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The curriculum provides a rare opportunity for students to work with Italian stone masons and craftsmen, getting hands-on experience in traditional construction methods whose basic principles are still valid today. The students also learn the history, culture, and architecture of the region spanning tribal, Roman, medieval, and renaissance periods.

By hiking up the steep, forested hillsides, they encounter early examples of the stone-building culture — remains some 3500 years old, left by Celtic and other tribal peoples. The ancient weave of stone shows the beginnings of a culture that would evolve throughout the valley in the following centuries.

One important aspect of the field school is the documentation of historic structures. In Italy, a country awash with antiquities, the rural stone architecture has been undervalued and largely unrecorded. In a course led by Professor Donald Peting, the founder of Oregon's Pacific Northwest Field Schools program, the students learn documentation practices while making a significant contribution to the knowledge base of the regional architecture.

During their four-week stay in the village, the students learn traditional stone construction while engaged in a public work project of value to the local community. Key to this is instruction from the muratore (builder/stone mason) Paolo Mafricci. His generous patience and natural ability to communicate produce a rich educational experience in which students learn about laying stone, mixing mortar, carving wood, and framing timber.

The work is supported by local and provincial governments and coordinated by Ken Marquardt, an American who has been rebuilding stone houses in the village for a decade. He is also president of the newly formed nonprofit organization, the Canova Association, which is dedicated to the preservation of rural stone architecture throughout Europe.

In reference to the work he does on these houses, Marquardt prefers the term "continuation" to "preservation." He notes: "These buildings have been changing and adapting for centuries, and the work being done here continues that process in a sensitive way. The buildings are organic in the broadest sense — growing naturally over time and responding to the environment and the needs of their inhabitants. The notion of freezing them in time is contrary to their nature as dwellings to be lived in and used."

Traditional Stone Houses

Given that these massive structures rely almost solely on gravity to hold them together and to the earth, it's a minor miracle that many have survived centuries — some a millennium. Fortunately, the area has been seismically stable.

Beneath a shallow layer of topsoil is granite bedrock; often houses grow directly out of hillside outcroppings. There are numerous variations, but the typical sectional organization places a cantina at the base, usually partially underground, with a vaulted or cross-vaulted ceiling. This creates an intriguing environment — dimly lit and always cool — where the wine is pressed and stored.

The main levels of the houses are the living levels. These are equipped with massive fireplaces, which are inglenook-like rooms within rooms with small windows and benches so that the inhabitants can work near the warmth of the fire.

The attic level is open at the gable ends or has a large opening at the side known as an astrigo. The antithesis of the cantina, the sotto tetto is open and airy and often full of hay and, in earlier times, a winter's supply of dried bread. Several feet of hay has the added benefit of super-insulating the attic.

Connecting these storage spaces to the living levels is a fascinating bit of architectural bravado. The stairs are most often simply slabs of granite with one end fixed deep in the heavy stone wall and the other cantilevered in space. When necessary they are reinforced by gentle or "flat" arches spanning from one landing to another.

Among the most striking features of these buildings are the seemingly impossible roofs covered with wide coursings of thick granite slabs. It was to these roofs that the field school most recently turned its attention.

Last Summer's Project

In 2001, the students replaced a dilapidated concrete and tin wash house with a more traditional structure complete with a massive stone roof. The small size of the project allowed the students to complete it in only 20 days.

The process began with the heavy timber structure. This is typically made of either local European larch or chestnut; both are extremely strong and durable. As with most of the materials, the beams were reused from demolished or collapsed structures. For ease and safety, the students first fitted the frame together on the ground, then took it apart and reassembled it in place.

Next, the students fastened a simple series of rafter beams at the top of the frame and notched them into a stout bottom chord which cantilevered out to form a table for the first courses of piode, the thick slabs of granite roof stones.

Then they fastened an array of closely spaced purlins to the rafter beams, using traditional wooden pegs. Somewhat counterintuitively, the piode are laid up with only a very slight pitch. Because no fasteners are used, this flat base is necessary to keep the stones from sliding off the roof.

This dry stacking forms a sort of reversed corbel, with each slab stepping back slightly to form the pitch of the roof, while the edges of each are angled carefully by hand to produce a consistent pitch.

For a modern builder accustomed to scanty 25- to 40-year shingles, it's hard to imagine these roofs which, if maintained, will last many centuries. If not maintained, as is the case with many structures today, the purlins sag, water penetrates, and eventually the whole roof could come down like an avalanche, crushing everything below it.

We are in danger of losing much of this historic fabric. The population flight from traditional villages in the 20th century has left a tremendous stock of unmaintained buildings now on the verge of collapse. We hope that the students leave with an appreciation for this rich and ingenious heritage and for the building culture that produced it.

The simple lessons of the making of an arch, a wall, or a column form the architect's most fundamental vocabulary. But also important is the lesson of using what is available and exploring the delight and potential of materials in making wonderful spaces that are richly connected to their place in the landscape.

Michael Cockram is an adjunct assistant professor of architecture at the University of Oregon. He is the director of the Italy Field School Program.

The original tin wash house that the students replaced as part of the 2001 Italy Field School Program. Photo: Michael Cockram Student Michiko Tanaka carves a decorative drip detail into a beam. Photo: Michael Cockram The students build stone columns to support the heavy stone roof. Photo: Michael Cockram The heavy timber roof structure is first assembled on the ground. Photo: Michael Cockram The completed roof frame. Photo: Michael Cockram The granite roof slabs are placed in nearly flat layers. Photo: Michael Cockram The completed wash house. Photo: Michael Cockram The student team, with their traditionally built structure and the old village in the background. Photo: Michael Cockram   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.