“Guidelines” for sustainable rehabilitation of the Rural Architecture

For a long time, scholarly attention has been devoted to few "exemplary buildings" rich in history and of aesthetic values, whereas it was almost ignored the vast heritage of rural buildings and constructions. Retaining walls, paths or ovens, rich lowland farms orpoor buildings scattered among the mountains,have often been regarded as simple objects of which it was necessary to decide the fate, in ways more or less distracted and under variousdemands. Itwas thus often missed the recognition of the full dignity of many cultural buildings belonging to the so-called "peasant or rural world”. Several new challenges regard now the conservation, the sustainable re-use and the compatible rehabilitation of this heritage, respectful of its features, of its layered consistency and of its values, aiming at enhancing its livability andimproving its energetic behavior. The paper deals with these topics and offers an overview of the researches carried out by the authors in this field.