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

Marta Bottero,Alessandra Oppio,Chiara D’Alpaos

doi:10.3390/su11030785

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.

Highlights

Adaptive reuse seems to be an increasingly promising strategy for preserving cultural heritage
This paper addresses the issue of adaptive reuse of cultural heritage under a multicriteria decision aiding perspective and contributes to the above strand of literature
The paper is organized into five main sections: Section 1 has introduced the issue of values attached to cultural heritage and discussed adaptation as a strategy for preservation; Section 2 provides the theoretical background to the valuation approach here implemented; Section 3 presents the application of PROMETHEE II method to a real-world case study on adaptive reuse strategies of abandoned industrial heritage in Northern Italy; Section 4 discusses the results, whereas Section 5 concludes and proposes future research developments

Summary

Introduction

Adaptive reuse seems to be an increasingly promising strategy for preserving cultural heritage. Decisions about the allocation of resources for cultural heritage preservation or development should be based on a wide set of criteria, as well on the preferences of several, not always consensual stakeholders, who attribute different relative importance to market and non-market effects of adaptive reuse proposals Despite such a level of complexity, there are few studies which provide methodologies for supporting adaptive reuse decisions, mostly focused on environmental, physical, and functional aspects of heritage buildings [16]. The paper is organized into five main sections: Section 1 has introduced the issue of values attached to cultural heritage and discussed adaptation as a strategy for preservation; Section 2 provides the theoretical background to the valuation approach here implemented; Section 3 presents the application of PROMETHEE II method to a real-world case study on adaptive reuse strategies of abandoned industrial heritage in Northern Italy; Section 4 discusses the results, whereas Section 5 concludes and proposes future research developments

Methodological Background

Description of the Case Study and Presentation of the Alternatives

Results and Discussion