Simplified Assessment of Deterioration in Old Industrial Buildings: A Case Study of Jiaxing Metallurgical Machinery Factory

Abstract

Under the background of the national policy of revitalizing old industrial areas by shutting down two-thirds of outdated factories, a significant number of aged industrial facilities are poised for adaptive reuse. Determining whether these old industrial buildings and their ancillary structures need to be "retained, renovated, or demolished" before reuse is a critical step in heritage conservation. The assessment of structural integrity is a prerequisite for evaluating whether to retain or demolish old buildings, which typically involves considerable time, effort, and high costs. In order to save costs and enhance the efficiency of inspections for each building, a simplified assessment method is employed to evaluate the integrity of buildings. Fuzzy evaluation method is utilized to assess the structural integrity of entire buildings, while the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is applied to determine the weights of the main load-bearing structures (slabs, beams, columns) and enclosing structures (exterior walls). Taking the Jiaxing Metallurgical Machinery Factory as a case study, the degree of deterioration of 61 buildings within the factory area is evaluated and ranked to provide technical support for subsequent demolition or preservation.