Dalla terra alla terra

Currently more than one third of world population live in houses made by raw soil. Raw soil is an ecologic, cheap and salubrious matter: in ancient time houses had not air conditioners or other sistem to mantain a good temperature, but that built in raw soil have an agreeable temperature in every season and also in Countries too hot or cold. Also in Sardinia, across centuries, raw soil (ladiri, in local language) was used to build houses, particularly in agricultural areas. Ladiri is a mixture of soil, straw (it's straw that give hardness to the brick) and water that rise for one or two days and after is used to make bricks for the house. Bricks dry for some days and are ready to built walls. A very important peculiarity in ladiri production and house building is choralism: houses were built with help of friends and relatives at the end of summer, when there was a lot of straw and enough warm to dry bricks in few time. Mostly women didn't take part to the ladiri production, but they also knew manner to make raw soil bricks. House was organized functionally to agricultural industries: there was a courtyard for the animals and spaces to kept their food, the bakehouse, a kitchen and the bedrooms. In Campidano's country it is still possible to see these traditional houses, some decadents, others lived and restored. An inter-municipal project try today to revalue use of ladiri, to encourage the restore of the historical house, but also to support the use of these matter for new buildings. But it is not easy to make raw soil briks and there are few persons still capable to do these. So, stories told by elder interviewed, have also the function to serve memory of these tradition.

Human/Nature
Director:
Sergio Madau, Laura Sanna
Year:
2013
Country:
Italy
Genre:
Documentary
Length:
7'
Production:
Sardigna Live
Producer:
Laura Sanna, Sergio Madau