Architecure rurale et paysage

The paper aims to present a research, recently ended, that has been carried out inside the European Program "Culture 2000" between Italian, French and Polish partners, under the co-ordination of the Polytechnic of Turin. The project springs from the belief, shared by all research units, that the architecture and the landscape in rural areas constitute fundamental and inimitable components of the culture and the identity of locations in all Countries participating in the project. The project, entitled “Rural architecture and landscape between tradition and innovation” had the following main objectives: - to identify the common elements and the technical and cultural diversities that characterise the rural building heritage of every country and the problems related to its sustainable rehabilitation, with a view to developing common strategies for counteracting the risks of abandonment of rural territories and the unchecked reuse of the building legacy; - to develop strategies that aim for sustainable rehabilitation and valorisation of the rural building heritage, by studying the methods for rehabilitating the landscape and the man-made structures, while respecting the existing buildings, local cultures, and the economic circumstances of each country, and aiming also for widespread sharing of such objectives; - to identify and advance the methodological structures and technical procedures to support the rehabilitation activity, applicable to the various countries. The main results of the project are: - the publication of a book and the edition of a web site, in order to set up a data bank that can be progressively implemented. - the dissemination of a "best practices code," not purely technical but also with a cultural and economic framework for the sustainable rehabilitation and valorisation of the landscape and rural architecture. - an itinerant exhibition that has been set up in each of the participating countries and it is available to be eventually shown at other locations.