Decision making and cultural heritage: An application of the Multi-Attribute Value Theory for the reuse of historical buildings

The re-use of historical buildings can be seen as a complex decision problem because of the presence of different objectives to be pursued, the public/private nature of the goods under investigation, the existence of several values (historical, artistic, cultural, economic, etc.), the presence of different actors (public government representatives, architects, architectural historians, developers and owners). In decision problems related to the re-use of historical assets conflicts can arise and the availability of analytical frameworks able to support the process is getting more and more important. It has been generally agreed that Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) can offer a formal methodology to deal with such decision problems, taking into account the available technical information and stakeholders values. This paper considers the problem of sustainability assessment in cultural heritage projects using the Multi Attribute Value Theory (MAVT) approach which is a particular kind of MCDA technique. Starting from a real case concerning the re-use of historical buildings in the metropolitan area of Torino (Italy), the paper aims at exploring the contribution of MAVT for decision problems in the field of cultural heritage.