From catalogue to management: an experience of monitoring for the study and the conservation of local traditional building techniques

The survey has been carried out within a multidisciplinary panel of experts of Restoration, History of Architecture and GIS Techniques. It mainly aims to set up a Geographical Information System able to bridge the gap between the traditional methods of cataloguing historical monuments and the needs of monitoring traditional building techniques of Sardinian minor historical centres where a huge cultural heritage is daily at risk of being cancelled by rapid lifestyle changes. This Information System, developed in Access environment, has been tested for the study of traditional architectural typologies in Pirri and Villasalto, where earth-building techniques are widely spread, after had been already used in the analysis of Muros historical centre and in the Risk Map of Stampace, one of the four historical quarters of Cagliari (Sardinia-Italy). The database matches perfectly with the standards established by the Italian Ministry for Culture and allows a complete analysis of manufactures under various points of view: historical, formal, structural, building materials and techniques. Moreover, it takes into account specific vulnerability parameters, allowing a constantly updatable monitoring of the state of conservation and consequently of the risk of the manufactures’ loss. Furthermore, the database collects and compares interdisciplinary contributions such as archive historical documents, reliefs and data regarding both materials and diagnostic. A scale of economic ranges for possible restoration works will implement the system in order to establish their priorities according to the damage degree and to the risk of the manufactures’ loss. For all this reasons, this system represents a unique opportunity of improving the acknowledge of historical techniques and of guaranteeing the planned maintenance and the conservation of traditional building culture.