The Impact of Local Community Participation on The Success of Heritage Buildings Adaptive Reuse Projects

DOI : 10.17577/IJERTV11IS020154

Download Full-Text PDF Cite this Publication

Text Only Version

The Impact of Local Community Participation on The Success of Heritage Buildings Adaptive Reuse Projects

Omnia Hassan Afifi1* , Heidi Ahmed Shalaby2, Yasmine Sabry Hegazi2 1 Teaching assistant at Belbeis Higher institute of Engineering, Belbeis 44621, Egypt. post graduate at Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt.

2 Associate professor, department of architecture engineering, faculty of engineering, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt.

Abstract This paper aims at identifying the role that heritage buildings adaptive reuse can play in enhancing and improving quality of life of local communities, through improving the economic and social status, as well as the cultural awareness of their members. Heritage buildings adaptive reuse projects cost much higher than creating new structures, because of the high technical skills needed for implementing such works. This research is an attemptto prove that the return of those projects is worth the high costs expended on them. The main methodology that the research depended on is case study approach in order to provide tangible evidences on the positive effects of adaptive reuse projects on local host communities. After selecting four reused buildings as cases of study, Spatial Samples were taken from host communities of selected reused buildings. Since Sustainability is currently a global trend, this research value can be attributed to its contribution to attaching heritage buildings with that global trend of sustainability achievement through encouraging sustainable management of heritage buildings by reusing them to achieve economic returns that could be invested in the regular maintenance of those reused buildings; to ensure their survival. The Spatial Sampling type was used in this research. The first sample was taken from local host communities members surrounding the selected reused buildings, to find out whether they benefit from the activities offered by the adaptive reuse projects or not. And another sample was, then, taken from actual users of adaptive reuse projects, and the two surveys were analyzed to find out that adaptive reuse projects actually affected the quality of life of their users. But in fact, users were not from the adjacent communities which resulted from not involving them in the new use selection when initiating an adaptive reuse project. Those results established a new understanding of adaptive reuse project processes and pointed to the importance of involving local communities members in creating the selection criteria of the new uses of heritage buildings.

Keywords Historic buildings, Adaptive Reuse, Quality of life, Local host communities

  1. INTRODUCTION

    There is a global call currently for sustainability. Decision makers in Egypt are working hard on linking Egypts 2030 vision with sustainable development goals. As a branch of sustainability achievement, heritage and historic buildings that will be abandoned after moving governmental buildings, in the new administrative capital of Egypt, should be reused to avoid

    losing them. Reusing heritage and historic buildings could have other dimensions and aims, other than conserving them as cultural resources; such as using them as vital tools for the social and economic development of their local host communities. This research attempts to put a framework for adaptive reuse projects of heritage and historic buildings according to global conservation charters, to ensure their safety that can also play a role in social and economic development.

  2. LITERATURE REVIEW

    To study the correlation between local communities quality of life enhancement and heritage buildings adaptive reuse, a literature of both of should be studied.

    ADAPTIVE REUSE

    Heritage buildings might be obsolete due to a variety of factors; including changing industrial and economic activities, population upheavals, and rising maintenance costs. This is mainly because they are no longer suitable for their original purpose and no alternative application has been found.[1] In the past, Heritage and old buildings started to be reused due to the high costs of demolishing them and rebuilding new ones. Since the 1960s, the adaptive reuse term had become common because of the call for sustainability and environmental preservation[2]. The early concept of architectural heritage conservation was concerned with preservation of built environment only. After the global calls for sustainability achievement, the concept has developed to include dimensions other than preservation; such as bringing economic, social and cultural benefits to local communities in heritage sites. Adaptive reuse was such a helpful strategy to achieve those benefits[3]. Heritage and historic buildings could be adaptively reused, instead of entering the deterioration cycle which ends with demolition. Adaptive reuse gives new opportunities to familiar buildings to become icons in their communities[4]. Social awareness of environmental issues has risen recently. Heritage buildings demolition is considered a waste of ecological resources and loss of communities values and identities [5]. Adaptive reuse of heritage and historic buildings doesnt only increase the life cycle of the buildings; but also it can save energy and materials, and lower the environmental pollution resulting from constructing new buildings.[6] Its a fact that 40% of projects in Central Europe are adapted historic buildings instead of new construction.[7] When implementing adaptive reuse projects, a management plan – in addition to a conservative plan — must be set for the

    historic and heritage values of the building.[8]

  3. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN HERITAGE BUILDINGS ADAPTIVE REUSE AND

    CONSERVATION

    In heritage and historic districts, local communities and built heritage share the process of development which allows heritage and historic buildings to be conserved and developed according to communities needs and values. For example, built heritage conservation and development can provide new vacancies through tourism attraction. From this view, concerned authorities must ensure that conservation of built heritage is economically, socially and culturally sustainable on the long term.[9] In programs involving the conservation of built heritage in poor countries, community participation is becoming more common, in order to promote long-term local job growth and development. Conservation projects, on the other hand, must act quickly to take advantage of alternative business prospects.[10] As stimulants for more activity, three major challenges have arisen as a result of these objectives:

    1. The existence of experienced, local construction workers is critical to developing a localized, qualified practice for the preservation of built heritage. Public participation must also generate a motivation for local workers and restorers to share skills and knowledge.

    2. It is important to support the shift from a practice that depends on complete restoration work to a system of ongoing maintenance; to ensure that preservation is sustainable over time, which would minimize the costs of interventions and new buildings rather than saving historic materials.

    3. To keep built heritage sustainable, economic and social wise, it should be ensured that the local built heritage represents the values and needs of its local communities.[11]

      Recently, Local communities participation in built heritage conservation has been common in studies of international and regional organizations. For example, ICOMOS in the Burra Charter stated that Conservation of heritage places should include involving mebers of those places host communities who are associated with them.[12] The Council of Europe, in the value of cultural heritage convention, assured the necessity of cooperation between government and communities in built heritage management in order to promote social awareness and prevent conflicts.[13] In Vienna Memorandum, UNESCO has mentioned the need for community engagement in historic areas conservation and management plans.[14] In its recommendation on historic urban landscape, UNESCO has recommended public participation as a means of empowerment, education, consensus building and visioning, rather than minimizing conflict of interests when attempting to reuse historic buildings.[15] ICOMOS declared in its Quebec declaration place spirit preservation that the place spirit could be saved and enhanced through community participation and interaction of host and associated communities.[16] In spite of the recent researches on the importance of community involvement in heritage management and conservation practices, implementation is still

      demanded. GCI ( the Getty Conservation Institute ) launched a study in 1998 to create and design methods of engaging local communities in cultural heritage sites management plans. It was found that experts didnt have the skills needed to handle such communities engagement practices which, then, led the institute to launch a project titled Consensus building, Stakeholders, and Heritage values aiming at filling this gap.[17] In 2008, UN-HABITAT and UNESCO developed a manual for public participation in historic areas rehabilitation.[18]

  4. CASES OF STUDY FOR COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN HERITAGE BUILDINGS

    ADAPTIVE REUSE PROJECTS

    Adaptive reuse of heritage and historic buildings has lately become a successful tool for conservation, besides its vital contribution to sustainability achievement in historic and heritage communities. To ensure sustainability of adaptive reuse projects, community participation is required to increase awareness and sense of responsibility towards historic and heritage buildings of community members. There are many international cases of community involvement in heritage and historic buildings adaptive reuse projects. This was an important reason to achieve success of those projects.[refer to fig 1]

    Heritage and historic buildings

    Heritage and historic buildings

    safeguards

    connections

    Social and economic benefits

    Local Community

    safeguards

    connections

    Social and economic benefits

    Local Community

    Fig 1 : The relationship of heritage buildings and their local communtiy

    Source : The Authors

    CASE 1 : COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN MELAKA HERITAGE TRAIL CONSERVATION PROJECT IN MALAYSIA

    Melaka is a heritage Malay City. In the study of Community involvement impact on conservation in Melaka heritage trail project in Malaysia (refer to fig 2 & 3), two tools were used for collecting data and ensuring efficiency. The first tool was a questionnaire directed to local community residents and visitors of the site. The study area is in Melaka World heritage site. It consists of the Old Quarter area and the Civic area, which is tourist-themed that contains many historic and heritage buildings. Most of them were adapted to be reused as museums. The community members questionnaire was conducted in the city center of Melaka World Heritage Site. Meanwhile, the visitors questionnaire was conducted on the Melaka Heritage trail. [19] The two questionnaires were different, but there were common items in both; such as: assessment of awareness of heritage and historic buildings, first experiences of those buildings, and understanding of conservation concepts.[20] The

    results of the two questionnaires were analyzed and compared, to find out the differences between the conservation works impact on both local communities members and visitors. The second tool used in this study was interviews between local residents and government representatives. The role of local residents was to find if there were any local issues that were not included in the initial studies. Those interviews were conducted either in the world heritage site of Melaka, or at the government representatives office. The interviews were conducted in the period from April to May 2011.[21]

    Fig 2 : The Melakas heritage trail Source : www.malaysiasite.nl

    Fig 3 : Another view of The Melakas heritage trail Source : www.malaysiasite.nl

    The survey and questionnaires were designed to answer determined questions of the study which could be concluded in:

      1. To what extent are the local community members attached to their culture and heritage ?

      2. methods of increasing community awareness and responsibility.

      3. What are the available chances of community participation in making decisions and managing tourism and heritage in Malaysia ? [22]

    The local community questionnaire was completed by 143 local community members, while the study targeted a sample of 300 residents initially, but only succeeded to

    collect 143 of them despite the techniques used to encourage participation such as gifts and etc. This low rate of participation may be due to the communitys mindset that those studies would not affect them economically, or even socially.[23]

    By analyzing the local community questionnaires, the characteristics of community residents were determined and could be stated as follows :

    81.8% were born in the heritage area and 18.2% moved to live in it.[24]

    L O C A L A N D N O N L O C A L B O R N

    local born migration

    L O C A L A N D N O N L O C A L B O R N

    local born migration

    41% of local community members were over 55 years old, 22.4% were 45 to 55, and 16.1% were 20 to 34 [25]

    A G E

    over 55 45 to 55 20 to 34

    A G E

    over 55 45 to 55 20 to 34

    By analyzing the employment status of local community members, it was found that 74.8% were employed in retail and trading business, 15.4% were employed in services, and 4.2% were employed in industrial fields.[26]

    E M P L O Y M E N T

    retail and trading business services industrial fields

    E M P L O Y M E N T

    retail and trading business services industrial fields

    65% of local community members were male, and only 35% of them were female.

    I N C O M E I M P R O V E M E N T

    I N C O M E I M P R O V E M E N T

    agree

    agree

    disagree

    disagree

    G E N D E R

    male female

    G E N D E R

    male female

    Ethnic groups distribution across the study area was: 54.5% are Chinese , 31% are Malay , 8% are from other ethnic groups , and 6% are Indian. [27]

    E T H N I C G R O U P S

    Chinese Malay Other Indian

    E T H N I C G R O U P S

    Chinese Malay Other Indian

    According to the four categorized education system adopted in Malaysia, the study sample education levels were analyzed as follows: 44.8% of them passed high school level, 23.1% finished secondary school, 19.6% finished primary school, 8.4% finished tertiary education, and only 4.2% didnt have any educational certificates.[28]

    EDUCATION

    high school secondary school

    primary school tertiary education No formal education

    EDUCATION

    high school secondary school

    primary school tertiary education No formal education

    By asking local community members whether the World heritage status of Melaka affected and improved their incomes, 60.1% agreed while 39.9% disagreed.[29]

    By investigating the sense of belonging and responsibility among the local community members, 60% of them indicated a high level of belonging they felt towards their heritage and culture[30]

    S E N S E O F B E L O N G I N G

    S E N S E O F B E L O N G I N G

    High level

    low level

    High level

    low level

    By asking informative questions about Melakas heritage and culture that assess awareness among local community members, it was found that most of the high awareness levels were among members that were locally born in the city. Meanwhile, not locally born members recorded low awareness and knowledge levels, which seems to be logic but needs investigating reasons and setting plans of increasing awareness among this category of local community members. [31]

    • After analyzing the questionnaires conducted by local community members, visitors, and governmental representatives; the results can be concluded as follows :

    • Generally in Malaysia, and specially in Melaka Heritage City, local community participation in the process of making decisions about heritage and historic buildings conservation and management is still unsatisfactory.

    • This may result from not giving chances to local community members to give their opinions, and be heard by governmental representatives who make decisions about their heritage assets.

    • Due to such weak participation from local community in making decisions about heritage

      conservation and management, most projects fail to meet the local community needs and wants.

    • Researches recommend that the relationship between local community members and governmental representatives needs to be developed, so that decisions about heritage management could be made in a cooperative process between the two parties. [32]

    CASE 2 : COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN THE PROJECT OF RESTORATION AND REUSE OF ORABAS PALACES IN PALESTINE :

    This project was one of the Restoration and Rehabilitation of cultural heritage sites projects in Palestine. It was one of seven projects. The project included Jenin, Sulfait, and Tol Karam cities in a cooperation between the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Culture and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), with participation of local councils of cities within a project that aimed at providing job opportunities and minimizing poverty levels. The project had an average fund of 2.5 million US dollars from the United States of America International Development (USAID). [33]

    The City of Oraba is located on the northern borders of Naplus Mountains, 13 kilometers far from Western South Janin city. The city of Oraba has 13 Palaces that were built in Ottoman Architectural style. They were built in the early 19th century. They are rich with unique architectural elements which could be considered a live witness of Palestinian history as they were residence for Abdel Hady families which were famous monetary and political-wise in this period. [34]

    The project aimed at restoring and reuse of two palaces of them which are: Abdel Qader Abdel Hadis Palace and Hussein Abdel Hadis Palace in Orabas City, in addition to restoring and development of the historic street called Qassaba.

    The New use chosen for the two palaces was cultural and social centers, to transform them to tourism and cultural attraction for local and international visitors. [35]

    Fig 4 : Shot from inside an internal court inside one of Orabas

    Palaces.

    Source : Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Monuments

    THE LOCAL COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT SIDE :

    During the historic analysis process, documentation stages, and design stages, it was required from technicians to hold informative sessions to increase awareness in local community towards the history of those palaces. A number of workshops were held for the local community, which included : [36]

    A general workshop to provide local community with information about the project and get their feedbacks and expectations about the project. ( refer to Fig 5 ) [37]

    A more accurate workshop that presented historic analysis and documentation of current situation of palaces; in which it was required from local community members to tell their impression about the project, and suggest new uses that could be included. Such suggestions would be analyzed and argued later with specialized parties. ( refer to Fig 6 ) [38]

    Fig 5 : Part of workshops for children in cooperation with Sharek Youth Fourm

    Source : Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Monuments.

    A workshop was held by the design office to present the suggested design for reuse of palaces to local community. It was suggested that Abdel Hadis palace would be reused as a cultural center that provides a variety of cultural and entertainment activities for the local community including: a computer lab, a library, a multi-purpose hall, an information center, a museum, a café, and an art studio. Meanwhile, Hussein AbelHadis palace was decided to be reused as a child center, because the palace had negative relationship with local community as it was before used as jail. So, a decision was made to reuse it as a child center to rebuild positive relations and connections with the local community.[39]

    Fig 6: Part of the heritage activities held at the palace.

    Source : Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Monuments

    At the implementation stage of the project, and according to tender documents , the contractor was obliged to employ workers and technicians from the local community. The aim was improving the financial status of local community members, besides supporting the sense of belonging inside them towards their cultural heritage and encouraging them to protect it in the next stages.[40]

  5. APPLIED LOCAL CASES OF STUDIES TO ASSESS COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IMPACT ON ADAPTIVE REUSE PROJECTS IN EGYPTIAN

    COMMUNITIES :

    In order to assess the impact of involving local community in the adaptive reuse projects, two local cases of study were selected. The first one is al-Suhaymis house, in which the executive authorities depended on the community participation to ensure the success of adaptive reuse project. The other one is Prince Tazs Palace , in which community involvement was not activated. Below, we will study the difference between the two cases and whether community involvement and participation had positive or negative impacts on the success of adaptive reuse project.

    1. AL-SUHAYMIS HOUSE:

      This house is located in Al-Darb Al-Asfar at Al-Moezz Street. It consists of two north and south parts. The northern part was built in 1648 and the south was built in 1796. It was called Al-Suhaymi after its last resident, Sheikh Amin Al- Suhaymi. [refer to Fig 7 ) [41]

      Fig 7 : Site and borders of Al-darb Al-asfer and Al Suhaymis House Source : Documentation of Al-Suhaymis House rehabilitation.

      The ground floor of the house combines four halls and the takhtbush, besides the amenities and servants rooms. The ground floor also has the cemetery of Suhaymi. The house is characterized by plenty of upper halls. (refer to Fig 8 ) [42]

      Fig 8 : Ground floor plan of Al-Suhaymis House Source : www.cdf.gov.eg

      The first floor contains a main hall called Al-qashani hall

      Fig 9 : The first floor plan of Al-Suhaymi's House Source : www.cdf.gov.eg

      Fig 9 : The first floor plan of Al-Suhaymi's House Source : www.cdf.gov.eg

      (refer to Fig 11), in addition to two other halls (refer to Fig 9). By analyzing the horizontal plan, it becomes obvious that the designer depended on the opening inward design as most of the house items are distributed around a wide court yard (refer to fig 10). The Broken entrance was used to achieve privacy. [43]

      Fig 10 : The internal courtyard Source :The Authors

      Fig 11 : The main hall Qashani Source : The Authors

      THE PROJECT OF RESTORATION AND DOCUMENTATION OF AL-SUHAYMIS HOUSE :

      This project was initially aiming at the documentation, restoration, and adaptive reuse of Al Suhaymis House. It was launched in January 1994, under the leadership of Prof. Asaad Nadim with participatin of the Ministry of Culture and the Higher Council for Monuments. After finishing the restoration and adaptation works, the professionals found that it was necessary to improve and enhance the surrounding environment; to sustainably conserve the house. The project extended to include all the monumental houses in the lane, in addition to improving the main facilities around it and beautification of the surrounding environment to transform the project from Restoration of Al-Suhaymis House to Restoration of Al-Suhaymis House Area ( refer to Fig 12 ). [44]

      Fig 12 : Restoration works in Al-Suhaymi's house area .

      Source : Documentation of Al-Suhaymi's House rehabilitation and restoration.

      The project started with the documentation of the

      monumental houses and their details accurately in the then status. This documentation process almost took two years (1994 and 1995) before they could implement restoration works. The project included implementing a variety of architectural and structural accurate restoration works which started in 1996, in addition to replacement and renewal or some decorative elements. One of the most important works done is wall cracks treatment using bricks

      and masonry mortar, which was experimented many times to create the most appropriate mixture that emulates the original and is cement free. [45] After the restoration works were done, the professionals argued about the new uses of the buildings and agreed to reuse Al-Suhaymis house for cultural and artistic purposes as the ground floor was reused to hold concerts and cultural conferences, while the first floor was used as a live museum of residential buildings in 18th and 19th centuries. Meanwhile, the second and upper floors would be reused as work spaces for architectural students and restoration researchers. [46] After the restoration project succeeded, it extended to improve the surrounding environment and upgrade the infrastructure networks. Governmental permissions were obtained to transform the lane for pedestrians only and prevent car movement through. The improvement extended also to include beautifying the general appearance of the lane by tiling its floor and painting its facades, besides designing customized lighting elements that suits the historical character of the lane. (refer to Fig 13) [47]

      Fig 13 : Restoration works in Al-darb Al-asfar lane.

      Source : Documentation of Al-Suhaymi's House Rehabilitation and Restoration.

      COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION:

      The most important improvement was the part that was led by Prof Nawal Al Masseri, professor of cultural anthropology in cooperation with the women and children who live in the lane. This part included spreading awareness about health and environment, and setting a system for garbage collection. The social development also included holding regular meetings with community members (more than 100 families) to discuss their needs and suggestions about reusing the house, as well as discussing methods of maintaining project achievements and setting plans of future maintenance (refer to Fig 14). These meetings resulted in establishing a community association called Association

      for Developing the Area of Al-Darb Al-Asfar (refer to Fig 15). [48]

      Fig 14 : Meetings with Al-darb Al-asfar families.

      Fig 15 : constructing association for developing the area of al darb asfar

      Fig 15 : constructing association for developing the area of al darb asfar

      Source : Documentation of Al-Suhaymi's House Rehabilitation and Restoration.

      al source : Documentation of Al-Suhaymi's house rehabilitation and

      restoration

    2. PRINCE TAZ PALACE :

    The palace is located at the Khalifa district , it was built at the Mamluk age. It witnessed one of the most important ages of Egyptian history. The palace was built on the ruins of houses bought by prince Taz. the palace is considered one of the largest Egyptian palaces in space as it is almost 8000 square meters wide. It consists of a large courtyard surrounded by halls from all four sides. ( refer to fig 16 ) [49]

    Fig 16 : Site plan of Prince Taz Palace Source : www.cdf.gov.eg

    By time, the palaces structures deteriorated through different ages and the only survivals were the front and back facades (refer to fig 17). [50]

    Fig 17 : Deterioration of facades of Prince Taz Palace Source : Historical Cairo book series

    In the Khedival age, 500 years since the palace was built, the Egyptian government transformed the palace to a girls school. Then, it was later transformed it to a school book store. (refer to Fig 18) [51]

    Fig 18 : Prince Taz Palace being transformed into book stores.

    Source : Historical Cairo book series

    The palace suffered from severe damages through the 1992s earthquake and in 2002 the back wall collapsed which made the organizations associated with monuments hurry to rescue it. (refer to fig 19) [52]

    Fig 19 : Deterioration and damages in different elements of the palace.

    Source : Historical Cairo book series

    The restoration and conservation processes started under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture in an attempt to revitalize the palace. Work continued for many years, until the palace survived and recovered. ( refer to Fig 20

    ) [53]

    Fig 20 : A view inside the palace after the restoration project finished source : Egyptian ministry of Monuments and Culture.

  6. SURVEY AND FIELD WORK

    80

    60

    40

    20

    0

    80

    60

    40

    20

    0

    To study the impact of community participation on the success of heritage and historic buildings adaptive reuse projects, a comparison was made between the two cases through surveys to community members of the two buildings, to find out the effects of reuse projects on the surrounding local communities of both, and find if there were significant differences between the case in which community participation was achieved and the other case in which it was not considered. Researchers had to design a survey to assess whether community participation within adaptive reuse project stages could make difference in the success of the project, and community interaction with it, or not.

    only 35% in Prince Taz Palaces community agreed. The most obvious reason is the attention that executive authorities have given to involving local community in decision making in the adaptive reuse project of Al- Suhaymis House, starting from the early stages of planning for the project.

    Do you know about the historic building

    existence in your community ?

    Do you know about the historic building

    existence in your community ?

    60

    40

    20

    0

    60

    40

    20

    0

    Al suhaymi Prince Taz

    Al suhaymi Prince Taz

    agree

    agree

    neutral disagree

    neutral disagree

    By asking the two samples whether they participated in the adaptive reuse project or not , 70% of alsuhaymis community agreed while only 5% did in the prince Taz palaces community which is also could be due to community participation and involvement in the different stages of the adaptive reuse project of alsuhaymis house.

    Did you participate in the adaptive

    reuse of the historic building

    according to your profession ?

    Did you participate in the adaptive

    reuse of the historic building

    according to your profession ?

    QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS

    The questionnaire included three parts of questions, the first part was informative questions that would help dividing and filtering the sample according to their age, gender, education, profession and experience. The second part included questions investigating the participation of local community members in the adaptive reuse project, and the last part included questions assessing the success of adaptive reuse of historic buildings projects. Answers to the questionnaires were put according to a triple Likert Scale onsists of agree, disagree, and neutral. The questionnaire was conducted in local communities of the two cases: Al- Suhaymis House and Prince Tazs Palace.

    By comparing the results of questionnaires conducted among communities of the two selected cases of study, some questions did not achieve significant differences in answer rates. Meanwhile, some other questions showed how really involving local community supported the success of adaptive reuse projects. For example, by asking the two samples whether they had knowledge about the historic building and its history or not; 60% of the sample in Al-Suhaymis community agreed while

    agree

    neutral disagree

    agree

    neutral disagree

    Al suhaymi

    Prince Taz

    Al suhaymi

    Prince Taz

    By asking whether they had knowledge about the activities presented inside the adaptive reuse projects of the two cases , 60% of alsuhaymis community agreed while only 20% of prince taz palaces community did which also may be due to the awareness sessions presented to communitys members of alsuhaymis house while involving them in the early stages of the adaptive reuse projects during making decisions about the new use and activities according to communitys needs.

    Do you know about the

    activities presented by the historic building reuse project to your community ?

    100

    50

    0

    agree neutral disagree

    Do you participate in any

    volunteering activities in your community ?

    Do you know about the

    activities presented by the historic building reuse project to your community ?

    100

    50

    0

    agree neutral disagree

    Do you participate in any

    volunteering activities in your community ?

    agree

    neutral

    disagree

    agree

    neutral

    disagree

    50

    40

    30

    20

    10

    0

    50

    40

    30

    20

    10

    0

    Al suhaymi

    Al suhaymi

    Prince Taz

    Prince Taz

    By asking the samples whether they had opportunities to work or train in the adaptive reuse project of the historic building, 40% of Al-Suhaymi's community agreed while only 10% of Prince Taz Palace did, which shows that community involvement in adaptive reuse project have sustainable benefits.

    Did you get any opportunity to

    work or train in the historic

    building adaptive reuse project ?

    Did you get any opportunity to

    work or train in the historic

    building adaptive reuse project ?

    60

    40

    20

    0

    60

    40

    20

    0

    agree neutral disagree

    agree neutral disagree

    Al suhaymi

    Prince Taz

    Al suhaymi

    Prince Taz

    By asking about their participation in volunteering work, 20% of Al-Suhaymi's community agreed while 8% of Prince Taz Palaces community agreed, which may be due to the sense of belonging that was supported in Al- Suhaymi's community through their participation in the adaptive reuse project of the historic building.

    Al suhaymi

    Prince Taz

    Al suhaymi

    Prince Taz

    By asking about their life satisfaction, 50% of Al- Suhaymi's community sample agreed, while 30% of Prince Taz Palace community did.

    Do you feel satisfied with your life ?

    Do you feel satisfied with your life ?

    60

    60

    40

    40

    20

    20

    0

    0

    agree

    neutral disagree

    agree

    neutral disagree

    Al suhaymi

    Prince Taz

    Al suhaymi

    Prince Taz

  7. CONCLUSION :

    Adaptive reuse projects of historic and heritage buildings directly affect the local host communities of those buildings, which makes it logical to involve the community in decision making of reuse projects. Community involvement doesnt only guarantee community participation in the activities that would be presented in the

    project later. But it also supports the sense of responsibility in the community towards the heritage and historic buildings, which helps achieve sustainable conservation of such buildings through ensuring community protection of them.

    To study the differences made by activating community participation, two cases were studied. The first case that didnt activate the community participation is Prince Taz Palace Project, which depended on planning for the project by technical authorities and didnt consider taking opinions of local community members. The other case that activated community participation since early project stages is Al- Suhaymi's House, which depended on involving local community in selecting new activities and improving the surrounding environment. Then, survey questionnaires were conducted in samples of the communities of the two cases, to investigate the differences in the features of success of the adaptive reuse projects.

    By comparing results of the two samples, it was noticed that community participation had significant differences and supported success of the historic building adaptive reuse. Involving local community in the early implementation stages of adaptive reuse projects, and making decisions about new activities, encouraged their participation in the later stages after carrying out the new activities – in addition to enhancing the sense of belonging inside the local community members, which encouraged them to protect and improve the project.

  8. REFERENCES

  1. Fredheim, L. H., & Khalaf, M. (2016). The significance of values: heritage value typologies re-examined. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 22(6), 466-481.

  2. Velthuis, K., & Spennemann, D. H. (2007). The future of defunct religious buildings: Dutch approaches to their adaptive re- use. Cultural Trends, 16(1), 43-66.

  3. Bullen, P. A., & Love, P. E. (2011). Adaptive reuse of heritage buildings. Structural survey.

  4. Ruiz, C., Conejo, A. J., & Smeers, Y. (2011). Equilibria in an oligopolistic electricity pool with stepwise offer curves. IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 27(2), 752-761.

  5. Msrlsoy, D., & Günçe, K. (2016). Adaptive reuse strategies for heritage buildings: A holistic approach. Sustainable Cities and Society, 26, 91-98.

  6. Bullen, P. A., & Love, P. E. (2009). Residential regeneration and adaptive reuse: learning from the experiences of Los Angeles. Structural Survey.

  7. Schittich, C. (2003). Solar Architecture. Strategies. Visions. Concepts, Editura Birkhauser, Berlin.

  8. Kincaid, D. L. (2002). Drama, emotion, and cultural convergence. Communication Theory, 12(2), 136-152.

  9. Wen, J., Yk, S., Yp, L., Yuan, P., Wang, F., & Garca, O. (2012). Quality of life. Physical Diseases, and Psychological Impairment among Survivors, 3, 435-443.

  10. Theofilou, P. (2013). Quality of life: definition and measurement. Europe's journal of psychology, 9(1).

  11. Schalock, R. L. (2004). The concept of quality of life: what we know and do not know. Journal of intellectual disability research, 48(3), 203-216.

  12. Truscott, M., & Young, D. (2000). Revising the Burra Charter: Australia ICOMOS updates its guidelines for conservation practice. Conservation and management of archaeological sites, 4(2), 101-116.

  13. Royer, A. (2010). The Council of Europe. Council of Europe.

  14. Sonkoly, G. (2017). Vienna and the Vienna memorandum. In Historical Urban Landscape (pp. 77-122). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

  15. Angrisano, M., Biancamano, P. F., Bosone, M., Carone, P., Daldanise, G., De Rosa, F., … & Girard, L. F. (2016). Towards operationalizing UNESCO Recommendations on Historic Urban Landscape: a position paper. Aestimum, 165-210

  16. Rodwell, D. (2012). The unesco world heritage convention, 1972 2012: reflections and directions. The historic environment: policy & practice, 3(1), 64-85.

  17. Eppich, R., & Chabbi, A. (2010). Gett Conservation Institute. Recording, documentation, and information management for the conservation of heritage places: illustrated examples.

  18. Zérah, M. H., Dupont, V., & Lama-Rewal, S. T. (2011). Urban policies and the right to the city in India: rights, responsibilities and citizenship.

  19. Mohd Farhan, A. R., Muhd Imran, A. R., Ahmad Firdaus, M. N., Mukhamad Khafiz, A. B., & Nurul Khairiah, K. (2020). Pengaruh hinduisme dalam kehidupan masyarakat Melayu: rujukan khusus karya pilihan RO Winstedt/Mohd Farhan Abd Rahman…[et al.]. Idealogy, 5(1), 109-118.

  20. Mat Som, A. P. (2005). Community involvement in ecotourism (Doctoral dissertation, University of Strathclyde).

  21. Dahlan, S. M., & Mohamad, N. A. (2017, October). Waqf literatures from Malaysia: 60 years after Independence. In Global Waqf Conference. Pekanbaru, Indonesia.

  22. Akasah, Z. A., & Alias, M. (2009). Application of the Generic Process Modeling in the Preservation of Heritage School Buildings. Structural Studies, repairs and maintenance of heritage architecture XI, 323.

  23. Al-hagla, K. S. (2010). Sustainable urban development in historical areas using the tourist trail approach: A case study of the Cultural Heritage and Urban Development (CHUD) project in Saida, Lebanon. Cities, 27(4), 234-248.

  24. Nambi, R. (2017). RESTRUCTURING AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN TASO UGANDA LTD: A CASE OF TASO JINJA (Doctoral dissertation, Uganda Management Institute).

  25. Marzuki, A. (2008). Decision making and community participation: A case study of the tourism industry in Langkawi. Tourism: An International Interdisciplinary Journal, 56(3), 227-241.

  26. Denscombe, M. (2017). EBOOK: The good research guide: For small-scale social research projects. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

  27. Dorwart, C. E. (2007). Exploring Visitors' Perceptions of the Trail Environment and Their Effects on Experiences in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

  28. Aziz, R. A. (2017). Heritage conservation: Authenticity and vulnerability of living heritage sites in Melaka state. Kajian Malaysia, 35, 39-58.

  29. Fairer-Wessels, F. (2005). A literary pilgrimage to Robben island as inspired by Nelson Mandela's" Long walk to freedom". South African journal of cultural history, 19(2), 1-16.

  30. Fisher, D. G. (2006). The potential for rural heritage tourism in the Clarence Valley of Northern New South Wales. Australian Geographer, 37(3), 411-424.

  31. Fyall, A., & Rakic, T. (2006). The future market for World Heritage sites. Managing world heritage sites, 159-175.

  32. Garrod, B., Leask, A., & Fyall, A. (2007). An assessment of international best practicein visitor attraction management: does Scotland really lag behind?. International Journal of Tourism Research, 9(1), 21-42.

  33. De Cesari, C. (2010). World heritage and mosaic universalism: A view from Palestine. Journal of Social Archaeology, 10(3), 299- 324.

  34. Assi, E. (2012). World heritage sites, human rights and cultural heritage in Palestine. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 18(3), 316-323.

  35. De Cesari, C. (2012). Thinking through heritage regimes. Heritage Regimes and the State, 6, 399-413.

  36. Salameh, M. M., Touqan, B. A., Awad, J., & Salameh, M. M. (2022). Heritage conservation as a bridge to sustainability assessing thermal performance and the preservation of identity through heritage conservation in the Mediterranean city of Nablus. Ain Shams Engineering Journal, 13(2), 101553.

  37. Shehada, Z. M., Ahmad, Y. B., Yaacob, N. M., & Keumala, N. I. (2015). Developing methodology for adaptive re-use: Case study of heritage buildings in Palestine. ArchNet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, 9(2), 216.

  38. Golzari, N., & Sharif, Y. (2011). Reclaiming space and identity: heritage-led regeneration in Palestine. The Journal of Architecture, 16(1), 121-144.

  39. Shehada, Z. M. (2020). The Role of the Community Participation in the Architectural Heritage Projects in Palestine (Comparative Study. International Journal of Heritage Art and Multimedia, 3(9), 38-46.

  40. De Cesari, C. (2014). World Heritage and the Nation-State: a view from Palestine. Transnational Memory, 247.

  41. Abdel-Aal, M. F., Maarouf, I., & El-Sayary, S. (2018). Wakala buildings of Mamluk era in Cairo, Egypt and how far they meet the rating criteria of LEED V4. Alexandria engineering journal, 57(4), 3793-3803.

  42. Attia, S. (2006). The role of landscape design in improving the microclimate in traditional courtyard buildings in hot arid climates. In Proceedings of 23rd International Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture-PLEA 2006 (pp. 22-24). PLEA-Université de Genève-groupe énergie.

  43. Raslan, E. O. M. (2016). THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAMIC PERIODS FROM THE ARCHITECTURE POINT OF VIEW AL- SUHAYMI HOUSE (1648 AD/1796 AD). In 3rd International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences and Arts SGEM 2016 (pp. 901-908).

  44. Man, N. M. S. B. N., & Wan, W. K. N. B. (2017). The Elements of Landscape in Islamic Courtyard Design: Case Study of Bayt Al- Suhaymi Museum in Cairo, Egypt and Alhambra Granada, Spain. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 7(3), 2222-6990.

  45. Abdelkader, R., & Park, J. H. (2018). Spatial principles of traditional Cairene courtyard houses in Cairo. Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, 17(2), 245-252.

  46. Mohamed, N. A. G., & Ali, W. H. (2014). Traditional residential

    architecture in Cairo from a green architecture perspective. Arts and Design Studies, 16(6).

  47. EL-HABASHI, A. E., Hesham, Y., & Darwa, R. (2021). Bustans in the Historic Buildings of Cairo: Bayt Yakan and its Surrounding Sustainable Neighborhood. ERJ. Engineering Research Journal, 44(2), 221-232.

  48. Elnokaly, A., & Elseragy, A. (2013). Sustainable heritage development: learning from urban conservation of heritage projects in non western contexts. European Journal of Sustainable Development, 2(1), 31-31.

  49. Mohamed ISMAIL, B., & Sabry HEGAZI, Y. (2018). RESTORATION WORKS DETERMINANTS OF COMPLETIONS IN MAMLUK PALACES CASE STUDY: PALACE OF PRINCE TAZ. International Journal of Advanced Studies in World Archaeology, 1(2), 1-3.

  50. Kandil, D. A. M. (2016). Taz Palace: Reflections on a Hidden Treasure. Journal of Association of Arab Universities for Tourism and Hospitality, 13(2), 27-40.

  51. AL-AKABY, E. A. A. S. (2020). TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE HERITAGE AND THE FUTURE OF HERITAGE PRESERVATION. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Heritage Research, 3(2), 32-34.

  52. Farag ISMAIL, R. (2018). RESTORATION OF RUQYAH COVERS (MANUSCRIPT OF KITAB AL TIBB BY IBN SINA). International Journal of Advanced Studies in World Archaeology, 1(1), 10-15.

  53. Elyamani, A. (2018). Re-use proposals and structural analysis of historical palaces in Egypt: The case of Baron Empain Palace in Cairo. Scientific Culture, 4(1), 53-73.

Leave a Reply