Ranking of Adaptive Reuse Strategies for Abandoned Industrial Heritage in Vulnerable Contexts: A Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding Approach

Abstract

In recent years adaptive reuse has proven to be a promising strategy for preserving cultural heritage. When the adaptive reuse approach is used for cultural heritage, the expected outcome is not only the building protection, but the preservation of its historical and heritage significance, and the trade-off between the retention of symbolic values and the adaptation to new alternative (economically profitable) uses becomes of paramount importance. Decisions on the allocation of resources for cultural heritage preservation or development are based on a set of multiple, often conflicting, criteria, as well on the preferences of various, and not always consensual, stakeholders, who attribute different relative importance to market and non-market effects of adaptive reuse proposals. In this context, multiple criteria approaches provide a proper theoretical and methodological framework to address the complexity which characterizes adaptive reuse strategies of cultural heritage. This paper aims to contribute to this strand of literature by proposing a multicriteria decision aiding approach for ranking adaptive reuse strategies of cultural heritage. In detail, we present a novel application of the Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment of Evaluations (PROMETHEE) to support the design and implementation of adaptive reuse strategies of abandoned industrial heritage in vulnerable contexts, and evaluate relative tangible and intangible effects. Industrial sites are frequently left to deteriorate, as their preservation is not considered as important as other kinds of heritage structures. Nevertheless, they are characterized by special architectural and technical features as well as by huge spaces suitable to be redeveloped for new uses. The paper focuses on the potential reuse of nine different abandoned buildings located in an industrial valley in the North-West of Italy, with a strong presence of wool and silk factories starting from the 18th century.

The refurbishment of abandoned industrial areas with adaptive re-use strategies: analysis of decision making models and design criteria

“…In addition, decisions on the allocation of resources for building adaptation are based on a set of multiple, often conflicting, criteria as well as on the preferences of various stakeholders who attribute different importance to the recovery interventions with adaptive reuse techniques (Bottero et al, 2019). Although it's possible to identify different approaches to adaptive reuse and different recovery policies, some common principles to follow can be listed: adaptation should preserve the existent structure, with minimal changes of the structure, inserting contemporary functions; conversion should respect the sustainability principles that help to the design with adaptive reuse features; community engagement should be encouraged and the selection of potential adaptive uses should be consider the possible development of local territory (Elsorady, 2014).…”

“…Depending on the type of intervention and of building potentials, the DCS controls, compares and identifies the possible solutions of adaptive reuse, performing smart building adaptation procedures. Multicriteria analysis seems to be an adequate qualitative framework for supporting public policies design and controlling decisions in complex contexts in which stakeholders' interests are often conflictual (Bottero et al, 2019).…”

Sustainable Cities: A Reflection on Potentialities and Limits based on Existing Eco-Districts in Europe

“…The context that emerges is thus extremely complex. A variety of aspects must be taken into consideration by decision-makers dealing with urban transformation; aspects that go from economic to environmental issues, from energy to social aspects, with a long-term vision aiming at sustainable development [4][5][6][7][8]. For this reason, it is not surprising that the different concepts and paradigms proposed to achieve sustainable urban development are rather fuzzy in their definition, and often characterized by scopes that are blurred and overlapping.…”

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“…The creation of tourist routes and their development, including the development of more and more complex forms of cooperation by the sites forming this route, provides not only economic benefits, but also constitutes a source of added value for the local communities [6,7]. The tourism of post-industrial sites and routes they form is an important element in the sustainable development of the region [8].…”