Research

Interpretive authority, spatial evidence and the institutional treatment of community knowledge

What happens to people’s claims about a place when they enter the records and procedures through which heritage institutions decide what counts, what should be preserved and what action should follow?

My research follows this problem across lived places, architectural records, digital interfaces and institutional heritage processes. Grounded in Bangladesh and South Asia, and extended through research in the Republic of Korea and international heritage-evaluation work, it examines the movement from lived spatial knowledge to formal evidence—and the changes, exclusions and unequal relations of authority produced along the way.

Across this work, I distinguish representation from authority. Making a community narrative visible does not necessarily give it standing within a preservation decision. I therefore investigate how situated knowledge is documented, attributed, interpreted, evaluated and translated into action without being detached from the people, practices and places through which it was produced.

Connected Research Strands

Lived Spatial Knowledge and Contested Heritage

This strand examines how communities produce meaning through inhabitation, ritual, memory, adaptation and claims to place. My continuing research in Geneva Camp, alongside work in Old Dhaka and Bagerhat, considers forms of heritage that cannot be understood through historic fabric or authorised narratives alone.

Architectural Documentation and the Production of Evidence

I approach documentation as an interpretive process rather than a neutral record. Through measured survey, photogrammetry, conservation documentation, spatial analysis and World Heritage nomination work, I examine how different forms of knowledge become evidence, how they are organised and what may be excluded before institutional assessment begins.

Digital Mediation, Plural Records and Interpretive Authority

My digital heritage research investigates whether digital systems merely reproduce established hierarchies of knowledge or create meaningful conditions for plurality. This includes augmented-reality interpretation through Amar Oitijjho and the development of the Spatial Narratives Integration Protocol during my 2025 UNESCO WHIPIC Fellowship.

Research Trajectory

Geneva Camp, 2012–2013 and 2025–present

My initial fieldwork examined dwelling adaptation, Muharram practices, temporary structures and collective use within a politically marginalised urban community. It established my continuing concern with the difference between architecture as recorded form and space as socially produced and contested.

Old Dhaka, 2019–2021, 2023-present

My MA research at the University of Leicester examined the consequences of Authorised Heritage Discourse in historic mosques. This shifted my attention from the existence of plural meanings to the institutional authority through which some meanings acquire recognition while others remain peripheral.

Documentation, Interpretation and Heritage Institutions, 2020–continuing

Work on conservation documentation, two successful UNESCO Tentative List submissions, the AFCP-supported capacity-building project and Amar Oitijjho allowed me to investigate how spatial, historical and community knowledge is translated into surveys, nomination dossiers, interpretive systems and conservation proposals.

SNIP and Institutional Translation, 2025–continuing

During the UNESCO WHIPIC Fellowship, I developed SNIP as a seven-phase protocol for relating community-situated narratives to digitally documented heritage environments. Its initial application connected 43 spatial narratives from five named community sources to two Naepo Catholic gongso sites.

The fellowship established a proof of concept rather than a comprehensively validated method. It also exposed the question that now drives my research: once community knowledge has been represented within a heritage record, what determines whether it can influence institutional judgement and preservation action?

Current Work

From Lived Knowledge to Preservation Decision

My developing doctoral research direction examines what happens when situated knowledge enters formal preservation systems. It focuses on the processes through which such knowledge is admitted, reformulated, weighted, authorised or separated from the decisions that affect a place.

Extending SNIP in Bangladesh

Ongoing work at Chunakhola Mosque and the wider Historic Mosque City of Bagerhat is testing how SNIP operates beyond its initial Korean Catholic heritage context. The research considers cross-cultural applicability, participant validation, provenance, revisability and the relationship between narrative records and existing documentation practices.

Assembling Muharram

Assembling Muharram: The Contested Production of Culture and Space in Dhaka’s Geneva Camp returns to a research relationship begun during my architectural education. It examines how ritual temporarily reorganises space, visibility, cultural authority and collective identity within a marginalised urban settlement.

Methods and Approaches

My research combines:


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