Purpose: – Many of the heritage adaptive reuse projects in Islamic Cairo did not report success. Existing evaluations are usually drawn from a singular perspective – such as preservation and sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to generate a comprehensive assessment framework of adaptively reused heritage buildings that is specifically developed for the case of Islamic heritage of Cairo. Design/methodology/approach: – This paper depends on an extensive literature review about primary goals of adapting heritage for reuse. Related to each goal, multiple criteria of assessment are derived from literature, and then explained to mention worldwide benchmarks in that field. Findings: – A successful heritage adaptation project shall aim to achieve: building preservation, success of new function, and local community development. The framework is able to organize the adaptive reuse literature in general, and to specifically provide direct goals and guidelines in the case of Cairo. Research limitations/implications: – In research and practice, priorities of heritage reuse vary from case-to case; however, this paper considers all assessment criteria to be of equal importance. Practical implications: – In order to apply and technically develop this assessment framework, future research can describe methodologies for assessment and to set optimum quantitative and/or qualitative indicators’ thresholds for each criterion. Social implications: – This paper highlights that new uses of heritage buildings should be assessed for having a role in the upgrading the socio-economic milieu of the people living. The new functions shall act as a stimulant for economic upraising and social reinforcement for the local business and small traditional industries. Originality/value: – The framework can be used as a checklist in either the planning of adaptive reuse projects or the evaluation of already completed ones. The framework shall assist governmental institutions, developers, owners, community groups, practitioners, and others in bringing forward successful adaptation schemes in Cairo.

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is a tool that can be applied to virtually all aspects of business and life, including the construction industry. However, the adoption of GenAI in the construction industry, as with other innovations, is slow, and many of its applications thus far have been rather simplistic or failed to deliver a useful, credible output. There is a limited understanding of how GenAI is adopted in current practice and its potential to improve future practice in architecture, engineering, construction, and operations (AECO). Using a systematic literature review approach, this study aims to map the current issues in applying GenAI. The literature review initially identified 1013 peer-reviewed articles from ProQuest, Scopus, and Web of Science. The articles were further filtered based on specific criteria, resulting in 28 articles being retained for thematic analysis. The findings show a cluster of patterns in which GenAI is being adopted and shows promise. The core themes identified are as follows: (1) project brief, (2) architectural design, (3) building information modelling, (4) structural design, (5) construction and demolition, (6) operations, and (7) urban governance. A typical trend noted in the AECO industry has been training AI models that achieve quicker results, improve quality, and use fewer resources.

Purpose: Many heritage-listed gaols in Australia have become obsolete in terms of their original function and were decommissioned decades ago. As a default management practice, decommissioned gaols are usually transformed into museums which are mostly empty and underused without considering other viable alternatives. This research challenges this mainstream thinking and demonstrates that among the entire stock of heritage-listed gaols in Australia, even the least ranked gaol in terms of its potential for reuse can be turned into a thriving and vibrant new function.Design/methodology/approach: Hypothetically, if the least ranked Australian heritage-listed gaol in terms of its potential for reuse is in fact “reusable”, then the remaining heritage gaols have more chance of being successfully reused to accommodate a vibrant new function. To be able to test this hypothesis, first, the Adaptive Reuse Potential (ARP) model is applied to rank Australia's decommissioned heritage gaols which are spatially and structurally sound to accommodate new uses. Second, an architectural design concept was designed to adaptively reuse the lowest scored gaol (Richmond Gaol) to a boutique hotel. The conceptual design proposal was then assessed by three local heritage architecture firms to validate its applicability and viability.Findings: The research showed that Richmond Gaol can be reused successfully to at least one function, and accordingly, the whole stock of heritage gaols can be expected to also be reused to more sustainable purposes. The research identifies several considerations for the reuse of heritage gaols in Australia: the careful intervention to their significant fabric; maintaining sufficient evidence of the gaol's original components, the importance of the new use being compatible to the gaol's morphology to ensure minimum alterations or demolitions in the significant fabric of the site; and evaluating the new use and its components to achieve financial viability.Research limitations/implications: Due to the continuing closure of Tasmania's state borders amid the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the researchers were not able to travel to Tasmania to conduct a site visit and to run the in-depth interviews with the architects in person. Most of the data of the current status of the site, its current layout, museum elements, historical data and photos were provided by Heritage Authorities in Tasmania and the Tasmanian State Library and Archive Service. Supplementary information and photos were acquired in March 2020 from visitors of the gaol who uploaded their trip images to Google maps or to their travel blogs. Topographical data of the site was gathered from Topographic Base-map of Land Information System Richmond Tasmania (2020). Due to travel restrictions, in-depth interviews with the local architects were done virtually, or over the phone in one case.Practical implications: Challenges discussed in this research encourage creating nationally designed support programs to better vitalise and help preserve Australia's carceral heritage.Originality/value: This research utilises architectural design in an empirical research paradigm.

Given all the uncomfortableness, fears, shame, and troubles associated with memories of Australian carceral history, it is surprising that Australians are interested in reusing sites of decommissioned prisons at all. The uncomfortable past juxtaposes basic ideas of preservation, not to mention the further transformation of old gaols to places for comfortable residences and shops. Her Majesty’s Prison Pentridge is used here as a case study, where the exact site of a century-and-a-half of notoriously brutal incarceration and source of uncomfortableness to the local community was transformed to residential and mixed-use developments. Perhaps due to those memories slipping away, or probably due to pragmatic economic opportunities allowed by urban consolidation policies, such acute transformation became possible. This paper joins an unsettled debate surrounding the phenomena of converting old prisons to contemporary buildings and shops inhabited by non-prisoners using Pentridge as a recent example.