Enhancing the Cultural Heritage through Adaptive Reuse. A Multicriteria Approach to Evaluate the Castello Visconteo in Cusago (Italy)

Abstract

Cultural heritage can play a strategic role in developing a sustainable built environment, contributing to the improvement of the economic, social, and environmental productivity of a city. Human activities are constantly affecting the quality of the environment and altering the ecosystems, which produce negative consequences also on human wellbeing. Within this context, it has been much discussed how cities and the built environment can counteract this process by supporting more sustainable development. Adaptive reuse is defined as “a process that changes a disused or ineffective item into a new item that can be used for a different purpose”, which strongly triggers the sustainable development of cities. It can be recognized as a promoter of economic growth, social wellbeing, and environmental preservation, given its capability of both preserving past values and creating new ones. The adaptive reuse matches the main points of the circular economy, seen as the sustainable economy, which is aimed at the reduction of natural resource extraction and environmental impact by extending the useful life of materials and promoting recovery, reuse, and regeneration processes. Given these premises, the current contribution aimed to evaluate alternative scenarios for reuse in Castello Visconteo in Cusago, located in the Lombardy region (Italy), and understanding how adaptive reuse could contribute to generating new values within a circular economy perspective. In detail, four alternative scenarios were proposed to face the new needs born during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Since both intangible and tangible values must be considered, a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) has been applied by combining economic and qualitative indicators to define the most suitable function for its adaptive reuse. In detail, the Novel Approach to Imprecise Assessment and Decision Environments (NAIADE) was used to identify the best alternative solution based on the opinions of conflicting stakeholders. The innovativeness of the contribution is given by the combination of different methodologies, the preservation of the memory and the generation of new values, and the consideration of adaptive reuse as a strategy for the achievement of sustainable development within a circular economy perspective.

A Decision-Making Approach Based on TOPSIS Method for Ranking Smart Cities in the Context of Urban Energy

“…Energy Policy is worth adding to this list, especially the papers [35,36]. Interesting examples of the application of MCDM and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis are presented in the papers [37,38] published in Sustainability.…”

The Financial Sustainability of Cultural Heritage Reuse Projects: An Integrated Approach for the Historical Rural Landscape

“…The alternative reuse project scenarios are defined by applying the Scenario Building methodology and leveraging the areas' potentialities and drivers for development through sustainable tourism and traditional culture promotion [60,61]. These scenarios can be identified into [4]:…”

“…In particular, the widely recognized imperative to consider sustainability as a multidimensional paradigm has highlighted the opportunity to include cultural heritage as one of the primary sources of values for current and future generations [2]. In this sense, cultural heritage adaptive reuse, intended as a conscious process of new value creation [3,4], based on existing buildings' change of use to meet current needs [5], stands as a promising approach. The conceptual concurrence among sustainability and adaptive reuse approach places new challenges on the preservation since the expected outcome is both the assets' protection and the preservation of their historical and heritage significance [6,7].…”

Adaptive Reuse Decisions for Historic Buildings in Relation to Energy Efficiency and Thermal Comfort—Cairo Citadel, a Case Study from Egypt

“…Another evaluation analyzed the adaptive reuse process and divided the evaluating criteria dimensions into on-site and off-site criteria. The on-site criteria are related to the compatibility of the function with the heritage building, construction period adaptation, social significance, mixed job opportunities, and the involvement of the community, while the off-site criteria are about the design of public recreational spaces, initial cost, the involvement of local associations, improvement of the accessibility, and sustainable development goals [17].…”