701 Brick and Block Masonry – Trends, Innovations and Challenges – Modena, da Porto & Valluzzi (Eds) © 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-1-138-02999-6 The role of a systematic analysis of building codes to support an assessment methodology for built heritage C. Ornelas, J.M. Guedes & I. Breda-Vázquez Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Porto, Portugal ABSTRACT: This paper analyses and compares codes and standards that support interventions on built heritage of three Southern European countries with similar cultural approaches, Italy, Spain and Portugal, and confronts these documents with technical expert opinion. This discussion recognizes the importance of incorporating flexible criteria on code application, but also that such criteria should be sus- tained by inventorying and cataloguing processes based on multidisciplinary assessment methodologies. When dealing with inhabited built heritage, this assessment methodology should not only be supported by safety and housing conditions criteria embedded in technical codes and standards and local guidelines ori- ented to the local characteristics of the constructions, but should also include the assessment of the needs and expectations of residents. This work is part of a vast study that includes and sustains the development of a multidisciplinary assessment methodology to be applied on built heritage. 2 A SYSTEMATIC ANALYSIS OF BUILDING CODES OF ITALY, SPAIN AND PORTUGAL This section gives an overview on the building codes, legislation and regulations of Italy, Spain and Portugal. Although being Southern European countries with similar culture approaches and architectonic and climatic conditions, these docu- ments express different perspectives concerning classification and intervention on built heritage, reflecting the experiences and circumstances that affected over time the options of each country and that justify the actual criteria and procedures of the legislation. This analysis underlines the partic- ularities of these documents and allows the identi- fication of gaps in the Portuguese legislation. 2.1 Criteria and procedures from building codes for intervention on built heritage The comparison of the building codes and regula- tions of the three selected countries points out the principal criteria and procedures involved in the assessment of the patrimonial value and safety and housing conditions. The following sections synthe- tize the outcomes of these regulations and present the main aspects that result from this comparison. 2.1.1 Classification criteria The following paragraphs describe the regulation aspects related to built heritage classification, namely the main tools and criteria established by the codes for this item. 1 INTRODUCTION The rehabilitation of built heritage is an important issue within the current debate involving urban policies and building codes and/or technical regu- lations. In Portugal, most of the requirements of these codes and regulations are mainly directed to new buildings and its application to existing/old buildings is often constrained by pre-existing con- ditions that make it difficult to achieve perform- ance levels identical to those of new buildings, with adequate intervention. This debate assumes par- ticular relevancy when dealing with buildings with patrimonial value, i.e. buildings that demand the preserving of their particular (cultural, architec- tonic, material...) characteristics (Arcas-Abella et al., 2011, Fianchini and Fontana, 2010). Following this, several scholars are discussing the urgent need to adapt the legislation that regulates the construc- tion sector to allow more flexible and proportional interventions on built heritage (García-Martinez et al., 2010, Tenorio Rios et al., 2012, Fianchini and Fontana, 2010, Casals-Tres et al., 2013, Alonso, 2010, Asensio and Martín, 2012). Under these issues, this paper establishes a com- prehensive and comparative study of codes and standards of three Southern European countries with comparable cultural approaches and archi- tectonic and climatic conditions—Italy, Spain and Portugal -, concerning the protection, classifica- tion and intervention on built heritage. The study is complemented with the views of experts from governmental, municipal and academic institutions of the three countries on these subjects.