Barracas on the Mediterranean coast

Abstract

A cultural heritage approach is used to present a scientific analysis of a traditional building method. A series of detailed monographs are referenced. The article discusses the Central European conservation theories of "Heimatschutz" at the beginning of the 20th century and the ideals of Krausism to determine a direct relationship between narrative art and photography as a threshold to the heritage analyzed. The study begins with a metric analysis of the barraca, a typical one-story thatched farmhouse in the Valencia area, and examines its construction and pathology; the study reviews the construction's constituent parts through schematic illustrations to offer a greater understanding of its creation and subsequent processes of transformation. The study departs from the strict reinterpretation of traditional building techniques to adopt an approach that examines the use of its component materials, thus providing an understanding of interventions that are compatible with conservation. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.