Against the backdrop of promoting sustainable building practices and innovative cultural approaches, the paper focuses on architectural projects as tools for envisioning sustainable development scenarios in the context of mountain rural settlements, assuming a hamlet in Lessinia as a testbed. In this area, the peculiar geological conditions have forced and simultaneously provided opportunities for local builders to generate a unique design culture and landscape unit made of natural and anthropic signs where stoned elements play a pivotal role. Estates, paths, buildings, and entire elements have become a permanent laboratory of ingenious construction techniques throughout centuries, uncovering the outstanding sustainability and ductility of the local construction material. While the last decades have witnessed the degradation of such material to decorative apparatus responding to a banalized discourse on cultural identity, episodes of audacious reinvention of techniques and languages have emerged in the last few years. The paper aims to contribute to this fertile trend by taking academic design experiences as an explorative tool to unlock the forgotten potential of rural habitats and stone applications. The design brief, methods, and outputs, as well as other complementary activities, were defined by the authors in the framework of a teaching, research, and third mission project that also included the participation of a dedicated Design Studio at the Politecnico di Milano. This research-by-design experience adds original insights and challenging perspectives to a growing body of theoretical and practical design experiences that address weaknesses and opportunities in fragile territories.