ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses 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. The rehabilitation of built heritage is an important issue within the current debate involving urban policies and building codes and/or technical regulations. The comparison of the building codes and regulations 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 actual national rehabilitation law and the national legal regime that concerns planning and building regulate and support the interventions on built heritage at municipal level. In terms of housing conditions, the codes impose criteria for compartments dimensions, conditions of hygiene, acoustic and hydrothermal comfort, lighting and ventilation, access to the building and inside the building and for the existence of certain facilities and equipment.
