Raw Earth Architecture in Sardinia: Sulcis as a Case Study

Raw earth buildings have been built and are still present throughout Italy, but Sardinia, more than any other part of the country, has retained the characteristics of its pre-industrial agro-pastoral culture, preserving a large number of raw earth settlements that demonstrate the continuing historical use of this material for building. The following paper analyses the situation in Sulcis, an area located in the southwest of the island. An association, the "Museo diffuso dell'insediamento sparso" ("Territorial Museum of Scattered Settlements", hereafter "Territorial Museum"), founded in Santadi, has the aim of conserving and promoting settlements built using mixed techniques - i.e. using both stone and adobe - which are known as furriadroxius and medaus.