Revitalising tradition: a multidimensional framework for transforming Taiwan’s cultural spaces into sustainable creative hubs

This study develops a process-oriented framework for transforming cultural spaces within the cultural and creative industries, focusing on tourism factories and industrial heritage revitalisation. Rather than treating spatial design as a completed outcome, it conceptualises transformation as an ongoing process through which tourism experiences are produced, sustained, and reinterpreted over time. Drawing on urban aesthetic theory (atmospheres), the staging/designing of mobilities, and creative tourism scholarship, the framework integrates tangible, behavioural, and intangible dimensions of space. A two-stage qualitative approach is adopted. First, literature and a benchmark case (Carton King Tourism Factory) inform framework development. Second, in-depth interviews and on-site observations at the Puli Paper Tourism Factory examine how cultural meanings, visitor movement, and spatial atmospheres are composed in practice. Findings show how atmospheric design, staged mobilities, and cultural stewardship enhance engagement, reinforce place identity, and support sustainable cultural tourism. By reframing cultural-space transformation as experiential production rather than a design outcome, this study contributes to creative and industrial heritage tourism research and offers actionable insights for designers, cultural entrepreneurs, and policymakers engaged in cross-sector collaboration.