THE SPONTANEOUS DWELLINGS IN RURAL

ENVIRONMENTS

(cfr. series directed by Renato Biasutti)

DESIGN AND DIRECT EXECUTION

• Without technical and cultural intermediation of experts (architects, engineers, construction workers, etc.)

• The spontaneous rural residence follows rules that are based on immediate needs (sediment, building material, construction norms, etc.)

THE AVAILABILITY OF THE SITE

• Traditionally “sediment” refers to the rural house or part of the ground on which it (the house) stood or was destined to its construction, in building activities, this ground is the one you build your house on.

Building material

• They used the cheaper ones

Local building practices and customs requirements

Calabria

ROOFS

Casone with thatched roof

PLAN FUNCTIONS

ORGANIZATION APPURTENANCES

of the house

The shape of the House depends on:

1. The material tradition of the region (productive activities), thus dependent functions;

2. The dominant techniques (in that area);

3. The economic conditions.

N.B. not a simple geographic determinism (climate x = roof x)

Shapes and plans

• SIMPLE: where there were large estates and the farmer was a simple worker (laborer); he did not own the product of his work, and he didn’t need warehouses, stables, tools besides the hoe and little else.

• COMPLEX: where prevailed the small property or sharecropping and the farmer was custodian of the work tools (floats, animals, etc.) and the products of mixed farming. In addition, they often had patriarchal families (numerous)

Cascina (farmstead) with internal courtyard

Interiors of courtyard farmhouses (Lombardia, Piemonte, and Friuli

The overall organization of dwellings and appliances

• The OWNERSHIP of the land the rural estate was built on contributes, along with the type of RUNNING and the SIZE of the plots (direct/indirect, small property/estates), to determine its ORGANIZATION.

According to the organization of the premises for the various activities,

the dwellings are: • OPEN: where there

was no social insecurity.

• CLOSED (internal courtyard): with with “porta carraia” (goods entrance), as fortified systems.

The spontaneous abode (dwelling) is the “materialization of the

needs and construction conditions in a given time”

Not (easily) adaptable to changed production and social conditions

La dimora spontanea è la “materializzazione edilizia

delle esigenze e delle condizioni di un determinato momento”, poco adattabile alle modificate condizioni

produttive e sociali

EPOCH-MAKING CHANGES:

• From landlordism to small farmer property (i.e. South American land reform);

• From patriarchal to small families;

• Abandonment of some crops or breeding and development of new ones (i.e.

silkworm, tobacco (etc.)

Therefore, the spontaneous rural house is:

•ABANDONED (to build a new one neighboring or not)

OR

•RESTORED (losing the original physiognomy or keeping it

while changing its functions)

ADVANTAGES and DISADVANTAGES of isolated rural residences

• close to farmland, it facilitates the control and reduces travel costs (time)

• far from other homes, reduces social contacts and it’s not easy to defend

SCATTERED SETTLEMENT (case sparse)

• SAFE conditions

• Plenty of WATER SOURCES

• Legal PROPERTY (farmers or sharecroppers sought to stay on

their land)

CENTRALISED SETTLEMENT

• INSECURITY conditions

• Scarcity of WATER SOURCES

(e.g. schist soils)

• Legal PROPERTY (large estates as baronies in Sicily, South American

encomiendas, collective properties as sovkhoz, kolkhoz, kibbutzim, moshavim

moshavim

The AGGREGATE RURAL SETTLEMENT was created:

• To ensure the need for collective defense

• Because of land ownership non concerning the individual will

• Due to the scarcity of essential resources (eg water)

• For maintaining and developing social relationships

In the villages there are also the COLLECTIVE MANAGEMENT

committees

• …Former USSR, Israel, Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America (much less in Western Europe)

The villages’ PLAN

Has to do with the ECONOMIC NEEDS of the first builders

OR

is a reflection of their ETHNIC CULTURE

(See studies and analyses performed in Germany)

Street Village (villaggio di strada)

Green Village (villaggio verde)

• There are two “parallel” streets delimiting a community managed green space, while the buildings are located outside of the streets.

Linear village (villaggio lineare)

• The buildings are arranged along a single road, in a non-compact and regular manner;

• It looks like the street village, but it differs for it because of the irregularity and non-compact of the settlement.

Round village (villaggio rotondo)

• Housings are arranged around the square, they tend to circle with cultivated fields outside

The RUNDDORF introduces the fortified rural settlements type

Village agglomeration (villaggio agglomerato)

• The buildings are arranged without a precise geometric shape, but very grouped

Expanded village (villaggio allargato)

• It was widespread in the Po Valley, social and private spaces were cleverly intersected

The church (church buildings), the City Hall etc. mark the most “important” place, the relations’

center

•The Town SQUARE

Tresigallo (FE)

Greve in Chianti

Scanno

Jesi

As for the SPONTANEOUS DWELLINGS…

The GREAT TRANSFORMATIONS

1. RURAL SOCIETY (rural and agriculture migration, changing social patterns, new crops)

2. AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY

3. ECONOMY

These TRANSFORMATIONS have changed the shape of

historic rural villages

• Up till the second half of the twentieth century were little changed, as the Organization of agriculture and rural society had remained more or less stable and static.

• They still were reflections of the society that created them

The structure (urban skeleton) of the settlement:

If not abandoned…

has expanded wildfire with NEW DISTRICTS of URBAN TYPE or

with ISOLATED SMALL HOUSES.

Even the INHABITANTS

• Have turned from peasants (the villagers: farmers,

inhabitants of the countryside, in ancient Rome the villico was

the slave who supervised to minor farms) to technically advanced farmers, workers,

employees and more.

In CENTERS next to urban areas:

NEW (urban style) residential areas were built

People have therefore chosen to live in PERIURBAN areas because they are the

most ECONOMICALLY ACCESSIBLE (sometimes, rarely, also the

environmental aspect is relevant)

RURBANIZATION

• it’s the EXPANSION of the city, not by extension or enlargement of it, but through the conquest of URBAN QUALITY and LIFESTYLE, BEHAVIOURAL PATTERNS

• ALSO IN RURAL AREAS FORMERLY EXCLUSIVELY AGRICULTURAL

All this…

UPSET the TRADITIONAL RELATIONSHIP

CITY-COUNTRYSIDE

by changing the REGIONAL

ORGANIZATION in Europe and other

continents

The CITY and the COUNTRYSIDE are

•PARTS OF AN INDIVISIBLE SYSTEM

•ELEMENTS OF THE TERRITORY WITH COMPLETING

FUNCTIONS