Abstract:  Addressing climate challenges related to carbon emissions, particularly after the Industrial Revolution, is one of our current major global issues. Today, many industrial heritage sites have become abandoned and are known as wastelands. The adaptive reuse of these sites has been recognized as a potential and effective solution to prevent environmental damage while preserving their unique characteristics. Moreover, the conservation of industrial heritage sites requires meticulous planning with a futuristic vision, particularly at the early phases of decision‐making. Therefore, this study aimed to examine futuristic sustainable scenarios for industrial heritage sites to reduce their carbon footprint by 2050, with a specific focus on enhancing the energy performance of an industrial heritage site in Iran, the Karaj Iron Foundry. In this study, future scenario‐making has been employed as a significant methodology to analyze and investigate future possibilities in energy efficiency and the sustainable reuse of the case study. Three scenarios are presented through the future design and discipline of anticipation frameworks (the FD‐DoA method). Each scenario shows alternatives that the site can pursue to mitigate carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency by 2050, which have impacts on the urban scale. The scenarios provide a framework for low‐carbon policy development for such valuable industrial heritage sites.

Keywords:  carbon footprint; carbon neutrality; designerly decision support system; energy efficiency; futuristic visioning; green adaptive reuse; industrial heritage; low‐carbon heritage

Published:   15 September 2025

Issue:   Vol 10 (2025): Aligning Heritage Conservation and Climate Mitigation Through Adaptive Reuse (In Progress)