The role of a systematic analysis of building codes to support an assessment methodology for built heritage

Abstract

This paper analyses and compares codes and standards that support interventions onbuilt heritage of three Southern European countries with similar cultural approaches, Italy, Spain andPortugal, and confronts these documents with technical expert opinion. This discussion recognizes theimportance of incorporating flexible criteria on code application, but also that such criteria should be sustained by inventorying and cataloguing processes based on multidisciplinary assessment methodologies.When dealing with inhabited built heritage, this assessment methodology should not only be supported bysafety and housing conditions criteria embedded in technical codes and standards and local guidelines oriented to the local characteristics of the constructions, but should also include the assessment of the needsand expectations of residents. This work is part of a vast study that includes and sustains the developmentof a multidisciplinary assessment methodology to be applied on built heritage.