Welcome to the website of ‘Brown to Green’ project.
Our research is dedicated to harnessing the values and priorities of citizens in shaping the vision and progress of post-industrial waterfront revitalisation. We have a particular focus on the transformation of the coastal towns in North and South Tyneside in the UK.
It seeks innovative planning solutions for the revitalisation of economically and environmentally challenged coastal towns, with an emphasis on creating a green and thriving urban riverfront.
Project Intro
Reviving neglected waterfront areas has been a focal point of academic inquiry since the 1970s, spanning across North America and Europe. Subsequently, this urban agenda has garnered global attention. As numerous prior studies have underscored, waterfront spaces possess intrinsic worth for development due to their unique interface between the natural environment and human activities (Garello et al., 2002; Rogers, 2011).
The research centres on the post-industrial Tyneside neighbourhoods. The process of industrialisation along the River Tyne was subsequently followed by similarly intensive tendencies towards deindustrialisation in the first half of the 1990s, resulting in a significant abandonment of industrial sites and the emergence of a vast number of brownfields along the river.
The project aims to utilise co-designed data-gathering technologies to provide people from local communities with options to participate in the planning and design of their neighbourhoods. This will concentrate on four interconnected research objectives:
(1) understand the major environmental issues facing coastal towns;
(2) support social inclusion to empower communities to actively participate in shaping and transforming local neighbourhoods;
(3) co-design potential solutions to reinvent existing urban & green infrastructure and post-industrial relics to adapt to 21st-century social and ecological challenges;
(4) create and implement a new paradigm that promotes citizen participation in socially and ecologically resilient planning, while supporting community involvement in shaping future planning policies and decisions.
Case Study: Gdańsk industrial waterfront
The Baltic port city of Gdańsk, in Poland, showcases how cities can return their waterfronts to residents. It is about restoring the landscape and mitigating the negative ecological impacts associated with former port and industrial land use.
Two Sides of the River Tyne
South Shields town centre and riverside are currently undergoing extensive regeneration, with new housing, business, retail, and leisure developments replacing former industrial sites.
The revitalised town centre features high street shopping, a regular market held by the Grade I listed Old Town Hall, a modern library and exhibition venue known as The Word, and a cross-river pedestrian ferry connecting to North Shields.
The Customs House is located within the historic Mill Dam conservation area and hosts a theatre, cinema, art gallery and restaurant. The car park area will deliver culture-related uses which complement the use and setting of the Customs House.
At Harton Quay, plans are in place for a mixed-use development comprising residential, commercial, and hotel accommodation, alongside food and drink outlets. The design will reflect and build upon the unique qualities of the Mill Dam Conservation Area.
The Holborn Middle Dock and Windmill Hill areas are also set for transformation, with proposals for student accommodations, mixed-use residential and office developments. These will include the creation of a new riverside promenade, ensuring public access to the waterfront.
Across the River Tyne, North Shields lies directly opposite South Shields. In September 2020 and January 2021, North Tyneside Council unveiled regeneration plans for North Shields town centre. These include the creation of a distinctive route to the Fish Quay, pedestrianisation of key streets, consolidation of retail units, a new town square, renovation of Northumberland Square, and a new transport hub.
The proposals aim to improve connectivity, creating a safe and engaging gateway to the Fish Quay and surrounding areas, while capitalising on the area’s key assets, including scenic views of the River Tyne. Although the Fish Quay currently connects directly to Tynemouth to the east, future plans include enhancing pedestrian and bike routes to make them more accessible and eco-friendly.
Dr. Jiayi Jin
Prof. Richard Laing
Research Team
Jiayi (Jennifer) Jin is a Senior Lecturer of Architecture at the Department of Architecture and Built Environment (DABE), Northumbria University. Email Jiayi: jiayi.jin@northumbria.ac.uk
Richard Laing is a Professor of Urban Collaboration at the DABE, Northumbria University. Email Richard: richard.laing@northumbria.ac.uk
Jiayi and Richard lead the operation and delivery of the project.
Dr. Clare Rumsey
Dr. Mingyu Zhu
Clare Rumsey is the Technical Director of Omanos Analytics. Email Clare: clare@omanosanalytics.org
Mingyu Zhu is the RA for this project. Email Mingyu: mingyu.zhu@glasgow.ac.uk
Clare and Mingyu engage in the app development and data analytics phases of this research, leveraging their experience in urban data collection and simulation.
Project Partners
Omanos Analytics is a Glasgow-based space technology start-up delivering space data knowledge to support sustainable development. The firm combines downstream satellite data analysis with community intelligence and other ground data sources to identify and monitor the social and environmental impacts of critical infrastructure projects, in order to provide verified, accessible, and inclusive insights into the realities on the ground. Omano’s agile data products are built on a combination of automated and human analysis, designed to be accessible and actionable in different contexts, from legal arbitration, to policy design, to advocacy.
Based near Newcastle on the River Tyne in North East England, Port of Tyne is one of the UK’s most innovative and efficient deep-sea ports handling cargoes across five continents. As the major employer and economic engine of the region, the Port set a series of visions for its Tyne 2050 targets including growing and developing the business and regional economic prosperity, improving health, well-being and education of people in the region of all ages, developing an inclusive and diverse workforce, and minimising the environmental impact and achieve net zero green gas emissions by 2030
'Brown-to-Green' Regeneration Projects with Design-Led Approaches
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The Word / National Centre for the Written Word
The site for The Word is an extremely prominent gateway to the town centre. It provides a strong link between the Ferry Terminal and South Shields town centre and serves to link the riverside character area with the town centre and historically important market place in South Shields.
Granton Waterfront Regeneration
This is the creation of a £1.3bn well-connected, sustainable new coastal town at Granton Waterfront in Edinburgh, developed by Smith Scott Mullan in collaboration with C.F. Møller Architects. The project serves as a blueprint for the Capital’s 20-minute neighbourhood model.
Riverside Sunderland:
This masterplan sets out the revival of a 33.2 hectare site adjacent to the city centre and spanning both sides of the River Wear. Drawing on the dramatic industrial silhouette of the past, the masterplan creates a new distinctive edge profile to both banks of the River reinstating the city edge.
Tileyard North at Rutland Mills
Rutland Mills is the final piece in a ten-acre regeneration masterplan that is breathing new life into Wakefield’s riverside. The plan converts the space into a mixed-use, inclusive, creative, and cultural cluster with world-class facilities of a 135,000 sq ft creative industries hub, the UK’s largest outside London.
Research Process
Pathway 1: Collective Understanding
1-1 Bringing together people to form partnerships with local authorities, industry, community organisations, and stakeholders in their pursuit of a transformative ‘Brown to Green’ transition along the River Tyne.
1-2 Gaining valuable insights from architects and urban planners with extensive experience in designing and delivering projects in this field. These insights guide our approach to implementing and adopting planning regulations, policies, financing models, and government initiatives that prioritise people-centred and sustainable regeneration aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
1-3 Understanding the key environmental challenges facing two coastal towns through archival research and analysis of GIS and satellite imagery data, with a specific focus on land cover change, brownfield site revitalisation, climate change impacts.
Pathway 2: Data-driven Scenario Building
2-1 In collaboration with Omanos Analytics, we developed a participatory smartphone application that enables individuals to share their perspectives and engage in shaping their neighbourhoods. Participants can easily contribute ideas for improvement by taking photos, completing surveys, or creating visual collages. These inputs are gathered on a shared platform, encouraging collective interaction and idea development.
2-2 Centred around six key aspects of neighbourhood life—living, working, grocery shopping, education, healthcare, and self-development, we lead a series of cross-disciplinary and co-creation workshops. These sessions uncover local knowledge and insights that inform a socially and ecologically grounded green transition.
This iterative process fosters experimentation, demonstration, and refinement, ultimately leading to practical solutions tailored to the distinct waterfront planning and design challenges of the area.
Pathway 3: Investment and Partnership
3-1 Developing strategies rooted in the values and daily routines of individuals. This framework is embodied in a co-creation toolkit, emphasising a people-centred approach to revitalising neglected spaces along the river. Seamlessly integrate these spaces into the smart neighbourhood model while promoting socio-ecological-spatial justice.
3-2 Establishing a collaborative investment and partnership pathway that brings together all necessary components for Tyneside’s development of investment models aligned with their waterfront regeneration and local plans, as well as the broader ecosystem.
3-3 Strengthening long-term community-based governance and stewardship mechanisms, and facilitate capacity-building initiatives that empower stakeholders, especially underrepresented groups to participate meaningfully in decision-making, ensuring sustained investment impact and adaptive management of riverfront spaces.
This approach takes a broad view and aims to reduce investment risks, helping local towns capture and reflect the diverse values within their complex systems.
Awards & Talks
We are the Award Winner of the Best Design Research for Healthy Cities Award at the Healthy City Design 2025 International Congress on 21 October 2025. The following news release was issued by the School of Social & Political Sciences, University of Glasgow on 24 November 2025.
Key findings from the AHRC Brown-to-Green project were presented at the Waterfront Development International Conference WDIC 2025, the University of Liverpool. Dr Jiayi Jin has also chaired the panel discussion on “Waterfront Development Design and Challenges” on 4 November 2025.
The project team participated in the ESRC Smart Data Research UK webinars on Smart Data Research, Policy and Practice in both 2023 and 2024.
Dr Jiayi Jin presented the project and contributed to panel discussions and Q&A sessions at the AHRC Future Observatory Forum at the Design Museum London on 18 December 2023.
The project team has been actively engaged in ongoing policy development in partnership with the North of Tyne Combined Authority NTCA Data and Insights team since 1 July 2023, and contributed to the Report: Delivering Devolution Together (NTCA Final Report).
Selected Publications
Journal Papers
Jin, J., Laing, R., & Zhu, M. (2025). Co-mapping future scenarios and uncertainties amid climate crisis: A collective study of coastal towns and the Port of Tyne. Journal of Urban Management. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jum.2025.07.002
Zhu, M., Calderon, C., Ford, A., Robson, C., & Jin, J. (2025). Digital Twin for resilience and sustainability assessment of port facility. Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure, 1-34. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23789689.2025.2526928
Policy Briefs
Jin, J., Zhu, M., & Laing, R. (2024). Written Evidence (TGB0034): Grey Belt in England – Insights from a multi-lens analysis. https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/130956/pdf/
Follow-on Funding
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) – Navigating Urban Ecologies: Mapping the Habitation Patterns and Socio-ecological Dynamics of Kittiwakes along the River Tyne (led by Dr. Jiayi Jin), £128,957.06 https://research.northumbria.ac.uk/nue/
Contact
If you want to get in touch you can reach us on the project’s email: browntogreen@northumbria.ac.uk