Abstract:The purpose of the present study is a comparative analysis of the characteristics of traditional rural constructions constituted by temporary settlements for animal corrals, employed for vertical transhumance or nomadic pastoralism, spread over the mountain regions of three different Countries of the Adriatic-Ionian area, i.e., Greece, Italy and Montenegro. The main methods applied in this research were the detection and typological survey of some examples of these rural constructions located in Southern Italy, whose typical dimensions, building material and constructive technologies were detected and analysed. Major findings of the research have been the identification of some similarities connecting architecture and building material of these constructions, which revealed common technologies applied by people from different countries that, despite different socio-economical and cultural traditions, have employed similar techniques, implementing simple but very effective constructive building principles. Main conclusions are connected to the possible restoration of these constructions that, designed over the centuries in order to fulfil their primary agricultural role, now constitute a widespread cultural heritage with a significant architectural value, influencing the agricultural environment and the visual perception of its landscape that, within the current re-discover of the agricultural heritage, may play a central role, even though new activities related to rural tourism.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is growing in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) Industry. With the new strategy to mandate BIM, there is a need to identify its importance in architectural landscape design. It has the potential to challenge some of the limitations of designing, constructing and managing the built environment. Using BIM tools and applications, landscape analysis can be explored, developed and documented for design, planning and organization as well. This application, known as Landscape Information Modelling (LIM), may store object information such as: irrigation pipelines; areas allocated to specific plants; list of different plants involved in landscape projects; etc. Annotations used in landscape drawings would be accompanied by information attached to it. In this paper, a first application of LIM aimed to landscape protection has been implemented, so as to help in planning leisure facilities. Indeed, with many details involved, it can also be used to store data for landscape architects, who would easily develop and organize detailed information. Hence, with the ability for simulation and visualization, they should be able to produce detailed plans, walkthrough animations and renderings for presentation, while exploring the scope and nature of work and making informed decision at early design stages.