Trace Cahier N°5 centres around the theme of Lived Interiors and explores the multitude of meanings and associations with the term, particularly in relation to the practices and pedagogies of adaptive reuse. The ephemerality and accumulative nature of historical interiors often mean that, despite being rich reservoirs of memory and identities, their translation into new uses is met by challenges in identifying which layers warrant preservation, whose memories must be retained, and which elements truly contribute to their heritage value. In response to these challenges, the conceptual shift from “historical interior” to the “lived interior”, borrowed from Lefebvre’s spatial triad, signals a shift away from the objectivity of spatial form toward the more subjective, contradictory, and often conflictual processes of meaning-making in interiors. The lived interior is defined by the multiplicity of social meanings produced through daily practice and use, operating as a medium for thought and action and allowing inhabitants to negotiate and assert control over their built environment. Within the context of the cahier, it is therefore approached as a carrier of memory, practice, and material culture—continuously shaped by time, user agency, and its broader sociopolitical conditions. The cahier organises these associations into the themes of Reading and Representation, Activating Memory, and Designing with Memory.
Trace – Notes on adaptive reuse is an annual peer-reviewed publication by the research group Trace and the International Master on Adaptive Reuse, part of the Faculty of Architecture and Arts at Hasselt University, Belgium. Trace has a focus on emerging practices of adaptive reuse in architecture and heritage, developing a theoretical framework from a designerly approach. Studying the historical context of a building or site, they identify and select specific traces – defined as bridges between past and present – of tangible and/or intangible (re)sources as anchors for the design process. Exploring the spatial potentialities and the poetics of the existing, they consider the transformation of buildings and sites from within.