Syed Hamid Akbar (°1991) received his bachelor’s degree in Architecture in 2013 from the University of Engineering & Technology, Peshawar, Abbottabad Campus, Pakistan. After working for four years in Islamabad as an architect in a private architectural firm, he joined Hasselt University, Belgium, in 2017, on a scholarship program of ‘The Higher Education Commission Faculty Development Program’ from ‘The Government of Pakistan’. He completed his master’s degree with distinction in ‘International Masters of Interior Architecture: Adaptive Reuse’ from the Faculty of Architecture & Arts in 2018. Syed Hamid has a particular interest in old, abandoned buildings, which have heritage status, and how to safeguard these gems from demolition and re-vitalize them for new functions. His master’s thesis was on an abandoned mosque building in Pakistan, which he also presented at a conference in Malaysia in 2019 and published in the conference proceedings. After his master’s degree, he continued his studies in the same field, became part of the research group ‘Trace’ on the same scholarship, and started his PhD with a research focus on the adaptive reuse of British-era protected heritage in Karachi, Pakistan. The main focus of his PhD research is investigating how protected heritage can be utilized to fulfil local communities' social, cultural, and economic requirements and make heritage a vital component of a city’s urban regeneration.