Harmony and simplicity in dry construction in Provence.

The paper analyzes the architectural structures closely related to the agricultural and pastoral world, made with the technique of dry stone, in the Provence. The recurring element, which creates the unity of the whole of the variegated territory, is identified in the structural and compositional organization, that uses materials found on site and the technical expertise of ancient memory passed down through the centuries. Among natural environment, materials and man, has established a complicity, based on a deep mutual respect: the architecture is the most telling example of the integration of the built into the landscape. In the growing attention to policies for the protection and preservation of heritage, will mature awareness of the importance of the protection of cultural and natural resources, giving relief to the strategies of local economic development: we do not always realize how much simplicity, essentiality and harmony, shines through in these landscapes. It is crucial that they be a source of teaching and knowledge laboratories, for us who live on the same sites, but with different values, and we look to the experiences of the past to plan the future.