Holistic Sustainability Evaluation: Preliminary Phases for a Methodology Application in Docks Dora, Turin (Italy)

The increasing complexity of urban transformation processes requires decision-support tools capable of integrating the different dimensions of sustainability. Traditional evaluation models, often based on single-dimensional indicators, are becoming increasingly inadequate for representing the multidimensional nature of urban regeneration interventions and building transformations. This contribution integrates life cycle–based approaches, namely Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), with the Social Return on Investment (SROI) method to assess the social dimension. The harmonization of economic, environmental, and social indicators is supported through the application of Saaty’s Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which enables the structuring of the decision problem and the weighting of the different sustainability criteria. The research focuses on the definition of the indicator system and, particularly, on the development of the social dimension, which still presents a limited level of methodological standardization compared to the economic and environmental components. In order to contextualize the methodological framework, the study identifies the Docks Dora complex in Turin (Northern Italy) as a reference case study, a significant example of industrial heritage currently involved in urban regeneration processes. The integration of LCA, LCC, SROI, and AHP, still scarcely explored in the literature, may represent a relevant methodological support for the multidimensional evaluation of urban transformation processes and for the comparison of alternative design scenarios related to building retrofit and adaptive reuse.