**4. Materials and Methods**

There are many factors affecting the success (or failure) of an adaptive reuse project. The selected case studies, in fact, demonstrate as the same design approach in the same place can have different results on the socio-economic system.

The process for understanding and analysing the proposed case studies has been organized into three main steps (Figure 7):


**Figure 7.** Methodology.

The first step was characterized by the analysis of the projects' area and thus data collection to understand in depth the two case studies and their contexts. During this phase, the context in which the Ancient Market and of St. Peter the Apostle are placed was analyzed, including the analysis of values, and existing regulatory, planning instruments.

The second step concerned the identification of indicators able to understand the reasons of the different performance of these two projects.

In particular, two studies and research works [54,55] about the multidimensional impacts that conservation and regeneration projects are able to produce were considered as the starting point. The first study [54] highlighted a set of multi-dimensional indicators for assessing the impacts of cultural heritage conservation and regeneration projects, both on cultural heritage and from cultural heritage on the entire city system (both in the short and medium and long term, whether direct, indirect or induced).

The indicators to assess these impacts were deduced from concrete experiences of conservation/regeneration projects from 40 case studies of cities (from all over the world) [54].

They were organized in the following 9 identified impact categories (with related sub-categories):


In the present work, the indicators included in the aforementioned categories were integrated with other indicators identified by De Medici et al. [55] mainly focused on the protection of building's characteristics (and thus on impacts on cultural heritage). Such indicators are classified according to the following categories of characteristics they refer to: perceptual-cultural, morphological-dimensional and material-constructive characteristics.

The indicators selected from the sets of the two aforementioned research studies were deduced by expert knowledge on the basis of the context and of the expected goals of the two adaptive reuse projects. The survey (described below in the third phase) was based on the indicators that allow assessing and highlighting the difference among the effects produced by the two case studies.


These indicators are used in the following phase to assess both the impacts of the project on the buildings themselves and the urban context.

The third step, that is the participative phase, was based on the involvement of different stakeholders through interviews aiming at understanding the reasons why two projects by the same architect and in the same place have had different impacts and success. To this end, a questionnaire was developed and submitted to the different identified stakeholders.

The participative phase was, in turn, organized in different phases: identification of experts at local level; development of the questionnaire; submission of the survey to the identified experts; deduction and critical analysis of results.

The experts were representatives of institutions, technical-professional organizations and experts in the field of adaptive reuse.

The questionnaire was submitted through an on line survey tool by Google Form and 12 questionnaires were filled in over a time span of two weeks: a representative of the Professional List of Architects, Planners, Landscape Architects of Siracusa and its Province; a representative of the Chamber of Commerce of the Province of Siracusa; a representative of the General Confederation of Italian Industry (Confindustria) of Siracusa; a representative of the Municipal Administration (Councillor); an urban planning expert at the University of Catania, Siracusa headquarters; a building and urban rehabilitation expert at the University of Catania, Siracusa headquarters; an expert in adaptive reuse and valorization of the cultural heritage at the University of Catania, Siracusa headquarters; an expert in architectural design at the University of Catania, Siracusa headquarters; an architect, freelancer professional, expert in architectural design; an expert in history of architecture at the University of Catania, headquarters of Siracusa; an expert in architectural conservation at the University of Catania, Siracusa headquarters; and an expert in restoration and consolidation of cultural heritage at the University of Catania, Siracusa headquarters.

The survey was structured in 6 main sections:


The questionnaire aimed at assessing different aspects related to the analysed projects, with a particular focus on the multiple impacts that they have produced and are still producing. The perception of different experts and thus their different points of view were investigated.

The set of indicators for assessing the impacts of cultural heritage conservation and regeneration projects represented the starting point for structuring the questions of the survey, based on qualitative and perceptual aspects. In fact, based on these, we selected the most appropriate indicators for analysing and assessing the impacts of the two projects (Ancient Market and Basilica of St. Peter the Apostle in Ortigia) both on the buildings themselves and on the context in which they are placed.

The questionnaire addressed issues (in Sections 2 and 4) related to the project area and thus to the interviewees' perception about its state of conservation, accessibility level, attractiveness (both in terms of activities, initiatives and investments), crowding level, liveliness (or not), social and real estate values, capacity to provide public spaces and services. Moreover, the survey addressed issues (in Sections 3 and 5) closely related to the reuse projects. It particular, Sections 3 and 5 aimed to understand the interviewees' opinion about the suitability of the intended use both with the building and with satisfaction of local needs, their perception of the success (or not) of the projects, their opinion about the recognisability of the asset after the implementation of the adaptive reuse projects. Furthermore, through the questionnaire the willingness to pay for the conservation of the buildings was investigated.

At the end of these sections, there were some open questions. They aim to ask the interviewees some alternative uses (if any) that they considered more appropriate for the adaptive reuse of the Ancient Market and the Basilica of St. Peter the Apostle. Furthermore, they included questions to identify aspects of the projects that could be eventually improved to enhance the adaptive reuse of the two case studies (they will be shown in the results section).
