THE WALLS OF BUILDINGS IN THE RURAL AREA OF MOLISE. A BIOCLIMATIC SUBSYSTEM BETWEEN LIMESTONE, BRICK AND RAW EARTH

1. Environment, materials and buildings.

Nature is my manifestation of God. I go to nature every day for inspiration in the day’s work. I follow in building the principles which nature has used in its domain. (Frank Lloyd Wright) 

The economy of the construction is a factor that greatly influences the rural buildings, especially as the supply of materials occurs in the environment. In fact, especially the walls are built with materials from the site where the building is to be realized. Depending on the case, the area of the abutments constitutes the quarry stone or earth.
Rural construction is therefore a strong relationship between economic conditions whose to whom it is addressed and a careful design approach, oriented to the exploitation of environmental resources, both material and energetic, that the environment provides. In this sense, today, this building could be called sustainable and eco-­friendly. The main material used in building rural of Molise is the stone, both limestone sandstone. The limestone is everywhere, in the small field, along the course of the rivers and along the slopes of hills or mountains. Its supply has never been a big problem in the past, especially in the inner areas (Figure 1). In the mountainous areas, the stone characterizes the vertical structure and becomes wall, pillar, door frame and architrave, sheet roofing and flooring. Therefore, the farmer-­builder takes advantage of the local stone as much as possible. Even in places where there are no much stones, it is cleverly procured and laying in the finer points of the building, as the cantonal. Towards the coast, however, it is possible to find an ocher-­colored sandstone. The masonry types seem to change. The mortar becomes increasingly poor with lime and more rich earthy material so as to make it extremely vulnerable these constructions. Just behind the coast, in addition, there were reports of building structures made of raw earth, now no longer be found. The rural buildings are essentially built with poor materials. The stone is used a lot especially in the places where it is already present in nature because it requires less time and labor costs and the result is a more durable constructions. Therefore, in this specific context, the use of brick for load bearing appears to be quite rare and, sometimes, is limited to the upper floors. Mainly it is used for decorative elements and finishing, is present mostly in the openings of the compartments to realize masonry lintels, arches and edges. […]