From Morphotype to Plan: Advancing a Typo-Morphological Method for Rural Architecture and Landscape Through Territorial-Planning Analysis Within the Pontine Reclamation, Italy

This study builds on a previously developed typo-morphological method used for the rural architecture of the “Capo Due Rami” area and tests its transferability to the northern sector of Sabaudia within the Pontine reclamation system. Beyond the historical, typological, and landscape dimensions explored earlier, this research adds a further analytical component focused on the relationship between settlement form and territorial planning. This extension represents the major methodological contribution of the study, allowing the repetitive structure of Opera Nazionale Combattenti farm units to be interpreted not only as a building system but also as an implicit territorial-planning device. The case study, located in the northern sector of Sabaudia, explores the relationships between the colonial settlements of the Opera Nazionale Combattenti (ONC), the agrarian framework, and the reclamation infrastructures, interpreting the repetition of settlement models as an implicit form of territorial planning. Using an integrated framework based on field surveys, archival materials, and multiscale cartographic analyses, the observation sheets show how architectural features, land-division schemes, and reclamation infrastructures are structurally interrelated. The results show that this new analytical dimension enhances the method’s interpretative capacity, highlighting the role of typological standardization in shaping the spatial and cultural structure of the reclaimed landscape. They reveal the morphological and functional consistency between architecture and landscape. Overall, the investigation confirms the coherence and replicability of the expanded approach. It shows that rural architecture is not only the material expression of a productive model but also an active agent in constructing and regulating the Pontine agrarian territory. Rural building emerges not only as the material outcome of a productive model but also as an active agent in shaping the agrarian territory. The research helps establish a comparative framework for interpreting Italian rural landscapes, supporting the valorization of vernacular heritage and reflection on the implicit planning principles embedded in typological architecture.