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The urban centres of inland Alentejo (southern Portugal) have long faced a depopulation crisis which, besides undermining the cohesion of the communities, compromises the conservation of the architectural heritage. The tendency to apply the discourses on tourism and population pressures from coastal cities to these inland territories can be detrimental to their analysis given the sheer difference in demographic dynamics. Transformations in traditional architecture—a key facet for defining these historic urban landscapes—require analysing within this social context. The imperative need to rehabilitate traditional buildings, endowing them with the living conditions communities today require, must be guided by morphological analysis, knowledge of housing history, typologies, and traditional construction techniques. This rehabilitation concept integrates into the transformation processes that traditional architecture has been undergoing for centuries, constituting adaptable and flexible structures across their organisational variants, which should be studied through a prospective approach. The article characterises the transformation of urban domestic architecture in the region, from the early modern period to the present. The results of various research projects are summarised, gathering over 500 cases. The conclusion argues that the historical process itself results in a set of themes, tools, and opportunities for these buildings’ adaptation to current needs.

The village of Zraoua, in southern Tunisia, is one of the villages of the Jebel Dahar whose population underwent a process of programmed displacement in the third quarter of the 20th century. This abandoned village constitutes an interesting case of integrated study of the vernacular architecture and cultural landscape of the Mediterranean mountainous regions. The biophysical dimension and the social structure are essential for the interpretation of the diversity and specificity of the courtyard house of this region (intra-wall house, semi-troglodyte house, ridge house and hillside house), for the reconstitution of the different phases of the urban evolution and for the understanding of a landscape construction system which is very adapted to the scarce resources of the territory (terraces on the thalweg lines, draining surfaces on the slopes and abundant presence of cisterns in the landscape).

O povoamento das áreas de montanha é quase sempre conformado por aglomerados de pequena dimensão vinculados no passado a uma economia de subsistência. Em Portugal, as mutações significativas que, num contexto de forte recessão demográfica, têm marcado as povoações serranas do interior estão, por vezes, associadas à persistência dos hábitos e das construções característicos da cultura tradicional, como é especialmente evidente nalgumas das aldeias do maciço beirão da Gralheira. O presente artigo incidirá no património construído desta região, tomando como caso de estudo o lugar da Drave e considerando, de forma articulada, a caracterização do núcleo edificado tradicional e da paisagem onde se integra. Constituem instrumentos fundamentais deste trabalho o levantamento desenhado do lugar e a leitura da Crónica dos Martins da Drave datada de meados do século de oitocentos.