Use of traditional material in farm buildings for a sustainable rural environment

Abstract

The recent increase in the sensitivity about the concept of sustainable development is stimulating the valorisation of the locally available material for agricultural construction, both for housing purpose and for some single components. This traditional building technique has indeed interesting consequences on the rural landscape perception – since the color is similar to the countryside surroundings – as well as on the agricultural environment – this material being, at the end of its useful life, recyclable in the same context. Traditional material could be employed in other agricultural components, e.g. for food aging, a technique used since Roman times, involving the use of earthenware amphorae, buried in the soil and used for storing wine and oil. In the present paper, the most diffused traditional building materials currently rediscovered are analyzed, focusing on their utilization opportunities. One of the most interesting traditional construction material is the sun-dried earth brick, made of raw clay soil (so-called, “adobe”), often improved by the addition of fibers to control cracking while drying in the sun. After a general overview about the diffusion of earthen construction within agriculture, the results of experimental tests on adobe bricks reinforced with a natural fiber – Spanish Broom (Spartium junceum L.) – are reported.