Creation of Sense of Place in Interior Architecture for Adaptive Reuse of Heritage Buildings as Identity Continuation

In the lifetime of a heritage building associated with the cultural or political history of the country, new requirements will arise to reuse it for a different function serving new users. In addition, certain quality improvements might be required such as adding new systems or carrying out interior design modification. These new changes will introduce a new sense of place that will have an impact on the users and the identity of the heritage building. The creation of a new sense of place of interior architecture for the adaptive reuse heritage buildings could be categorized into three different levels. Firstly, buildings serve the same function but are improved in terms of interior design. Secondly, buildings serve the same function but require certain changes to their interior architecture, and this might change a bit the sense of place. The third category relates to the buildings that are changed functionally and require major interior architecture modification (mainly adaptive reuse), which will introduce a new sense of place. This paper emphasizes the third category and analyzes the concept of the sense of place created through the act of design that applied to the case study of ‘Al Faw Presidential Palace Complex’ in Baghdad. Part of this complex was adapted in 2019 to accommodate the facilities of the new American University of Iraq in Baghdad (AUIB). The importance of considering the new sense of place for the adaptive reuse act of such valuable buildings comes from the fact that there are hundreds of massive palaces and presidential facilities built in Iraq in the period from 1979 to 2003. These palaces require tremendous interior architectural changes and adaptation to serve new functions, mainly cultural ones. Creating a new sense of place is a major factor that should be addressed, taking into consideration the value and strength of the old sense of place of these properties. By creating a new cultural function that introduces a new sense of place, the identity continuation of the place will be achieved and reflected in the identity and cultural continuation.