Ecomuseo delle case di terra di Villa Ficana

Just outside the town of Macerata lies the nineteenth-century small village of Villa Ficana over an area of about one hectare.  A “working-class microenvironment” consisting of rows of earthen houses built around 1850,  destined for “casanolanti”. Following the recognition as a monument-relevant place as the unique earthen-walled existing village in the Marche region, the Municipality promoted the rehabilitation of Villa Ficana handing back to the community a historical-architectural asset of tourist and museum interest. The Ecomuseum, established in 2016, is intended to increase the knowledge of the district while keeping and enhancing its constructional and historic-environmental characteristics. The Villa Ficana Ecomuseum is designed to preserve and enhance places, promote the knowledge of constructional techniques and history, but also to stimulate the active participation of inhabitants. The building material of houses is a mix of earth, minced straw and water, with the addition of other effective materials to control shrinkage during drying, or “correct” the earth quality. Straw serves as a reinforcement, as a tiny filament able to give stability and cohesion to the mix after drying. This thousand-year construction technique offers not only the advantage of a very low cost but also a guaranteed operational quality for internal moisture control and good thermal insulation.

Izi Travel: free app for mobile phones that makes it possible to do a virtual tour across the rooms and places of the ecomuseum that are not accessibile to people with mobility disabilities; there are also two braille guides of the ecomuseum. Downloading the free app Izi.TRAVEL you can listen to and read mini audioguides of the Ecomuseum  in Italian, English and Spanish. Audioguides are  constantly updated in other languages as well.

Theatre: theatre laboratory with final show open to all those who want to try out this activity, wholly implemented in the spaces of the ecomuseum.

Documentation centre: the ecomuseum is per se a documentation centre on earth-based construction techniques (the village consists of 50 earthen constructions built in the second half of the nineteenth century); it is also important to mention the ecomuseum membership of the Earth Building International Association.

Atterrati! Call For Art: The Ecomuseum of earth houses of Villa Ficana di Macerata (MC) provides a space for artists where they can exhibit and promote their works and artistic achievements. It is not an art gallery but it seeks to become a place enabling people to meet, increase knowledge and spread creativity. Rooms will be made available to the artist FREE OF CHARGE for 2 weeks; the event is advertised on the website and the Ecomuseum Facebook page.