Adaptive Reuse and Conceptual Landscape Design: Representing Place Identity in Asian Abandoned Spaces

Abandoned and underused sites offer opportunities to reconnect contemporary public landscapes with spatial traces and cultural narratives. This study examines how adaptive reuse (AR) and conceptual landscape design (CLD) represent intended place identity in 12 documented projects across seven Asian countries. A comparative desk-based analysis examines published project narratives, drawings, photographs, and reconstructed site plans using five CLD dimensions: value and vision, site analysis and interpretation, form and structure, program and element, and process and operation. The analysis identifies three recurring design propositions—Re: Icon, Re: Install, and Re: Imprint—and four associated strategic themes: spatial meaning, adaptability and flexibility, connectivity, and user experience. These findings describe documented design intentions and morphological interventions rather than verified user perceptions or post-occupancy performance. As a purposively selected, heterogeneous sample, the cases support an exploratory framework for future testing, not claims about the effectiveness of these strategies across Asia. The study contributes an explicit analytical connection between reuse decisions, conceptual narratives, and observable spatial changes, while highlighting the need for source-audited coding, user research, and longitudinal evaluation.