Evaluation Criteria for Adaptive Reuse of Heritage Buildings to Assign Educational Use; Case Study: School of Conservation and Restoration

Although reusing buildings has always been considered throughout the history of architecture, this concept was raised as one the most effective methods of conversation and achieving sustainable development since the 1960s. While preserving the cultural heritages, subsequently, the history and identity of the society, this approach provides a ground for meeting people's daily needs. Also, using this approach leads to preserving the buildings for the next generations while keeping them away from being abandoned and useless. Despite the numerous experiences in this regard, many adaptive reuse projects do not achieve the success desired by designers because the building capacity to accept the new function or the functional needs of its surrounding environment is not given enough attention. Therefore, the current paper sought to present a proper method for decision-making by considering the influential components in this process. This study applied a mixed approach, the logical reasoning strategy, and content analysis in the qualitative part, based on the library resources and relevant international conventions, re-reading and analyzing the influential factors and criteria in the adaptive reuse approach. Thus, it prioritized the influential criteria in the adaptive reuse process to assign the educational land use to the building using the experts' and specialists' opinions, the Multi-Criteria Decision Making method (MCDM), and Super Decision Software. In this regard, based on the survey of experts, three historical monuments, including Darolfunun School, Etehadieh Historical House, and Negarestan Museum Garden, were selected as the proposed options for the School of Conservation and Restoration to be assessed and ranked based on the stated criteria. Finally, after assessing the final scores and presenting the most appropriate building to meet the considered functional need, the weaknesses and strengths of the selected option were investigated in the reuse process. The current study attempted to study another way of the reuse approach by raising the proper space to assign to the considered function through which the feasibility and capacity assessment of several valuable historical and cultural monuments to assign the considered land use was done based on the extracted criteria. The significance of these criteria was also considered based on the required uses (educational use).