Wood and Straw, Stone and Brick Building Techniques and Urban Decorum in the Settlements of Late Medieval Piedmont

This article analyses the consistency of the built environment in subalpine towns from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. It has always been assumed that the thirteenth century represents a moment of transformation in construction processes, characterized by a transition from the use of perishable materials to the use of stone and brick. This is, however, a simplistic interpretation because it is evident that, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, there was a constant effort to impose a limitation on the use of wood and straw.