In March 2020, the World Health Organization officially announced the COVID-19 outbreak as a global Pandemic (WHO, 2020). During this time, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) introduced national preventative measures to slow the spread of the deadly virus by announcing the closure of schools and higher education institutions, and the commitment of online learning. Teaching faculty at the College of Arts and Creative Enterprises (CACE) at Zayed University were suddenly facing the challenge of teaching design through a distance learning approach. As educators of interior design, the authors were part of the team tasked to find ways to teach design without physical contact with the students nor access to campus facilities traditionally used to run the program and its associated courses. This paper charts the pedagogy approach that the authors adopted as a response to the national lockdown. As design faculty, the authors felt that, despite the restrictions imposed on society because of COVID-19 pandemic, it was still possible to explore other alternatives for a particular course, the senior capstone project. The main intention was to successfully fulfil the course learning outcomes and provide students with a suitable pedagogy continuity to the learning process commenced prior to the lockdown.

What defines an interior space? Is a traditional threshold the only building element considered as a clear component demarcating interiority from the outside environment? Could light or water be just as clear? How can scale challenge the identification of an internal space? Is a living space more identifiable as an interior volume? What about an internal courtyard for a family house outlining the beginning of a nation or the opposite extreme in the time-space continuum, a 24,000 square meters domed roof over a series of intimate spaces establishing a nation’s cultural intention internationally? Can a central space act as a gravitational point to other space fragments and elements? Can the ephemerality of the space bind it together in a unique, memorable encounter?We set ourselves to answer these questions using different phenomenological responses methods including digital video, photography, drawings, and architectural observations. All depict different layered trajectories through the segments of the architectural strata that compose a cultural enclosure, such as Jean Nouvel’s Louvre Abu Dhabi. As we transverses through space and time, we use regional typologies to create a timeline spectrum connecting regional context, culture and architecture, attempting to emphasise the interiority qualities of the space under the dome.

Adaptive reuse in architecture refers to the process of redesigning, converting, and reappropriating existing spaces for functions different from the ones they were originally designed for. This research is a case study showing an alternative to this concept, re-purposing aviation parts and finding new programmatic functions in the design learning studio. The pedagogy approach, adopted by a design studio in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), presents the fluidity of adaptive interiority against rigidity and site specificity. The research results in the creation of adaptive modular spaces and ephemeral interiority through upcycling design, flexibility, materiality, reusability, recyclability, and connectivity while simultaneously showcasing the rigorous interplay of innovation, research, science, and technology. The case study design studio was based at Zayed University and partnered with Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the UAE, highlighting the importance of industry and education as interdisciplinary collaborations. The paper looks at the pedagogical approach and examines the conducted process and evaluates the outcomes and shortcomings, including those inflicted by the COVID-19 world health pandemic. It argues for ‘adaptive interiority,’ inclusion in the adaptive reuse framework and a further reflection on the large vision and possible future impact within the UAE’s social and architectural context.