Farm buildings as drivers of the rural environment: a literature review

Farm buildings play a central role for the sustainability of the rural environment. Conceived to host biological production, the farm building constitutes indeed a unique example in the wide epistemological sector of building construction, due to its architectural and technical issues, different from other building sectors. The originality of what happens inside the farm building corresponds to what happens outside. The role that buildings have historically played is strictly connected indeed to the surrounding context, due to the need of the farmer to live in close contact with agricultural land and animal husbandry. In this way, human activities have often strongly influenced the agricultural environment and the visual perception of its landscape. The increasing sensitivity about the concept of sustainable development of the built environment is currently stimulating the valorisation of farm buildings, as well as the assessment of their impact on the rural landscape. In the present article, a general literature review about the role that farm buildings play on the rural environment is presented, with a special focus on the wider opportunities enabled by the implementation of new technologies for the survey, analysis and planning of the interactions among farm buildings, rural environment and landscape.