<p>This paper explores the decline of traditional dwellings in Fez city, focusing on the deterioration of materials and the challenges of preservation and restoration. It aims to balance tradition with contemporary needs to improve living spaces. Efforts have been made by Moroccan organizations to preserve Riads and Dars, yet a major challenge remains in the absence of clear guidelines, robust maintenance strategies, and effective decision-making tools for rehabilitation. This lack of structured approaches prevents experts from accurately predicting how traditional built heritage may evolve over time to meet changing needs, thereby hindering both its preservation and sustainable development. The study adopts a systematic comparative methodology, to explore the common physical, qualitative, and behavioral characteristics shared by Moroccan Riads and Korean Hanoks. The goal is to evaluate these features, enhance habitability, and refine them further, all while promoting a sustainable and adaptive reuse of traditional housing. Findings highlight the importance of the respect for privacy, linked with gender occupancy, the pattern of movement and depth and hierarchy of spaces, the respect for inhabitant’s daily needs linked with changes in family structures, types of spatial extensions, and the emergence of new activities, and respect of natural resources related to the thermal quality of the courtyard of these types of dwellings. Adaptive reuse is suggested as a strategy to improve habitability, considering social, cultural, behavioral, and physical factors. The study addresses gaps in existing research, which often overlooks spatial and modern adaptation aspects related to the eco-cultural aspect of sustainable transformation in the dwelling.</p>