Adaptive Reuse Buildings

The old town of Leh, like many cities, towns and settlements around the world, is decaying and people are moving away into new areas.
The survival of historic cities, towns and settlements depends very much on how these places can tackle the issues that are the problem; lack of adequate infrastructure, decrepit buildings and the backward image of these neighborhoods. It is always challenging to rehabilitate and revitalize historic neighborhoods from a state of decay to one of prosperity. However, it is only possible to accomplish this task through using a “Community Based Conservation Approach”.

Our approach has been practiced in Leh old town since 2003, we witnessed through our adaptive reuse of some historic buildings, that this provides an opportunity to bring back young people and new residents to the old town.
The adaptive reuse projects have been successful and brought the forgotten houses back to life again. Residents see that the houses can have better light systems through the installation of skylights and light wells and by adapting glass rooms in some cases, and by building modern facilities for the kitchen and bathroom.

These adaptations have added value to the historic houses and to the desire of people to inhabit and preserve their traditional homes. The houses where we have used this approach have been repaired according to the new requirements of the building use: commercial, studio and museum or residential.














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