Research Information System
OPEN HOUSE INTERNATIONAL, vol.50, no.3, 2025 (AHCI)
Abstract
Purpose – The user-oriented reusing of historical heritages is a powerful planning strategy to increase
sustainability and provide socioeconomic benefits for cities. The study aims to determine the post-occupancy
sustainability of reused historical buildings.
Design/methodology/approach – A holistic model was designed by considering expert and user opinions to
select the post-occupancy sustainability of reused historical buildings. The proposed model was developed
concerning key sustainability indicators (KSI). This proposed model, which integrates expert and user views, is
examined in an educational building with significant cultural value in Mardin.
Findings – The results of the KSI model indicate that the functional, technical and environmental sustainability
of the building are at a medium level, while the aesthetic sustainability is rated as good. An analysis of the
differences between importance and performance shows that the largest gap is in functional sustainability, with
the smallest gap in technical sustainability. The environmental and aesthetic sustainability indicators show a
smaller performance gap than the other two. The results suggest that functional sustainability requires
immediate intervention, technical features should be improved based on user needs and aesthetic and
environmental sustainability require monitoring but no urgent action.
Originality/value – The originality of the research is that it proposes a model that combines expert opinion and
the opinions of building users to monitor the sustainability of the reused buildings throughout the usage process
and enables them to be monitored with key sustainability criteria and to develop improvement suggestions in
line with the results obtained.
Keywords Key sustainability indicator, Historical building, Adaptive reuse, Sustainability