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The aim of this paper is to investigate the possibility of using two different methods together to detect more accurately and to evaluate thermal defects in the envelope of agricultural buildings. The structure of heated agricultural buildings is significantly influenced by the characteristics of the indoor environment (aggressive gaseous and liquid substances, high humidity, higher heating temperatures, etc.). In this study, research has been conducted that synergistically combines two methods for the evaluation of thermal defects, where the structure is evaluated using infrared thermography and at the same time described as a numerical model for a more detailed identification of envelope defects and thermal bridges. The study confirmed that in agricultural building structures, thermal defects are most commonly found in the areas of window lintels, ceiling and bracing structures, window and door joints, and foundation and floor joints, while the proposed combination of the two methods for assessing thermal defects in structures demonstrated superior performance in terms of accuracy and detail of results obtained compared to the standard partial use of only one of these methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternative food network research has referred to farm shops but rarely examined them in detail. This article argues that farm shops are not simply places of exchange but are complex, immersive, sensory‐rich places of meaning and experience. These arguments are developed through a study that adopts an interpretive/embodied perspective on conventions and applies them through a multi‐methods approach, incorporating autoethnography, interviews, a questionnaire and website analysis. The influence of farm shop interiors and farm context were investigated through thematic analysis. It was found that consumers desired a rustic interior aesthetic, an external ambience enabling exploration and an opportunity to escape time poverty through consumption. Farm shop owners endeavoured to provide a rich multi‐sensory interactive consumption experience, encompassing both enterprise buildings and surrounding farm sites. It is argued that use of ‘farm‐site’ consumption experiences distinguishes these enterprises from each other, contributes to consumer immersion and positively contributes to the collective identity of ‘farm shops’. Furthermore, the provision of retroscaped experiential consumption promises resilience from supermarket co‐optation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Live coccidiosis vaccines have mainly been used to reduce Eimeria species infection, which is considered the most economically important disease in the poultry industry. Evaluation data on vaccine effectiveness through large-scale field experiments are lacking, especially in broilers. Thus, the effectiveness of a commercial coccidiosis vaccine was evaluated in approximately 900,000 chicks reared on three open-broiler farms where coccidiosis is prevalent. The vaccine's effectiveness after vaccination of 1-day-old chicks was monitored using three parameters (lesion score, fecal oocyst shedding, and production index, PI) in nine trials performed three times on each farm. Lesion scores were confirmed in three different areas of the intestine because the vaccine contained four Eimeria species. The average lesion scores were 0.36 to 0.64 in the duodenal region, 0.30 to 0.39 in the jejuno-ileal region, and 0.18 to 0.39 in the cecal region. The average fecal oocyst shedding rate ranged from 19,766 to 100,100 oocysts per gram, showing large variations depending on farms and buildings within the farm. Compared with the PI of the previous 9–10 trials on each farm, the PI increased by 2.45 to 23.55. Because of the potential for perturbation of the fecal microbiota by live coccidiosis vaccines, the fecal microbiota was investigated using 16S rRNA microbial profiling. Although the β-diversity was significantly different in distribution and relative abundance among farms (PERMANOVA, pseudo-F = 4.863, p = 0.009), a Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis found no significant bacterial invasion of the epithelial cell pathway across farms. This large-scale field trial of a live Eimeria vaccine indicates that coccidiosis vaccines can have meaningful effects on the poultry industry and could be used as an alternative to the prophylactic use of anticoccidial drugs under field conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agricultural productivity and sustainability in Eastern Gangetic Plain Zones of India are threatened because of the inefficiency of current production practices, shortage of resources, and socioeconomic constraints. We hypothesized the potential impact of intensified cereal systems with mung bean as a third crop within the annual cropping cycle. We assessed economic, social, and environmental indicators for intensified and current cropping system management practiced by different farm types in the region using the FarmDESIGN model. Building on a farm typology constructed for the region in our past research, we used five types of farmers: part-time (PT), well-endowed (WE), small-scale (SS) crop and livestock mix, medium-scale (MS), and resource-poor farmers (RP) in this study. The performance indicators of the 229 original cropping systems cultivated within the 43 farms varied strongly in the eight performance indicators. This variability of cropping systems performance within the farm types resulted in the absence of significant differences between the types. Compared to the original cropping systems, the intensified cropping systems with mung bean not only performed high in dietary energy (DE) production and organic matter (OM) inputs into the soil but also had high application rates of biocides and minimized losses of nitrogen (N). The intervention systems were low in labor requirement and scored at an intermediate level for crop gross margin, water use, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The ranges of areas of maize- and rice-based systems that could be replaced by intensified systems were largest for the WE and RP farm types. This was reflected in large ranges of change in the performance indicators, but no significant differences in response were found between the farm types. The intensification of maize- and rice-based systems with the proposed intervention cropping systems involving mung bean would result in increased profitability, higher DE yield, and lower requirements for labor and water as the proportion of the farms being converted increases. However, the use of biocides would increase, while the intervention cropping systems would have no significant effect on OM input, GHG emissions, and soil N losses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nest reuse is often observed in large- and medium-sized birds, including hole-nesters, while in smaller passerines building open-cup nests it is rarely recorded. In this note we report a case of multiple nest reuse, observed in a residential garden in Poland. The nest was located on the wall of a farm building partly overgrown by Boston Ivy at the height of 2.3 m. The nest was occupied eight times between 2007 and 2023 by three bird species: Grey and Pied Wagtails and Common Blackbirds. The nest was built by Grey Wagtails in 2007, but in 2009 it was reconstructed considerably by blackbirds. The Blackbird cup with mud lining survived until 2023 and contained all other nests. We suggest that the most plausible reason for multiple nest reuse was the high quality of this nest site. However, we also found that the nest was used during warm, dry springs but avoided when weather conditions at the beginning of the breeding season were adverse. We hypothesize that cold and wet springs – thought to be associated with high costs of reproduction – may have influenced birds' decision not to reuse the nest. To our knowledge, this is the longest case of nest reuse reported for passerines building open-cup nests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligent plant protection equipment utilizes advanced sensor technology and data analysis algorithms to monitor crop growth, pests and diseases, and environmental parameters in real-time. This equipment can accurately identify pests and diseases, locate infected areas, and spray pesticides precisely, reducing pesticide usage and improving crop yield and quality. Other research topics discussed include orchard spraying technology, intelligent plant protection monitoring systems, navigation algorithms for orchard spraying robots, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for crop protection, and the interaction between soil erosion and farmland vegetation restoration. The article also explores the potential of hyperspectral imaging for disease detection and the effects of open-air agriculture photovoltaic systems on crop growth. [Extracted from the article]

Livestock operations generally deal with dairy or beef cattle. Although sufficient attention is paid in design and construction of dairy barns since modern technology, mechanization and labor are used intensively in dairy barns, beef cattle barns are still constructed in traditional styles. However, in cattle barns planned for meat production, which is one of the most important protein sources of human beings, desired conditions should be provided at optimum levels. Working conditions of the workers should be improved, physical, chemical and biological characteristics of animal rations should be improved and hygienic production environment should be provided. Therefore, beef cattle barns should be designed and constructed in accordance with modern technologies and technical standards and regional conditions should be taken into consideration. In this study, planning and design criteria of beef cattle barns for cold climate regions were determined and 100 and 200-head capacity beef cattle barns were developed and designed for Van Province conditions. The designed beef cattle barn project, was submitted to the Agricultural-Specialized Organized Industrial Zone Project Commission and it was deemed appropriate to carry out the exercise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study’s goal is to present a dynamic portrait of the farm-buildings environment in Occitania, in Southern France, in order to better identify the transitions underway in agri-food chains. To this end, we undertook a territorial diagnosis based on actor statements, using 28 semi-structured interviews across Occitania. This diagnosis was enriched by graphic modelling, which enabled the spatialization of the dynamics described. We show that the process of standardisation of farm buildings prevails in the majority of the territories studied. This phenomenon has intensified in recent years with the development of vast photovoltaic-roofed sheds, accentuating the farmland conversion and soil sealing. At the same time, in areas with strong environmental, landscape and heritage contexts, a ‘new adventure in farm buildings’ (2022 survey) is taking shape. It is primarily driven by local short food chains, which rely on self-construction, repurposing and refurbishment, the sharing of tools and equipment, and which favour the use and reuse of local resources. This study shows that farm-buildings dynamics crystallise many challenges confronting the reterritorialisation of agriculture and food production.

As global demand for sustainable biomass and need to mitigate global warming begin to rise, cultivation of seaweed has gained significant attention in recent years due to its potential for carbon recycling. However, limited availability of suitable coastal areas for large-scale seaweed cultivation has led to exploration of offshore environments as a viable alternative. The nature of many offshore environments often exposes seaweed farming systems to harsh environmental conditions, including strong waves, currents, and wind. These factors can lead to structural failures, kelp losses, and significant financial losses for seaweed farmers. The main objective of this study is to present a robust design and numerical analysis of an economically viable floating offshore kelp farm facility, and evaluate its stability and mooring system performance. A numerical method of preliminary designs of the offshore aquaculture systems were developed using the OrcaFlex software. The models were subjected to a series of dynamic environmental loading scenarios representing extreme events. These simulations aimed to forecast the overall dynamic response of an offshore kelp farm at a depth of 50m and to determine the best possible farm design with structural integrity for a selected offshore environment. Furthermore, to assess the economic feasibility of establishing offshore seaweed farms, a comprehensive capital expenses analysis was conducted. The results revealed that, in terms of the kelp farms with the same number of the kelp cultivating lines, the cost of building kelp farms will be strongly affected by the cost of mooring lines. The present study may help to understand the dynamic response and economic feasibility of offshore kelp farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Site selection for building solar farms in deserts is crucial and must consider the dune threats associated with sand flux, such as sand burial and dust contamination. Understanding changes in sand flux can optimize the site selection of desert solar farms. Here we use the ERA5-Land hourly wind data with 0.1° × 0.1° resolution to calculate the yearly sand flux from 1950 to 2022. The mean of sand flux is used to score the suitability of global deserts for building solar farms. We find that the majority of global deserts have low flux potential (≤ 40 m3 m-1 y-1) and resultant flux potential (≤ 2.0 m3 m-1 y-1) for the period 1950–2022. The scoring result demonstrates that global deserts have obvious patchy distribution of site suitability for building solar farms. Our study contributes to optimizing the site selection of desert solar farms, which aligns with the United Nations sustainability development goals for achieving affordable and clean energy target by 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rooftop greenhouse-type smart farms are a promising solution to the climate and food crises because they can utilize waste heat and CO2 from buildings for plant growth and supply fresh produce to urban areas at a low price. However, legal and structural constraints make it difficult to expand existing rooftops to accommodate smart farms, and standardized glass greenhouses are often installed as is, which may not be the most efficient or eco-friendly approach. The purpose of this study is to present a plan for integrating eco-friendly technologies between buildings and smart farms. In the study, 214 eco-friendly and smart farm cases were collected, and a database was built from the perspective of the environment and eco-friendly technology for plant growth. Thirty experts from architects, professors, and greenhouse installation companies were evaluated to determine which eco-friendly technologies can be applied to smart farms. From a building integration perspective, eco-friendly technologies applicable to smart farms were derived from a plant growth perspective. Based on the derived eco-friendly elements, it can be used in planning a rooftop greenhouse-type smart farm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, applying climate information services (CIS) have attracted the attention of policymakers as one of the risk management approaches, and they consider it a key element for the adaptation of farmers to build a resilient livelihood. Scientists believe that using CIS can reduce the negative effects of climate change and make farmers more sustainable in the agricultural sector and rural areas. However, in developing countries, some limitations prevent the effective and efficient use of this information by farmers. To discover these constraints in the agricultural sector of southwestern Iran, 390 farmers were examined using a questionnaire in a survey study. The results of the coefficient of variation in the prioritization of barriers to the using CIS in the farmers' sector based on the farmers' point of view showed that the two factors of "nontimely delivery of information" and "unreliability of information and data" were the most important barriers to using CIS. While the two factors of "lack of proper planning and purpose in agricultural activities" and "farmers' resistance to change and emphasis on traditional methods" were less important than other factors. The results of the factor analysis classified the barriers to using CIS in the agricultural sector into five categories including managerial-technical, social-cultural, educational communication, infrastructural, and psychological factors, which were able to explain 69.68% of the variance of the total factors. The findings of this research, while adding new knowledge to the existing knowledge in the field of research, can also be useful in planning and policymaking for applying CIS in the agricultural sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies about wind pressure on agricultural greenhouse buildings concentrate on the mean wind pressure while ignoring the systematic research on fluctuating wind pressure characteristics and the influence of roof shape on the wind pressure characteristics, which are closely associated with the wind-induced damage mechanism. In this study, two typical agricultural greenhouse buildings on tropical islands are selected as prototypes to conduct pressure measurement experiments in the wind tunnel. Based on the wind pressure time series for the two greenhouses, the mean and fluctuating wind pressure distribution pattern and the localized high-pressure generation mechanism are analyzed. Then, the shape coefficient of the two greenhouses is compared in depth to the standards from four countries. Besides, wind pressure non-Gaussian determination criteria for agricultural greenhouse buildings considering the roof shape and wind directions are proposed. Lastly, the differences in wind pressure spectra on the roofs and walls of the two greenhouses are summarized. The results indicate the roof shape has a significant influence on the wind pressure characteristics. Compared with the pitched roof, the vaulted roof will increase the suction effect on the windward front zone and the middle area, mitigate the suction impact on the leeward roof, and weaken the wind pressure non-Gaussian characteristics. The experimental shape coefficient of the pitched-roof greenhouse is basically consistent with the standard from the U.S., while that of the vaulted-roof greenhouse has some deviation from the existing standards. The results provide a theoretical basis for the wind-resistant design of agricultural greenhouse buildings on tropical islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agricultural development strategy of building a strong country with Chinese characteristics is based on Chinese national conditions and agricultural conditions. It is an innovative exploration that takes into account the unique characteristics of domestic agricultural development and the universal commonalities of international agricultural modernization. It is also an important support for building a socialist modernized country. In the new era, promoting the construction of a strong agricultural country with Chinese characteristics is conducive to achieving common prosperity among farmers and rural areas, improving the modern agricultural industry system, and creating a beautiful countryside where people and nature coexist harmoniously. Therefore, the article puts forward the following points. With the goal of achieving common prosperity, clarify the important direction of building a strong agricultural country with Chinese characteristics. Taking the promotion of rural industries as the foundation, consolidate the basic guarantee for building a strong agricultural country with Chinese characteristics. Taking the creation of rural ecological livable environment as the direction, clarify the specific ideas of building a strong agricultural country with Chinese characteristics. Taking innovation-driven development as the driving force, ensure the efficient promotion of the construction of a strong agricultural country with Chinese characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article concentrates on the role of social and spatial processes that influence how architectural sites of the past are deemed part of the cultural heritage. It will focus on the contested architecture of collective farms in post-Soviet Estonia. By analyzing urban–rural dynamics and mnemonic processes dealing with controversial historical periods, it will demonstrate the complex negotiations that are involved in heritagization processes. These complicated processes are illustrated by analyzing three case studies, which show how heritagization is a heterogeneous practice, negotiated on multiple levels in communities, on the collective and private levels, but also between the state and the private sector. The article argues that rural/urban representation and relational dynamics play an important role in heritagization processes. Though the collective-farm architecture was built during the ideologically contested Soviet period, the attitudes towards these premises are intertwined with multi-layered patterns of remembering, which are embedded in local social relations and community identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Material‐saving nail trusses – aspects of construction history from 1930 to 1990 Material‐saving wooden constructions, which were developed and optimized in particular during the war and post‐war period in the 20th century, are currently attracting renewed interest from the point of view of construction history, but also from an economic point of view. The article gives an overview starting with the first constructions at the end of the 1920s up to the type trusses of the GDR, which were built over agricultural buildings until 1990 and are often used today as supporting structures for photovoltaic systems and are therefore experiencing a renaissance. The focus of the article is on the chronological presentation of selected construction methods for hall and house roofs, differentiated between timbered and solid wall trusses. Both the responsible engineers and their origin, as well as essential fields of application and example buildings are discussed in the overview. A significant finding is the reduction in the period from 1930 to 1990 from a large number of nailed savings to type constructions, which essentially produced extremely material‐efficient timber trusses for gable roofs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Italy, historic agri-food buildings can be considered a relevant material expression and testimony of century-old agriculture and food processing practices handed down by generations. Recently they have gained ever-growing importance as a part of the wider architectural heritage. As such, they deserve dedicated general surveys to build a thorough knowledge of their distinctive characteristics and investigate their current condition, setting the basis for the implementation of planning and management actions for their sustainable valorisation. To this end, building information modelling can be considered an efficient strategy to preserve construction information by creating 3D models based on surveys of the built heritage. To acquire in a fast and accurate way geometric, reflectance, and colour data of rural buildings as a 3D point cloud, the terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) represents a powerful tool. The traditional TLS-based survey methods, in the context of historic agricultural buildings, have several limitations, mainly due to the presence of inaccessible parts and bulky machinery once used for processing and storage. In the present research, to overcome these issues and thus have a complete survey, we describe a proposal of an integrated methodology for obtaining 3D point-cloud data of existing rural agri-food buildings based on the integrated use of TLS, hand-held scanner, and unmanned aerial vehicles instruments. The proposed methodology was tested in surveying three historic agri-food buildings, and the accuracy of the obtained 3D point cloud was calculated using the root mean square error (RMSE) on the X, Y, and Z alignment of the two different 3D point clouds in correspondence of the used B/W target. Moreover, a measure of the distance between two merged 3D point clouds in their overlap area has been performed using the multi-scale model to model cloud comparison (M3C2). RMSE analysis always shows values lesser than 1 cm, and M3C2 shows values between 0 and about 6 cm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last two centuries, land-use change (LUC) has been the most important direct change driver for terrestrial ecosystems. In contrast with the consequent ecosystem degradation, forward-looking spatial policies and target landscape and land-use planning processes are needed from a sustainability perspective. The present paper proposes a framework of action, including different landscape-planning and ecological approaches: from spatial modelling to recognize LUC and build different scenarios, to ecosystem service (ES) assessment to evaluate possible environmental impacts. Three different scenarios were explored: Trend, No Tillage, and Energy crops. The sediment delivery ratio and carbon storage and sequestration ESs were assessed and compared for each scenario. The results show that regional development in line with past trends could lead to further land degradation (with ES value losses, in a decade, greater than 5%). Instead, the two scenarios proposed in compliance with EU policies could bring benefits, if only those related to moderate LUCs and respecting the naturally grass-vegetated land. The aim of the paper is to support decision makers and local communities in the landscape planning landscape planning process. From the local to global scale, guided and shared LUC management allows us to implement sustainable development, based not only on a deep knowledge of the physical environment but also of social and economic issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land restoration and sustainable natural resource use are critical societal concerns that impact both the health of ecosystems and human well-being. There is increasing recognition of the importance of restoring degraded land and landscapes, culminating in the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030). This special issue sheds light on how trees can help restore landscapes and is organized around 3 domains: ecological and genetic variation, restoration of species and lands, and species management in production systems. Successful tree cover interventions consider species, practices, and their management within the production systems to optimize impacts. A solid understanding of the variation in tree materials and their different functional traits can help restoration project planners and managers select the best interventions, such as direct seeding and Farmers' Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR). Simultaneously, the use of these approaches must be context-specific and consider the severity of land degradation. The Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF), a tool that helps determine the severity of land degradation, can be used to help tailor interventions to the local extent of land degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural soils contain large amounts of nitrogen (N), but only a small fraction is readily available to plants. Despite several methods developed to estimate the bioavailability of N, there is no consensus on which extraction methods to use, and which N pools are critically important. In this study, we measured six soil N pools from 20 farms, which were part of a multi‐year soil carbon sequestration on‐farm experiment (Carbon action, 2019–2023). The aim was to quantify the N pools and to evaluate if farming practices that aim to build soil carbon pools, also build bioavailable N pools. We also aimed to test if the smaller and rapidly changing N pools could serve as an indicator for the slower change in soil organic matter. The measured N pools decreased in size, when moving from total N (7700 ± 1500 kg/ha) to slowly cycling (Illinois Soil Nitrogen Test ISNT‐N: 1063 ± 220 kg/ha, autoclave citrate‐extracted ACE protein N: 633 ± 440 kg/ha), water‐soluble organic N (50 ± 17 kg/ha), potentially mineralizable N (33 ± 13 kg/ha) and finally readily plant available inorganic pools (nitrate and ammonium, total: 14 ± 8 kg/ha). In total, the measured pools covered only 18%–44% of total N, indicating a large unidentified N pool, which is either tightly bound to soil mineral fraction and not easily extractable or is bound to undecomposed plant residues and not hydrolysed by the methods. Of the large N pools (ISNT‐N, ACE protein and unidentified residual N), clay, carbon (C) and C:Clay ratios explained most of the variability (R2 =.90–.93), leaving a minor part of the variation to the management effect. A pairwise comparison of carbon farming and control plots concluded that farming practices had a small (3%–5%) but statistically significant (p <.05) effect on soil total N and ISNT‐N pools, and a moderate and significant effect (18%, p <.01) on potentially mineralizable N. The large variation in protein N, water‐soluble organic N and inorganic N reduced statistical significance, although individual C sequestration practices had large effects (−30% to +50%). In conclusion, carbon sequestration practices can build both slowly cycling N pools (ISNT) and increase the mineralisation rate of these pools to release plant available forms, resulting in an additional benefit to agriculture through reduced fertilizer application needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese solar greenhouses (CSGs) are the important agricultural building facility with highly efficient and sustainable utilization of solar energy. In order to improve the thermal insulation performance and reduce the heat loss, different insulation cover measures were applied to Chinese solar greenhouses. In this study, a solar greenhouse with an internal insulation blanket (SG1), a greenhouse with an internal blanket and an internal plastic film (SG2) and a greenhouse with an external blanket, an internal blanket and an internal plastic film (SG3) were chosen as experimental objects to analyze their indoor temperature environment. The results indicated that the differences of solar radiation interior among three greenhouses were similar, which was not the main reason that caused the differences of the temperature environment in the three greenhouses. During the tests, the nighttime average temperature was increased by 2.1-3°C by adding the cover materials, and the duration of nighttime temperature greater than 8°C was increased by 33.5%-38.2%. In addition, the cost is increased by adding the insulation cover materials, but it will be beneficial for greenhouse production to reduce additional energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate how actors in the farmer's network influence the adoption of smart farming technology (SFT) and to understand how social media affects this adoption process, in particular focusing on the influence of social media on trust in knowledge dissemination within the network. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology used a two-stage process, with semi-structured interviews of farmers, augmented by a netnographic approach appropriate to the social media context. Findings: The analysis illustrates the key role of the farmer network in the dissemination of SFT knowledge, bringing insight into an important B2B context. While social media emerges as a valuable way to connect farmers and promote discussion, it remains underused in knowledge dissemination on SFT. Also, farmers exhibit more trust in the content from peers online rather than from SFT vendors. Originality/value: Novel insights are gained into the influence of the farming network on the accelerated adoption of SFT, including the potential role of social media in mitigating the homophilous nature of peer-to-peer interactions among farmers through exposure to more diverse actors and information. The use of a social network theory lens has provided new insights into the role of trust in shaping social media influence on the farmer, with variances in farmer trust of information from technology vendors and from peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological excavations at the site of Montessoro (660 m. a.sl.), carried out between 2009 and 2013 by the Department of Christian and Medieval Archaeology (University of Turin – Department of the Historical Studies) and currently under publication, have led to the large-scale exploration of a rural Apennine site which was inhabited between the first century BC and the fifth century AD. The late antique phase, which is the best-preserved, consists of five farm buildings made using a masonry base bound with clay, with an elevation in lathwork and a roof made of cover and pan tiles. The systematic study of almost 600 clay fragments, some of them large and mainly from the collapse levels caused by the fire in the granary, with negative impressions of plant material, has enabled considerable information to be obtained about the technique of wattle and daub used to construct the elevations: the morphology and arrangement of the wooden parts (horizontal and vertical), related to the woven lattice of the lathwork and the load-bearing structure, and the mixing and application of clay and plaster. This work, associated with a thorough analysis of the plentiful wood charcoal remains (carried out by Prof. Lanfredo Castelletti and Dr. Sila Motella – Museo Civico P. Giovio di Como), has yielded data about the choice and working of the plants and trees used for the construction of elevations and all the structural parts, enabling a fairly precise reconstruction of the buildings and the socio-economic and cultural context of the site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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