While ideas and possible solutions are discussed and aired, it is possible to include an interim phase. Overly hasty solutions based purely on seemingly rational decisions can contribute to important industrial remains either being erased or sold and exported (see Figure 9). An interim phase can enable buildings and infrastructure from the recent industrial past to be filled with temporal activities, thereby leaving time to ensure permanent and sustainable solutions.

Figure 9. Kamyren, a former boiler in Peterson & Son, has the potential to act as a symbol of Moss’ industrial past, but its future is uncertain (2017). Photo: NIKU.

Conclusion

Branding typifies many large urban development projects in which the entanglement of economic considerations and visual symbols is strong. The term is used here to describe the way planners, consultants and architects who are involved in regenerating and transforming cityscapes try to mediate their visions while their ideas are still unfinished and in process.

We will start by highlighting important points in our findings:

• The reports, prepared in the initial stages of the planning process, are prepared by private consultants in dialogue with municipal authorities and function partly as an input in statutory planning and partly as means to draw public and future user groups’ attention to the new neighbourhoods in making.

• These new neighbourhoods’ main aim is to provide contemporary and demanded residential buildings and work opportunities, but some former industrial buildings and technical structures are also selected for adaptive reuse.

• We found that the positive loaded terms culture, history, quality, and conservation are functioning as rhetorical tools. Alongside photos and images, they are selected for their ability to add a positive atmosphere to a cityscape in its initial planning stage.

• Aesthetically appealing industrial buildings are depicted alongside new buildings, hereby bringing time depth to the new neighbourhood.

• Industrial buildings have been considered resources in branding because they can potentially add a place-specific character to regenerated cityscapes.

We conclude by listing some implications of our findings for future planning of large redundant industrial areas:

• To bring out the full potential of adaptive reuse of industrial heritage, it is important to ensure that they do not end up as empty visual themes or vague images of former landscapes.

• Their potential in adaptive reuse needs to be properly discussed in the initial phases of planning when the documents are being prepared for acceptance by municipal politicians.

• If ideas are not brought up for discussion in these early stages, it may prove difficult or even impossible to gain support for changes later in approved plans.

• Industrial buildings and technical infrastructure that are left on these post-industrial sites can have value from economic and ecological points of view, as well as be important reminders of former central industrial epochs in the town’s history.

• Part of the industrial past can be actively used to link history to future possibilities provided that the planners, architects, developers, and antiquarians succeed in establishing a productive dialogue.

• Branding can have positive effects if used strategically to engage potential future user groups in dialogue about what they consider important characteristics of a well-functioning neighbourhood.

• To avoid that single industrial buildings and structures end up as detached fragments, the heritage sector can engage actively in the full process of transforming redundant industrial sites into new cityscapes.

• Barriers that may exist between different sectors and professionals who partake in the initial stages of planning must be broken down.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the The Research Council of Norway [294584].

Notes

1. Orange et al., Reanimating Industrial Spaces; Stone, UnDoing Buildings

2. Berger et al., Constructing Industrial Pasts; Wicke, et al., Industrial Heritage and Regional Identities.

3. see for instance Oeverman and Mieg, ‘Exploring urban transformations’; Oeverman and Mieg, ‘Studying transformations’; O’Connor and Wynne, From the Margins to the Centre; Wise and Clark, Urban Transformations

4. Avery, ‘From dock cities’; Jones, ‘Exploring creative possibilities’; Wakefield, ‘Great expectations: Waterfront redevelopment’.

5. Arbab and Alborzi, ‘Toward developing sustainable regeneration’; Braae, Intervention. On the Transformation; Braae and Diedrich, ‘Site specificity’; Carlberg and Christensen, Byliv og Havnefront. København; Riesto, Biography of an Industrial Landscape; Skrede, ‘What may culture contribute’; Swensen, ‘The temporal dimension’; Swensen and Stenbro, ‘Urban planning and industrial heritage’.

6. Smith, et al. Heritage, Labour, and the Working Classes; Storm, Post-Industrial Landscape Scars.

7. Ågotnes et al., Når industrisamfunnet blir verdensarv.

8. Braae, Beauty Redeemed

9. Berens, Redeveloping Industrial Sites; Feuerstein, et al., Architecture as Performing Art; Fragner, ‘Adaptive re-use’; Uffelen, Re-Use Architecture.

10. Stevenson et al., ‘Convergence in British cultural policy’.

11. Bystrova and Pevnaya, ‘Culture-led regeneration’; Hutton, 2016, Cities and Cultural Economy; Niu et al., ’Sustainability issues.; Ozden, ‘Culture-led regeneration projects’; Wang, ‘Art in capital: Shaping distinctiveness’

12. See Ashworh and Kavaratzis, Effective Place Brand Management, Cudny, City branding and promotion, Franceschetti, ‘Place Marketing and Place Making’, Friedmann, ‘Place and Place-Making in Cities’, Kaefer, An Insider’s Guide to Placebranding, Kavaratzis et al. Rethinking Place Branding, Richards and Palmer, Eventful cities.

13. Oevermann and Mieg, (2015). ‘Studying transformations’.

14. Berg and Sevon, ‘Food-branding places’.

15. Hanna and. Middleton, Ikonica

16. Coles, ‘International car manufactures’.

17. Ashworth et al. Effective Place Brand Management

18. Mansilla and Milano, ‘Becoming centre’.

19. Sepe and Pitt, ‘Urban branding’.

20. Sihlongonyane, ‘The rhetorical devices’.

21. Coles, ‘International car manufactures’.

22. Hanna and Middleton, Ikonica

23. Kearns, et al., Selling Places.

24. Klingmann, Brandscapes,3.

25. Masuda and Bookman, ‘Neighbourhood branding’, 171.

26. Klingmann, Brandscapes, 280).

27. Willim, Industrial Cool, 7.

28. ibid, 124.

29. Oevermann and Mieg ‘Exploring urban transformations’.

30. Klingmann, Brandscapes,280.

31. Masuda and Bookman, ‘Neighbourhood branding’, 166–167.

32. Klingmann, Brandscapes, 3, 280).

33. Rebelo el al., ‘Co-created visual narratives’.

34. Masuda and Bookman, ‘Neighbourhood branding’, 166.

35. Klingmann Brandscapes,3, 8.

36. Fredholm and Olsson, ‘Managing the image of place’,141.

37. De Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life; Foucault, The Order of Things; Lefebvre, Everyday Life in the Modern World; Lefebvre, The Production of Space; Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity.

38. Sennett, The Conscience of the Eye; Urry, The Tourist Gaze.

39. Boyer, The City of Collective Memory, 46–59,491.

40. Stender,’Towards an architectural anthropology’, 33.

41. ibid., 31.

42. Klingmann Brandscapes, Stender ’Towards an architectural anthropology’.

43. Skrede, Kritisk diskursanalyse; Winther Jørgensen and Philips, Diskursanalys som teori, 11–12.

44. Laclau and Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, 105.

45. ibid.

46. Rose, Visual Methodologies, 142.

47. Jewitt et al. Introducing Multimodality, see also Kress and van Leeuwen, Multimodal discourse.

48. Ledin, et al. ’Den multimodala sakprosan, 5.

49. Rose, Visual Methodologies,146.

50. Pojani and Stead, ‘Urban planning and design’.

51. Cresswell, Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design, 105, 123; Curran, et al., A Handbook for Social Science, 26.

52. Swanborn, Case Study Research, 10–11.

53. Bartlett and Vavrus, Rethinking Case Study Research

54. Skien kommune, Kulturminnevernplan 1991; Skien kommune, Avtrykk av Skien.

55. Moss kommune, Kommunedelplan for kulturminner 2009, Moss kommune, Kommunedelplan for kulturminner, 2017–2029

56. Oevermann and Mieg,‘Studying transformations’.

57. Skien kommune. Klosterøya – nye muligheter.

58. Skien kommune and Asplan Viak, (2006). Klosterøyas egenart

59. Moss kommune, Områdevernplan for Verket.

60. Skien kommune, Klosterøya – nye muligheter.

61. Moss kommune, Områdevernplan for Verket.

62. Ibid., 48.

63. ibid., 17, 48, 61.

64. ibid., 3, 48.

65. Skien kommune, Klosterøya – nye muligheter.

66. Ibid., 34.

67. Skien kommune and Asplan Viak, Klosterøyas egenart.

68. Moss kommune, Områdevernplan for Verket, 23.

69. ibid.

70. Pojani and Stead, ‘Urban planning and design’.

71. Foss, “Framing the study of visual rhetoric’; Pojani and Stead, ‘Urban planning and design’.

72. Pojani and Stead, ‘Urban planning and design’.

73. Avery, “From dock cities”; Jones, ‘Exploring creative possibilities; Wakefield, Great expectations: Waterfront redevelopment.

74. Bachin, City stories, 1073.

75. Berger, eds. Constructing industrial pasts.

76. O’Connor and Wynne, From Margins to Centre; Wise and Clark, Urban Transformations.

77. Oevermann and Mieg, ‘Studying transformations’.

78. Moss kommune, Områdevernplan for Verket; Skien kommune, Klosterøya – nye muligheter; Skien kommune and Asplan Viak, Klosterøyas egenart

79. Boyer, The City of Collective Memory, 46–59, 1.

Appendix_Two Tables to be Included

Table A1. Cultural heritage plans in Skien Municipality.

Year	Main goals	Prioritised heritage monuments/contexts	Relationship to the former industrial site	Shifts in priorities and/or policies
1991	Focus on single buildings ABCD classification system To provide a balanced and representative picture of the past	The city centre of Skien Spriten from 1917 Ladegården from the 18th century Industrial building from 1882 [Papirmaskin 5:PM5]	Klosterøya does not play a significant role in the plan ‘Spriten’ exemplifies industrial heritage worth preserving due to its rarity and information value
2013	New and simplified classification system Preservation of whole environments and landscapes Safeguarding cultural heritage through use Safeguarding and development go hand in hand Representativeness through time and space The period after 1940 is included (not included in the prior plan)	Spriten from 1917 Industrial building from 1882 [Papirmaskin 5:PM5] Tobacco factory, 1898	Klosterøya does not play a significant role in the plan	Preserve whole environments and landscapes rather than single buildings New and simplified classification system The period after 1940 is now included

Table A2. Cultural heritage plans in Moss Municipality.

Year	Main goals	Prioritised heritage monuments/contexts	The relationship to the former industrial site	Shifts in priorities and/or policies
2008	To map the municipality’s valuable cultural heritages, cultural environments, and cultural landscapes To support measures that will safeguard and manage them To enhance the awareness of them To encourage their management in ways that ensures sustainable development To safeguard cultural heritage, cultural environments and cultural landscapes as a document of the past and as a resource for the future	The workmen’s dwellings from the 1800^th century (heritage of national value) Konventionsgården (protected through The Norwegian Heritage Act) The street Verket where the workmen’s dwellings are located Only mentioned in relation to the workmen’s dwellings buildings.	The prioritised heritage monuments and contexts stem from the first industrial period of the Iron Works (The old Verket)
2017	A few specifications are now included: Measures should safeguard and manage a representative selection of cultural heritage, cultural environments, and cultural landscapes Awareness about cultural heritage, cultural environments and cultural landscapes should be enhanced through dissemination and information	Verket is now defined as a cultural environment that includes several more buildings than just the workmen’s dwellings and Konventionsgården Kamyrkokeren (from 1971) is mentioned specifically In addition, three more unspecified buildings in Verket are considered prioritised. Reference madeto ‘områderegulering’	Referred to and selected as ‘consideration zone’	Only minor adjustments in goals since 2008 Four additional industrial heritage monuments considered worth prioritizing Verket has been defined as one of eight consideration zones in Moss