The Management and the Conservation of Raw Earth Building Heritage: Perspectives for a Resources Sustainable Reuse

Raw earth, employed as a building material, is an heritage characterised by important qualities that is to say an important resource “to be used in an appropriate way”. The present study develops a knowledge iter for supporting the rehabilitation of raw earth buildings (with practical examples localized in Italian and Libyan territories). The study main objective is to define the basilar tools to develop a reuse policy. In particular, the contents of the paper come from the results of a research, articulated according the following steps: a)individuation of the criteria to obey in the definition of the reuse hypothesis, b)application of the criteria in two study cases (one in Italy, the rural houses build with “massone” of Chieti province, and one in Libya, the “toub” buildings of Ghadames city). We will present the analysis of one emblematic dwelling building; with the support of the knowledge tools used for the Abruzzi case, we will define also the technological and performance qualities of the other geographic ambit. The same knowledge system will be useful for putting in evidence the buildings peculiarities and for identifying the physical and performance answer in the different environmental contexts. The study results will be presented also through schedules, putting in evidence these buildings originality and strong relationships with the place let alone the importance of use and constant maintenance for the conservation (for a rehabilitation hypothesis and in a touring re-qualification view). The study is a proposal for a basilar informative system about “how are build”, “how fall ill” and “how to cure” raw earth houses, for defining efficient reuse policies