Raw Earth. Innovative “traditional” strategies and technologies

Raw Earth is one of the first building materials used by man. This has led to an architectural heritage that is now widespread throughout the world. The development of new building technologies has led to the progressive abandonment of this building tradition with the risk of a complete loss of knowledge of the technologies in Terra Cruda. This has a negative impact on the conservation and restoration of the architectural heritage in Terra Cruda. The importance and necessity of the recovery of Terra Cruda technologies is also suggested by the ecosustainability, determined by the complete recyclability of the material and by the low emission of CO2. The work presents the preliminary results of an interdisciplinary research activity that aims to recover the ancient construction technologies based on raw earth in the Mediterranean area, overcoming the limitations related to traditional methods of execution through the adoption of industrialized production processes. In particular, the work reports the analysis of two case studies of monuments in Terra Cruda in Italy and Spain belonging to different eras. The cognitive survey carried out put into perspective the similarities and differences of the technology in Terra Cruda in the two geographical areas under study.