Traditional architecture

The upper and lower Susa valleys are characterized by traditional architectures and very diverse building types due to the sensitive historical and cultural differences, environmental and climatic conditions, and available resources.
The alpine dwelling is always structured in a functional way to fulfill specific functions. The economy and agrosilvopastoral activities vary with the altitude, which influences the way the house and the inhabited nucleus are conceived.

The rural house does not have only residential functions but is primarily a tool for agricultural and pastoral activity, where the organization of space is closely subordinated to the functions and work necessities. The residential areas occupy minimal portions of the entire volume of the house. Instead, spaces for storing livestock and provisions for the sustenance of both humans and animals, which constitute the wealth of the farming family, prevail.

The rural architecture of the lower and middle valley is characterized by buildings constructed exclusively in stone, with the roof structure in wood (usually chestnut), and the cover made of stone slabs. The spaces dedicated to stables, residence, and barn are superimposed and normally connected by external stairs. The only wooden element is the balcony on the top floor, where hay was placed to dry. Sometimes the volumes are separate units.

In the upper valley, the abundance of stone and construction timber guarantees the possibility of building more imposing dwellings that, due to climatic conditions, develop into centralized volumes under a large roof where daily activities can be carried out even in winter, when snow is abundant.

The upper valley is characterized by the development of a model of architecture derived from Dauphiné, and the types of alpine rural houses are multiple.

In the plains of Oulx and Salbertrand and in the valleys of Cesana and Bardonecchia, a prevalent form of grange characterized by two stone floors above ground and an attic in wood with larch bearing beams and roofing with shingles or stone slabs can be found; there are also two balconies in correspondence with the floor slab of the first floor and the attic, well protected by the roof overhangs, for drying various products, while often, precisely to have more space for this operation, the attic is left without the south-exposed wall so that sun and heat can enter more easily. The stable is usually in masonry, with one or more central pillars.

Often the construction of a grange involved the collaboration of the entire village community and was a moment of great communal importance.
On the houses, it is easy to find the construction dates, many of which refer to the 1700s, which was the golden century for alpine architecture, where architecture and decoration reached high levels of harmony and coexistence, and the civil parts of the houses expanded. However, there are also examples of even older constructions, testified by some granges in Desertes, dating back to the late 1400s.