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Abstract

Historic interiors are unique repositories of memory, yet conventional reuse practices often fail to grasp their cultural complexity, prioritising formal interventions over lived experience. Dominant strategy-based frameworks for reuse struggle to capture the incremental, user-led adaptations that define these lived interiors. This paper addresses these limitations through a case study of the community-led revival of Harat al-Aqr, Oman. Methodologically, it reframes Alexander et al.'s (1977) pattern language as an interpretive lens for analysing the incremental evolution and embedded cultural intelligence of lived interiors. The research synthesises subjective narrative writing with analytical patterns, revealing that the significance of such spaces lies in their ‘livedness’ and the interconnected network of user-led spatial practices that exist within them. The patterns identified, such as Living Roof, Expanded Dwelling, and Mutual Dependencies, are presented as a way to capture and embody this user agency and cultural logic tangibly. The paper thus concludes by advocating a new approach to interior reuse, especially in environments that have undergone incremental changes or vernacular adaptations. It proposes a shift from imposing preconceived strategies to first interpreting the logic of existing use patterns, thereby offering a more responsive approach to engaging with historic interiors as living environments.

Publication Date

1-30-2026

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Submitted Date

2025-07-01

Accepted Date

2026-01-06

First Page

5

Last Page

28

Authors' Bio

Nusrat Kamal Ritu
nusrat.ritu@uhasselt.be
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0098-9026

Nusrat is a PhD researcher at Hasselt University, investigating the adaptive reuse of lived interiors through a pattern language. Her research employs cross-cultural insights (especially from her work in Oman) to understand how user memories and cultural practices shape environments. She completed her master’s in Interior Architecture from Hasselt University in 2022 and her bachelor’s in Urban Planning and Architectural Design from the German University in Oman (affiliated with RWTH Aachen) in 2018. She has worked as a research and teaching assistant, a conference coordinator, and a graphic designer prior to her master’s. Besides teaching and researching at Hasselt University, she also conducts summer workshops/courses at the German University of Oman. As a Bangladeshi who grew up in Oman and studied in Europe, her background has played a significant role in shaping her research trajectory.

Aslı Çiçek
asli.cicek@uhasselt.be
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3471-053X

Aslı Çiçek obtained her master’s in architecture and design from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. During and after her studies, she worked for architectural offices in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. In Belgium, she worked as a project architect for Gigantes Zenghelis Architects and Robbrecht en Daem architecten before founding her practice in Brussels in 2015. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at UHasselt, FacARK, and a guest professor at the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning at Ghent University. She has been a tutor in several design ateliers at the KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture. She has published various articles on architecture and art, served as co-editor of the 11th Flemish Architectural Review, and is a member of the editorial board of OASE Journal for Architecture.

Bie Plevoets
bie.plevoets@uhasselt.be
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2431-4157

Bie Plevoets is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Arts at Hasselt University, Belgium, where she teaches Architectural Theory and Theory of Adaptive Reuse and chairs the Master of Interior Architecture. Her research focuses on adaptive reuse theory, interior architecture, and spatial strategies for intervening in existing buildings. She is co-author of Adaptive Reuse of the Built Heritage: Concepts and Cases of an Emerging Discipline (Routledge, 2019) and co-editor of As Found: Experiments in Preservation (VAi & de Singel, 2023). In 2024, she was awarded a Francqui Start-Up Grant to support her project Reusing the Ruin: Building with Fragments.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
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