Historical heritage–MultiCriteria Decision Method (H-MCDM) to prioritize intervention strategies for the adaptive reuse of valuable architectural assets

Abstract

Identifying the most suitable strategy for the adaptive reuse of historic architectural heritage is a complex challenge. This is because each rehabilitation project of an abandoned historic building must not only ensure the simultaneous pursuit of social, cultural and financial goals, but also the transmission of tangible and intangible values to future generations.

In this context, the use of multi-criteria approaches helps to synthesise stakeholders' preferences based on multiple and conflicting criteria, with the aim of promoting sustainable solutions for the restoration and valorisation of valuable architectural assets. To this end, we characterise the Historical heritage - MultiCriteria Decision Method (H-MCDM), an analysis and evaluation tool aimed at identifying the best adaptive reuse of historic buildings considering the principles of architectural conservation and both economic and socio-cultural values. It is a model based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which employs 7 evaluation indicators, chosen after a critical and interpretative analysis of both the sustainability principles promoted by the United Nations and UNESCO, and the ICOMOS quality principles.

The H-MCDM is structured on the following five logical-operational steps: (i) identification of strategies for adaptive reuse of the historic building; (ii) construction of the matrices of the pairwise comparisons of the criteria and estimation of the vector of the weights of the criteria; (iii) construction of the matrices of the pairwise comparisons of the alternatives against each evaluation criterion and estimation of the local scores of the alternatives; (iv) consistency checks of the decision matrices; (v) calculation of the total priority and ranking of the HBU strategies for historic assets.

The application to a case study demonstrates that, due to its adaptability and versatility, the H-MCDM can be a valid and consistent decision support in public resource allocation processes for the rehabilitation of architectural heritage.

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  The H-MCDM is a flexible and practical tool to evaluate the best strategy for adaptive reuse of historical heritage.

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  The H-MCDM is an AHP-based model which employs 7 indicators relating to the social, cultural and economic spheres.

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  The evaluation indicators are chosen in accordance with 2030 SDGs and European Quality Principles.

Graphical abstract