RITHU
  • Home
  • Our founder
  • Services
  • Heritage economy
  • Work
  • Research
  • For firms
  • About
  • Workshops & community
  • Contact
  • More
    • Home
    • Our founder
    • Services
    • Heritage economy
    • Work
    • Research
    • For firms
    • About
    • Workshops & community
    • Contact
RITHU
  • Home
  • Our founder
  • Services
  • Heritage economy
  • Work
  • Research
  • For firms
  • About
  • Workshops & community
  • Contact

Every heritage building is worth something. The wrong use wastes it.

We read a site's values, contexts and economy, and give a clear, evidence-based recommendation before design money is spent.

Request a first assessment
Bidding on a heritage project?

Rithu at a glance

8

ISBN

8

countries reached by Rithu since 2020, through commissions, research, talks and proposals

4

ISBN

8

named, published frameworks behind every service

ISBN

ISBN

ISBN

Commissioned research for the International Centre for Documentary Heritage (ICDH), under the auspices of UNESCO, published with an ISBN in 2026

Founder-led

Dr. Hanaa Moosa giving a keynote

Dr. Hanaa Moosa · Founder & CEO

“I connect fields that people never connect, and find the hidden potentials no one else sees. Then I link them into a new, parallel layer of networks — one that keeps a place sustainable, authentic, distinctive, creative and fair.”

  • Author of the Prevailing Value System, from her PhD on heritage buildings reuse (Cairo University, 2014).
  • Principal investigator, research for the International Centre for Documentary Heritage (ICDH), under the auspices of UNESCO (2025).
  • Over 20 years across architecture, heritage conservation, research and teaching.
  • Built Rithu herself since 2020 — to commissions in Saudi Arabia and for the International Centre for Documentary Heritage (ICDH), under the auspices of UNESCO.

Meet Dr. Hanaa Moosa

Every context, every hidden potential.

Our signature

How we read a place

A historic place is shaped by many contexts at once, and by the value system that prevails over all of them. Rithu reads them together, connecting fields that are rarely connected, to find what others overlook: a soundscape, a forgotten tram line, a discontinued craft, a vacant lot, a city of the dead that is still alive, an economic chain that can carry conservation.

Over them all: the prevailing value system.

Social · Cultural & intangible · Legal & governance · Urban & architectural · Economic · Environmental · Tourism · Political

See the research behind it →

Heritage economy: the right use, and the cost of each choice

01 Opportunity cost

01 Opportunity cost

01 Opportunity cost

What each reuse option gains, and what it gives up.

02 Economic chains

01 Opportunity cost

01 Opportunity cost

The crafts, trades and services a heritage place can feed, and be fed by.

03 Regional sectors

01 Opportunity cost

04 The Value–Opportunity Matrix

Uses aligned with the industries that already drive the region.

04 The Value–Opportunity Matrix

04 The Value–Opportunity Matrix

04 The Value–Opportunity Matrix

Before any design: uses ranked against value, context, community, economy and feasibility.

Start with a first assessment

04 The Value–Opportunity Matrix

Start with a first assessment

Most reuse plans leave the economy for later. Rithu puts it on the table from the first study.

Our heritage economy approach

Every service stands on a published method

Prevailing Value System

Prevailing Value System

Prevailing Value System

Dr. Hanaa Moosa · PhD 2014 · 2018

Beyond the political, economic, social and urban contexts lies the value system that prevails in a community. It keeps changing every other context and sets its direction. We read it first.

Adaptive reuse levels

Prevailing Value System

Prevailing Value System

Dr. Hanaa Moosa with Prof. Ahmed Ouf · 2019

Reuse decided at three scales together (district, street and building) so one building's new use serves its whole setting.

Economic Blind Spots framework

Institutional–Community Bridging Framework

Institutional–Community Bridging Framework

Dr. Hanaa Moosa · 2025

Adds what reuse frameworks miss: opportunity costs, economic chains and alignment with a region's leading sectors.

Institutional–Community Bridging Framework

Institutional–Community Bridging Framework

Institutional–Community Bridging Framework

Dr. Hanaa Moosa · International Centre for Documentary Heritage (ICDH), under the auspices of UNESCO · 2025

A transferable method for closing the gap between heritage institutions and the communities they serve.

Our research

What you can commission

Conservation, regeneration & management

Adaptive reuse, regeneration, impact assessment and site management.

Policy, governance & sustainable development

Institutions, laws and plans that protect heritage and let it grow.

Documentation & knowledge systems

Documentation, value assessment and applied research.

Community engagement & living heritage

People, crafts and traditions as part of the plan.

Heritage tourism & cultural development

Visiting, interpretation and heritage-led investment.

Capacity building

For heritage authorities, professionals and academic staff.

Heritage-sensitive design

Moosa Studio: new layers inspired by heritage values.

All services

Commissioned work and research

Heritage-sensitive square, Al-Madinah

Conceptual urban master plan, Al-Madinah

Commissioned & delivered · DECON · KSA · 2025

A full proposal from research to design: conceptual urban master plan for a mixed-use development, for DECON, Saudi Arabia.

All work

Documentation as a Process and Cultural Practice

Commissioned research · International Centre for Documentary Heritage (ICDH), under the auspices of UNESCO

Principal investigator. Entertainment-based transmission of documentary heritage in the Arab world, with a focus on Egypt. Published with ISBN.

Overcoming Economic Blind Spots in Adaptive Reuse

Overcoming Economic Blind Spots in Adaptive Reuse

Research by our founder · 2025

Dr. Hanaa Moosa, Founder of Rithu. A strategic framework illustrated through New Zealand cases. International Design Journal 15(6).

Publications

Your bid has a heritage gap. We close it.

Rithu for firms

How Rithu began

The last page of a sketchbook

In 2017–2020, before Rithu, while working as an individual consultant on the Historic Cairo regeneration project, she drew on the last page of a sketchbook a diagram of one entity that could do everything, with an empty circle at the top, waiting for a name.

Dr. Hanaa Moosa · Founder & CEO

PhD, Cairo University (2014) · over 20 years across architecture, heritage conservation, research and teaching. Consultation grows out of her research, and every new study strengthens it.

Rithu (رثوا)

An Arabic imperative verb: inherit. It asks people to inherit their heritage.

About Rithu and the team

Workshops, talks & community

Workshops and courses on request, talks, the Rithu Network, community contribution, videos and past programmes since 2021.

See all

Working on a historic site, district or building?

Send an enquiry

© 2026 Rithu for Heritage Conservation Consultancy · Founded by Dr. Hanaa Moosa · Cairo · CR 151830 · A path of conserving heritage


Rithu by Hanaa Moosa

This website uses cookies.

We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.

Accept