Creative Industries, Situated Former Industrial Buildings in Sofia

The purpose of this master thesis is to discover which are the factors that influenced the decision of creative industries in Sofia to locate in former industrial buildings. The research focuses on the following three problems: what are the main characteristics of creative industries, located in former industrial buildings, what are the factors which influenced the location choice and what is the connection between the building, the creative process and the image of the creative industries? Existing literature on the problems contributed for the creation of a theoretical framework of soft and hard location factors, which was implemented in the empirical study. The qualitative research includes five in-depth face-to-face interviews with owners/directors of organizations, situated in former industrial buildings in Sofia. Results suggest that both hard and soft location factors were influential for the location choice. Former industrial building’s material and immaterial qualities were to some extend important for the studied creative industries. The contributors also confirmed that the building and the space can stimulate the creative process and can be beneficial for the image of the creative organization. The data are based on a limited amount of participants and is highly connected to the context – the city of Sofia. However, the current research is one of the first attempts for a more fine-tuned study of creative industries’ location choice in Sofia and the former industrial buildings as a specific location choice.