Regional Agrarian Landscapes
(Ing. Carlo Atzeni)
For the great geographer Maurice Le Lannou, to whom we owe the even more comprehensive portrayal of the regional habitat, the rural farmhouse is one of the fundamental references for defining specific characteristics of the human settlement. We are also indebted to him for the concise definition of the three main typologies of rural dwellings (...) (...): the mountain dwelling which grows in height; the enclosed courtyard dwelling of the plains and cultivated highlands; the more simple dwellings (.. .) to the northwest of an imaginary line from Cabras to the Olbia Gulf. If these are the island’s major identifiable areas, a large number of situations and solutions express the transitions from one to another. In the northern Campidano plains, for example, we find that the court dwelling systematically faces the street, so much so that the main entrance (not vehicular) leads directly into the domestic environment. It is this room, and not the courtyard, that is the hub of the house. As both entrance and distribution space, it is a place of welcome and hospitality - a multi-functional room for domestic work. In other respects, Sardinia’s entire eastern portion from Sarrabus-Gerrei to Ogliastra and Baronia shows how the many different combinations of the courtyard dwellings and building units can coexist. Just as the dwellings within an enclosure (stazzu, medau) can also be interpreted as a mixture of cultures with which the settlers of the Gallura and Sulcis areas repopulated these areas that had been marginal for a long time. The atlas, always in progress, is the result of a broad survey which sought to document a large number of regional building-type areas, with very diverse case studies and therefore representative of the “system of differences” (as well as similarities) in Sardinia’s "vernacular" and rural construction tradition.
For each settlement type, a survey and classification was carried out:
- on the territorial scale through the analysis of sources and historical maps and representations of the historical layerings of the road system, the hydraulic construction of the territory, its agricultural landscapes and its settlements;
- on the scale of building typologies through the acquisition and production of general and detailed architectural surveys, the analysis of aggregate relationships, the relationship with road systems and agricultural divisions and the design culture that contributed to building each given settlement and through the identification of types and their processes;
- on the scale of building components through the study of local knowledge, the analysis of material culture and building manuals (or other means of dissemination of disciplinary and operational knowledge), the analysis and reconstruction of construction details, the study of the materials, their combinations and implementation, used in the "critical points" in building construction.
The Atlas also serves as a "map" of the case studies, leading to the creation of a provisional summary and comparison of the singularity and individuality of situations that would otherwise be too specific and thus irreconcilable. The comparisons led to some important findings regarding the variety and complexity of local situations:
- the plains centers exhibit marked regularity in the alignments of the road layouts and buildings, often in connection with existing Roman traces, or otherwise with the settlement principles of courtyard houses;
- mountain centers, with their sinuous and irregular plans, express adherence to their orography and their organization for the management of rain water runoff;
- the different hill areas appear to be transition areas in which coexist features of both the plains and mountain settlements.
The dispersed settlement forms of the medaus and furriadroxius in the Sulcis area were studied in terms of the following categories:
- Basic building types
- Elementary growth and aggregations of basic building types
- Classification of typical building types in the Sulcis Medasu
- Classification of rules for the growth and aggregations of basic building types
- Premodern building materials and construction techniques
- Earthen walls-stone walls
- Roofs
- Closures and gutter solutions
- Intermediate floor systems
- Openings: doors and windows
- Interior and exterior flooring and paving
- Technical and construction analysis: roofing, wall systems, intermediate floor systems, doors and windows
Download: Insediamento disperso.pdf