The architecture of subtraction in the rural landscape of central Italy: conservation and valorization

Abstract

The architecture of subtraction in rural landscapes is a type of architecture which was of great economic and cultural value for rural society until the twentieth century. Knowledge, cataloguing, conservation and valorization of architecture have therefore all become essential elements in protecting the culture and the rural landscape of Central Italy. The article presents and catalogues this type of architecture and proposes a project that aims at the recovery and valorization of several abandoned and degraded excavated sites, to set up an open-air museum that focuses on the rural and artisan life of the nineteenth and twentieth century.