Reusing building heritage: evaluation and adaptation to new requirements

Historic buildings' adaptation to new requirements is a main strategy to assure the sustainable development of our cities. In Italy, the increasing tourist fluxes is due to the large number of historic and artistic values that are still well preserved. Nevertheless, new uses for old buildings, not selected on the basis of preliminary evaluation, usually imply the loss of the building heritage. The constraints, which the building expresses, either of perceptive and cultural, morphological and dimensional, technological and material type, has to be associated with each alternative use. The compatibility evaluation is aimed to the achievement of a balance between needed requirements for the carrying out of activities and performance of the building, through the application of interventions with the previously indicated constraints. The paper shows the application of a compatibility evaluation method for the reuse, in order to delay the "life-cycle" of the building heritage, preserving its features.