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This paper conceptualises a method for exploring existing places and their architecture. Khartoum’s city centre (KCC), Sudan, has been selected as a case study for this exploration. The research adopts the Pattern Language Theory as a theoretical tool to extract KCC’s existing local pattern language. Thereafter, it suggests an empirical way to evaluate this pattern language by adding the role of the place users in interpreting it based on their experiences. This has been conducted through participatory focus group discussions with different categories of participants through which it was possible to evaluate, classify and prioritise the extracted patterns. The findings of this paper are threefold. Firstly, extracting a place’s local pattern language, coupled with meanings that place users perceive about these patterns, that conveys a deep and systematic understanding of the place’s character. Secondly, this finding contributes theoretically to the Pattern Language Theory by emphasising the potential of each place’s local pattern language compared to the allegedly universal one. Thirdly, the proposed empirical pattern-based and participatory method of analysis of a place promises to help architects, planners and urban designers in shaping future built environments.