Abstract:
Adaptive reuse does not only mean successfully putting new uses into an old shell. At best
the impression is given that a building at the moment of its conversion has finally achieved
its true destiny.
Constructed during the industrial era, often utilitarian and non-descript in their design,
warehouse and factory buildings were constructed to store and manufacture goods. Upon
their obsolescence, due to containerisation, the closure of business, and subsequent
dereliction through disrepair or disuse, these largely structurally sound buildings were left
vacant until a cultural movement began in America, converting them into living and studio
spaces. The adaptive reuse of these buildings resulted in a new programme, which was to
provide residence and ‘store’ people. Much later, in the 1990s this movement spread to
Wellington, New Zealand. This delay raises the issue of what makes a successful conversion
of a warehouse or factory building to loft-style living space, and through which architectural
approaches, criteria and methods may we examine these buildings?
This thesis first examines pioneering examples of loft and warehouse living in SoHo, New
York, from the initial subversive beginnings of the movement, when artists illegally occupied
these spaces. It looks at the gentrification of neighbourhoods and how the loft eventually
emerged as a highly sought after architectural living space, first in SoHo, New York before
spreading globally to Wellington, New Zealand. Four Wellington warehouse and factory
buildings that were converted into residential living spaces are examined and compared.
The aim is to understand the conversion process and necessary strategies required to instil a
new architectural programme within an existing warehouse or factory building, recognising
the unique conditions in such converted architectural spaces.
A reused, converted warehouse or former factory can acquire characteristics unique to
that building: a certain patina of age, a residue of industrial history, imbedded qualities
of surface, a unique architectural structure, as well as the location of the building itself.
The case studies show how these imbedded characteristics, can be preserved when the
building is converted, thereby retaining the building’s former history while providing a new
function.
This thesis then analyses whether any commonalities and differences in warehouse and
factory living existed between Wellington and SoHo New York, in terms of the evolution of
the cultural movement and architectural design.
The thesis shows that successful approaches to conversion of factories or warehouses can
both save the buildings from demolition, preserve and highlight their heritage and create
an architecturally unique space, with inherent qualities that cannot be recreated in a new
building. Thus, only upon conversion, can the building gain a sense that it has achieved its
true destiny.
