Sustainable Assessment of Built Heritage Adaptive Reuse Practice: Iranian Industrial Heritage in the Light of International Charters

Abstract

ABSTRACT Adaptive reuse of Industrial heritage is among the most common of sustainable approaches to preserve heritage values and pass them on to the future generations. It also leads to a reduction in environmental effects, and carbon footprint. The purpose of this research is to present an assessment of the sustainability of 12 Iranian adaptively reused industrial heritage sites in light of international charters. To reach this objective, 7 indexes and 20 indicators have been selected in terms of principles of sustainability and compliance with the green international charters. Then, five experts were interviewed through focus group discussion (FGD) to assess the cases based on the sustainable criteria. The findings indicate that the case studies generally meet sustainability criteria set by international charters, however community participation in the decision – making process and more creativity is highly recommended in the green adaptive reuse process. Moreover, it was observed that mixed-use flourishes in contrast to other alternatives. This research, aims to evaluate the case studies of the adaptively reused in Iran covering strengths and weaknesses to use the experience gained in future studies. Although this study focused on Iranian cases, the methodology can be useful in similar cases worldwide in the future.