The Relationship between Materials and Techniques

Historical construction techniques that use brick cannot be fully understood without a comprehensive knowledge of this base material, including an appreciation of the changes that bricks have undergone over the past centuries of development in construction techniques. Bologna, as a subject for this field of research, presents the advantage that the old town is characterised by the almost exclusive use of brick. Furthermore, construction features in wood make testimony to the period in which the lack of prime materials intended for the production of bricks and inadequate workforces resulted in the overall impoverishment of construction techniques – events that allowed wooden materials to assume an ever increasing dominant role in construction. In the light of the various historical documents and archaeological evidence available today, this report analyses the changes in the building technologies and in residential buildings that have taken place in Bologna during the delicate time that saw the passage from the Dark Ages through to the late Middle Ages.