This is my land
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the Raw Earth City Association, it was decided to represent raw earth architecture in Italy through the publication of the volume “This is my land, Images and stories of earthen houses in Italy.

We could define it as a metaphor for the “normality of raw earth.” The book tells us about a new phenomenon that has grown under the radar in this period: the widespread, social spread of an everydayness of earthen architecture, lived with a full sense of belonging. This text, while documenting historic buildings, actually speaks precisely about a quality of living that is the result of a truly ecological practice. It is not necessarily the case that all the protagonists are fully aware of this, and there is certainly nothing ideological about this rediscovery. What is striking is the extraordinary harmony between objects and subjects, the full adhesion between a life project and the recovery of inhabited spaces. The coherence between the whole and the details of the recovered buildings shows us how the people, the protagonists of this recovery are in tune with the materiality of the earth and the components in terracotta, wood, stone and constantly accompany it. It is precisely in this social and existential model, even before the technical one, that we find the most concrete guarantee for the future of this heritage.
Prof. Ing. Antonello Sanna – Dean of the Faculty of Architecture of Cagliari

This is my Land invites a journey through Sardinia, Abruzzo, Marche and Piedmont. In the photographs unfolds the tale of a popular architecture that is absolutely present in contemporary times, which has been handed down to become something much more shared today. The protagonists of the journey are the inhabitants of the earthen houses that bring us inside intimate stories and at the same time part of a collective memory, which compose a small realistic fresco of our country. A stylish, intimate book from photographs that evoke that part of life protected within the walls, furniture and objects and that tell the story of the generations that built that vernacular architecture with the resources of the land…. The book “stands out as a beautiful lesson in architecture and healthy resilience.”
Prof. Hubert Guillaud – CraTerre Centre international de la construction en terre, Grenoble

Interviews were edited by Maria Chiara Esposito, while photo shoots were conducted in Sardinia by Marco Alberto Desogus in Abruzzo, Marche and Piedmont by Giovanni Sacchetti.