Critical sustainable development factors in the adaptive reuse of urban industrial buildings. A fuzzy DEMATEL approach

Adaptive reuse constitutes a major factor for the city resource exploitation, to wit the sustainable urban development. Sustainable development potential in the wake of a former industrial building adaptive reuse project, given the several variables involved, is an important subject of study and is known by the wider scientific community to add value to a city. Focusing on the transformation of the iconic FIX Brewery to house the Hellenic National Museum of Contemporary Art, this study attempts to explore all the value-adding parameters of such projects. The objective, based upon a Fuzzy-DEMATEL analysis, is to identify critical factors influencing the local sustainable development through adaptive reuse projects, as well as to assess the direction and level of interaction among them, which will eventually serve in addition to theoretical support, as a tool for future decision-making. Evidence from this study points to the most fundamental, stable and initiative factors, bearing a direct impact on the entire system with their performance and influence on other more prone to change factors. Taken together, findings support Land Conservation and Cultural Heritage Protection as the two most critical factors in the adaptive reuse of urban industrial buildings, followed by Community Action and Involvement Empowerment.