A hybrid fuzzy BWM-COPRAS method for analyzing key factors of sustainable architecture

Sustainable development by emphasizing on satisfying the current needs of the general public without threating their futures, alongside with taking the environment and future generations under consideration, has become one of the prominent issues in different societies. Therefore, identifying and prioritizing the key factors of sustainable architecture according to regional and cultural features could be the first step in sustaining the architecture as a process and an outcome. In this paper, the key indicators of the environmental sustainability in contemporary architecture of Iran has been identified and prioritized. This study has been performed in three phases. First, identifying key factors of environmental sustainability according to the experts' point of view and transforming the collected data to triangular fuzzy numbers. Subsequently, the best-worst multi-criteria decision-making method (henceforth BWM) under grey system circumstances has determined the weights and priority of the identified criteria. Eventually, identified key factors were prioritized by the complex proportional assessment method (hereafter COPRAS) under the condition of fuzzy sets. The results indicate that the key factors of creating engagement between buildings and other urban systems has the highest priority in the built environment sustainability in contemporary architecture and proving building management systems has the lowest.