PH.D. RESULTS Title: Field Architectures. The ecologies of rural settlement in Sardinia: an atlas of field architectures Author: Roberto Sanna Ph.D. in: Civil Engineering and Architecture. University of: Cagliari Tutor: Antonello Sanna Co-tutors: Rémi Papillault Adriano Dessì Academic Year: 2019-2020 Keywords (max 5) Rural Architecture, Landscape, Field Studies, Sardinia,Agricolture Introduction: natural and artifical If urbs-is represented the generic set of buildings and structures, unlike the civitas, with its sacred and inviolable boundary, the nowadays conditions of the contemporary world lead us to consider the whole heritage built as an "urban" matter, regardless if it is structured according to more or less dense density schemes. In other word, we mean to consider as urban also the infrastructure system (such as roads and any other human built structure), rural and industrial buildings, minor artifacts, buildings of every kind and shape, even villages and more rarefied built systems [1]. Such a complex built environment, made of generic and singular elements that transform themselves over time, always lies on natural morphological circumstances, which we could generally define as soil. From this complex and conflictual relationship, between necessity and circumstance that Patrick Geddes [2] and the Smithsons [3] already identified in the relationship between natural conditions and anthropic footprint, we can hypothesize that the conflict between urban and rural has today a lesser importance compared to the conflict between artificial and natural, between geometrization and re-naturalization, between infield and outfield. The farmstead as a micro-urban pole In this scenario it has been little explored by the disciplines revolving around Architecture, the "tectonic" role [4] that farms establish with the soil, with their holdings. If we consider the farm as the minimum and fundamental pole of articulation of low-density territories (and not for this reason considered as a non-urban because farm is always infrastructured by anthropic endowments) then it becomes necessary to study it as a micro-urban episode, “with its hierarchy, its relationships, its streets and squares " 1 . The aim of the research is to explore and understand the features of the low- density built environment in the island of Sardinia. Here the heritage built outside the margins of the consolidated villages, starting from a condition of literally inexistence until the 19th century [5], has now become the 1/3 of the entire built heritage of the island. Such a large-mesh network of farms and rural devices widely controls the different and complex types of island landscapes. In fact, farms colonize the territory at different depths, from urbanity borders to wilderness, guaranteeing a widespread and extensive management of rural landscape transformations [6]. Soil management and residual approach The research explores the evolutionary dynamics of the rural habitat in Sardinia through the multi-scale study of long-term features and internal and heterodirect transformative dynamics. The privileged focus of investigation is constituted by the literally constructive and tectonic dynamics that is established between rural buildings and the pertinent land. This relationship could be synthetized as a management of the soil, seen as a thickness of physical and temporal layers. Such stratification constitutes the frame where the contingent constraints related to the techniques, to the nature of the soils and the materials available, are declined according to a “necessary” approch with the site, in an economic-spatial way between uses and conservation of rural areas ecologies. The study of these settlement principles, common to the marginal and low-density contexts of the Mediterranean, is able to better understand those logics of necessity and coherence between site, construction and modification, capable of feeding the recursion between living and “producing” landscape. The hypothesis of the research is to understand if the traditional approaches of the historical type / morphological and linguistic analysis linked to the understanding of productive dynamics can be the key for a conscious and quality design even for contemporary rural architecture. As Pierre George wrote [8], if we consider living as an epiphenomenon of production, it is necessary to understand how contemporary forms of agricultural production influence the continuous rewriting and transformation of the anthropic landscape. Understanding the internal dynamics of the farming systems, the relationship between abiotic objects and biotic dynamics could become a key interpretation for the “low density” architecture project [9] that has become increasingly necessary in order to reduce and control the anthropic footprint on the territory [10]. REFERENCES [1] R. Sanna, “I segni nel paesaggio: eteronomie e autodeterminazione”, in Laboratorio Rurale, Milano: ACMA centro italiano di architettura, 2016. [2] P. Geddes, “The valley section from hills to sea”. New York, 1923. [3] T. X. Smithson, “Doorn Manifesto”, MIT Press second edition, 1968. [4] K. Frampton e V. Gregotti, “Tettonica e architettura: poetica della forma architettonica nel XIX e XX secolo”. Skira, 2005. [5] G. Angioni, G. G. Ortu, e A. Sanna, “Atlante delle culture costruttive della Sardegna. Roma”. Dei - Tipografia del genio civile, 2009. [6] R. Sanna, “Architettura minima. Declinazioni di significato dall’oggetto allo spazio”, in Materie dell’Architettura, LetteraVentidue, 2019. [7] C. Cattaneo, “Geografia e storia della Sardegna”. Donzelli Editore, 1996. [8] P. George, “L’organizzazione sociale ed economica degli spazi terrestri”. FrancoAngeli, 1984. [9] M. Navarra, "Abiura dal paesaggio: architettura come trasposizione". Il melangolo, 2012. [10] A. Dessì, F. Marras, A. Sanna, e R. Sanna, “LONG- TIME RURAL LANDSCAPES: NEW MODELS FOR SUSTAINABLE AND RESILIENT PROJECT”, in Reuso 2019, Matera, 2019, pagg. 2455–2466. NOTES 1. As Eduardo Souto de Moura said during an interview about his project for the refurbishment of the ’Herdade do Barrocal in Portugal: “The second question was the urban nature of this monte. This is not just a house. This is truly a mini-universe, a village. It has its own hierarchy: a street, a square, outbuildings, and cloisters”. SMC 10-2019 |000