ASP projects

ARCHe_Tool: Adaptive Reuse of Cultural Heritage

Guaranteeing a future for cultural heritage in an era of rapid technological innovation is a complex challenge. The aim of this project is to develop a tool to support the choice of an Adaptive reuse for three castles in Valle d’Aosta (Chateau Vallaise in Arnad, Sant-Germain castle in Montjovet and Ussel castle). Adaptive reuse is aimed at preserving the building or site while at the same time generating social value and respecting feasibility and sustainability criteria.
In order to build a comprehensive and solid tool, we addressed all the phases of a decisional model: intelligence, design, choice as theorised by Simon (1960) and Newell and Simon (1972). We decided to employ analytical tools for each phase of the decisional process in order to make it as transparent and objective as possible. In the intelligence phase, the Stakeholders Analysis has been used to frame the complexity of the stakeholders system; in the design phase, Conjoint Analysis – Choice Experiment has been employed to support and guide the design of alternative scenarios; in the choice phase, NAIADE has been used to support the final choice among scenarios. The combination of tools was chosen as an experiment to include together qualitative and quantitative results. The systematic application of analytical tools in support of decision-making, together with a bottom-up approach, represents an innovation in the field of cultural heritage reuse assessment.
The proposed approach to decision-making in cultural heritage stands out from the state-of-the-art for being participatory, transparent and as more inclusive as possible. Our case study application can be useful in the future as a positive example to promote analytically supported decision processes in the field of cultural heritage adaptive reuse, so that this becomes the common practice; the adoption of such methods can increase the social value of adaptive reuse projects and bottom-up participation to decisions regarding cultural heritage.

Principal Academic Tutor
Alessandra Oppio, DAStU Department, Politecnico di Milano

Academic Tutors
Marta Bottero, DIST Department, Politecnico di Torino
Valentina Ferretti, DIST Department, Politecnico di Torino
Ugo Fratesi, ABC Department, Politecnico di Milano
Damiano Iacobone, DAStU Department, Politecnico di Milano
Davide Ponzini, DAStU Department, Politecnico di Milano
Gennaro Postiglione, DAStU Department, Politecnico di Milano
Valeria Pracchi, ABC Department, Politecnico di Milano

External tutors
Nathalie Dufour, Soprintendenza per i Beni e le Attività Culturali della Valle d’Aosta
Pierre Bonel, Mayor of Arnad

Team members
Cecilia Ferrando, Architecture Construction City, Politecnico di Torino
Mila Gandino, Environmental and Land Planning Engineering, Politecnico di Milano
Melissa Marcelli, Architecture – Architectural Design, Politecnico di Milano
Maria Mittica, Management Engineering, Politecnico di Milano [Team Controller]
Mattia Pancerasa, Environmental and Land Planning Engineering, Politecnico di Milano
Giulia Quaglia, Architecture Construction City, Politecnico di Torino [Communication Coordinator]
Carlo Turuani, Architecture Design, Politecnico di Milano
Ilaria Vigna, Architecture Construction City, Politecnico di Torino

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