Post-adaptive reuse evaluation of heritage buildings using multi-criteria decision-making techniques

Evaluating the condition of heritage buildings after being used for their new functions is important because eventually, issues start to surface. Most studies conducted about post-adaptive reuse evaluation are either theoretical or incomprehensive. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to develop a multi-disciplinary evaluation framework, which can quantify the linguistic evaluation by experts and building users. This is accomplished by integrating fuzzy logic and grey systems theory with multi-criteria decision-making techniques as well as gathering evaluation criteria from the literature and heritage experts related to architectural, functional, structural, sustainable, and heritage aspects. The proposed methodology is applied to a case study in Egypt, where three heritage buildings reused as banks are prioritized for rehabilitation to extend their service lives. The obtained results reveal that the aesthetic and structural aspects received more attention in the building with the best condition than conducting environmental measures. Additionally, the sensitivity analysis shows that the decision-making problem is more sensitive to the structural condition than the heritage aspect, which has the highest weight. Further, no rank reversal was observed when one of the alternatives was removed, indicating a robust decision-making process. Consequently, the developed evaluation framework can accommodate the conflicting interests of the involved stakeholders, protect the cultural values of these heritage buildings, as well consider the sustainability dimensions which have become more important than ever before. Additionally, it does not require sophisticated skills from the decision-maker and allows modifying the evaluation criteria and their corresponding weights to suit different contexts.