Integrated Evaluation of the Former Industrial Heritage: Risk and Potential

The architectural heritage of industrial origin – encompassing buildings, sites, and landscapes – constitutes a complex array ranging from historical to modern, material to the immaterial. It plays the role of cultural and social identity factor, at local and global levels. These distinctive characteristics require a holistic approach and methodological hybridization, where the social context and techno-sciences contribute to the development of cognitive networks (Latour and Weibel, Critical zones. The science and politics of landing on earth. The MIT Press, Cambridge, 2020). The attribution of value is contingent on its recognition as a “cultural good,” its role as a testimony to social, work, technologies, brands, businesses, etc. – and its symbolic appropriation within communities. The guidelines of ICOMOS (Simpson et al., ICSM CHC White Paper II: Impacts, vulnerability, and understanding risks of climate change for culture and heritage. ICOMOS, Charenton-le-Pont & Paris, 2022) and UNESCO (Guidance and toolkit for impact assessments in a world heritage context. UNESCO, Paris, 2022) particularly emphasize the anthropic/natural value, integrity, authenticity, comparability, and seriality of the heritage. The method we are outlining – currently under study – defines the criteria for the transdisciplinary evaluation of intervention, both ex-ante and post-opera, between conservation, transformation, and demolition, for alternative results of monumentalization/functional reuse/ruderization/traceability of signs. The results of architectural reuse should outline interventions that are a balance between preserving their testimonial-cultural significance and enabling compatible and adaptive restoration and reuse, aligning with the principles of “integrated conservation” (Council of Europe 1975), in line with performance satisfaction and local regeneration. Factors such as degradation, disposal, obsolescence, and inadequacy determine limits of environmental-social-economic sustainability (Standard EN-15643:2021, Sustainability of construction works – framework for assessment of buildings and civil engineering works), which must be assessed concerning the multi-valued and multi-scale heritage. These considerations introduce potential risks in the intervention, influencing the decision-making process.