GRADING BUILT HERITAGE THROUGH MULTI CRITERIA DECISION MAKING: THE CASE OF RAJSHAHI.

Bangladesh has one the richest and the most diverse stock of cultural and architectural heritages. But the condition of heritage structures has consistently degraded over the years due to natural and manmade causes. As a developing country commitment is given to the civic and social sectors, on the contrary renovation and maintenance of heritage buildings and sites is seen as financially non-viable proposition. Especially Rajshahi, a store house of the heritage buildings but some these have been demolished due to development courses taken by the authority. Therefore, conservation of these heritage buildings (in original form, or with suitable modifications without destroying architectural integrity) became the need of time. But selecting buildings for conservation is a matter of dispute between policy makers and stakeholders unless the process is transparent & consistent. The major concern for conservationists and authorities in creating such framework is selecting the attributes and how to evaluate these attributes numerically under which structures can be evaluated. This paper discusses the potential of Multi-criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method, to select heritage sites to be conserved. The application of this method is illustrated for several heritage buildings of Rajshahi, Bangladesh and future study can be carried out on its basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]