Located in Lunano, in Italy’s Marche region, What the Stones Whisper is a six-meter-tall timber tower that reinterprets the nearby Torre Lunano and the stone structures scattered across the surrounding landscape. Designed and built by Collectif MAGMA in two weeks for the Fe.M – Festival di Microarchitettura, the installation uses limited timber, self-build methods, and a repeated structural system to create a lightweight landmark along a local walking path.
Eight triangulated timber frames form the tower, using 50 × 60 mm pine battens assembled through repeated connections and bracing. Ten layers of timber shingles are suspended from jute ropes to create a discontinuous envelope that moves with the wind. Their changing position produces shifting patterns of light and shadow while allowing air and sound to pass through the structure.
echoes of Torre Lunano | all images ©Collectif MAGMA
Movable Timber Envelope Frames the Landscape and Sky
Two narrow doors frame views toward the surrounding hills and lead into the tower’s open interior. Successive structural frames gradually direct the gaze upward toward the sky, while the moving shingles create a changing acoustic and visual environment.
The tower rests on a shallow timber foundation designed to remain largely concealed beneath the ground. Built by a small team of amateur builders, the construction process involved fabricating the timber frames and shingle modules in an open-air workshop before assembling them on site. The project by design practice Collectif MAGMA uses repetition, lightweight construction, and a movable envelope to reinterpret the permanence of the region’s stone architecture through a temporary timber structure.
between a bell tower and a military tower, a wooden tower with a shifting facade appearsin the distant landscape, a few vernacular structures emerge
What the Stones Whisper stands along the ridge of the Lunano hills, rising to a height of 6 meters inside the structure, a play of light between the Aperture and the Kaleidoscope a kaleidoscopic view from the top of the tower a framed view of the vast landscape of Regional Park of Sasso Simone and Simoncello more than 500 shingles swaying in the wind
project info:
name: What the Stones Whisper
architect: Collectif MAGMA | @we_are_magma_
location: Lunano, Italy
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edited by: Christina Vergopoulou | designboom
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