The methods of building of the past are still visible in the town’s urban fabric, especially in the oldest districts.

In the upper portions of the town, the districts of Castangias, Seddanus, the Carmelo area and the ancient via Garibaldi are a maze of narrow cobblestone lanes and age-old stairs connecting them. Many houses were built from local stone (mostly granite) or cling breathlessly to the rocky walls, becoming an integral part of them. Many dwellings were built to lean upon the rocky crags and their courtyards often host imposing masses of granite, overlooking the pine grove surrounding the residential area.
Villacidro is part of the Associazione Nazionale Città della Terra Cruda (National Raw Clay Association), an association that valorises and promotes the culture of constructing homes with ladiri, or raw clay bricks.

Until 1960, Sardinia’s most frequently used and characteristic buildings were the homes built out of blocks of stone and raw clay bricks that were simply left to dry in the sun. These raw bricks are called "ladiri" in Sardinian dialect (deriving from the Latin later: brick building), were made with local clay that became dense and pliant when mixed with water; straw was then added to consolidate this composition and was also used as insulation. The bricks were then shaped by hand and placed in moulds.
The town still features many ancient dwellings built from this raw clay (làdiri). Many can be seen in the lower portion of the town in the rione Sant’Antonio (district), where old peasant houses with ancient portals, courtyards and walls in clay bricks still stand.