Managing Facilities in Historic Buildings: A Stewardship-Based Strategy for Long-Term Socio-economic Value

Abstract

The challenges of historic building adaption for reuse are well documented and often refer to building fabric, listed status, historical significance, environmental sustainability, and structural layout as limitations to their successful re-development. However, few studies have explored how such issues manifest in the operational use of historic buildings developed for reuse, the significance on cities, and the long-term socioeconomic value. This study proposes a stewardship-based strategy to manage facilities to improve the socioeconomic value of historic buildings and support the socioeconomic demand in cities and territories. Within the context of a selected case study in the UK, a mixed-method approach was used to attain the data. Quantitative evidence, using a questionnaire survey with building users, and qualitative evidence, using semi-structured interviews with the facility management team, are presented. The results suggest that historic buildings are empowered by an organisational stewardship strategy, resulting in an acceptable operational compromise that involves an acceptance of building issues and their impact on the building users’ experience, and this can support the more operational adaption of facilities by the facility management team. The research proposes a stewardship-based strategy to support an improved socioeconomic value by incorporating user perspectives while ensuring a less preservation-centred and a more flexible-oriented approach towards managing facilities in historic buildings. This study constructively forms a base for further research into facility management strategies in historic buildings and their impact on cities’ needs.