La modernità del rurale. Case e villaggi colonici della bonificazione pontina come patrimonio storico da tutelare

The reclamation of the Pontine Marshes is one of the most significant events in modern Italian history, marking the complete transformation of a large part of the Lazio landscape. This process involved building canals for environmental recovery, dividing the land, planting trees, and creating a complex network of settlements. In this network, the rural house becomes part of a landscape unit. Its designs are inspired by vernacular architecture, but not by local tradition, making it an ‘invention’ characterised by specific formal, structural, distributional, and decorative features. Today, this cultural heritage is fading away, erased by a sort of oblivion, perhaps due to the unpopularity of its authoritarian origins