L'architettura rurale scomparsa delle Valli Giudicarie (Trentino-Italia).

An important element in the rural architecture of the Giudicarie Valleys in Trentino (Italy) was the farmhouse. This was a compact, multi-storey and multi-family building of considerable size, which contained all functions from the residence to the service activities linked to agriculture and farming. A peculiar construction feature was the rye thatched roof. The new social order and renovations in the 1970s radically changed the original typological layout and construction solutions of these buildings. Thatched roofs have disappeared and only a poor documentation of them remains. Over the last 50 years in particular, the memory of thatched roofs and the technique for constructing them has been slowly but surely lost. The last thatched roof burnt down in 1971. In the almost total absence of exhaustive bibliography and in order to recover the memory and document this original expression of rural architecture in the Giudicarie Valleys in a rigorous and scientific manner, a mainly iconographic analysis was conducted to understand the formal and constructive types of the buildings and in particular the roofs. The research focused and defined the characteristics of rural buildings and codified the traditional technique of covering roofs with straw. Documentary and iconographic research was complemented by the collection of oral sources through individual interviews with older residents. In order to obtain real feedback on the feasibility of the hypothesized thatching technique, a roof prototype measuring approximately six square metres was built. It was then exposed to weather conditions for years to test its behaviour. The construction of the prototype was carried out by two carpenters according to the technique identified as being traditional and typical of the Giudicarie Valleys.