Michele CORNIETI1 / Alessio BOATTINI2
(1University of Florence / 2University of Bologna,Italy)
Outline: Documenting and filing the traditional building heritage within the National Park of Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona, Campigna.
With regards to the preservation of the rural architectural heritage of the mountains between Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, the specific traits of the geographical and environmental context, together with an indisputable emergency status, call for the design and implementation of specific tools, which have to be functional to the documentation, safeguard and possible recovery of the existing structures. This territory, which has an outstanding naturalistic value, is today mostly included within the National Park of Foreste Casentinesi and is protected by incisive policies of preservation and valorization of natural resources. On the other hand, the almost total de-population of these mountain valleys in the last 60 years, brought to a gradual abandonment of traditional rural buildings with the result of many rapidly falling victim of damage and deterioration. In many cases, these buildings are high worth documents, as testimony and repository of local genuine architectural traditions, which are today at risk of disappearing. This research is therefore aimed at developing operative tools that are necessary to an extensive reading of traditional rural settlements and also at identifying the strategic relationship between buildings and landscape and between the building’s aggregation and their typological evolution. In addition, the study wishes to highlight, for each building, the architectural technologies employed and the presence of characterizing elements. These are often useful as chronological indexes and important indications about the anthropological dimension of the dwelling. An accurate survey and indexing of buildings, structured by a relational and geo-referenced database appears to be the first step towards any action of investigation and safeguard of this important heritage. After these first “census” activities, the final goal of the research is to create a “manual of knowledge and restoration” for this specific traditional architecture that could become a prescriptive and an exemplificative reference.
Keywords: Traditional Building Heritage, Rural Architecture, Documentation, GIS