Seventeenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

The world is facing global challenges that are dramatically changing the social and physical environments, resulting in cultural confrontation and conflict. Rapidurban growth, displacement, and gentrification increase urban pressure while jeopardizing social cohesion, multicultural values and local economies. In addition, environmental factors associated with climate change challenge the way cities respond and adapt, as their assets have to be re-designed to meet the current andfuture generation needs and demands. One response to these challenges is adaptive reuse, which is the transformation of the function of an underused structure into a new use. This process turns the cities’ elements in decline into development catalysers, Pereira Roders and van Oers, “Editorial”. The result of the adaptive reuse process reflects the concerns of the society that adapted it, serving as the custodians of heritage for the community “The Nara Document of Authenticity.”, acting as a past-present-future continuum. The adaptation to these changes is often a source of conflict, as urban policies lack citizen engagement in the redefinition of public space, resulting in more disagreement and inefficient use of resources. This issue is particularly acute when addressing multicultural communities, as their continuous evolution and emergence directly influence the adaptation of cultural heritage, being under constant threat and need for repair, Berlin and Hardy, The Proper Study of Mankind. The objective of the research is to develop an integrative methodology to evaluate urban scenario alternatives of adaptive reuse in societies with contested identities, focusing on the critical role of resilience in the evaluation of change.