A timber tower listens to Lunano’s hills

What the Stones Whisper is a small tower with a clear local reference point. Built in Lunano in Italy’s Marche region, the six-metre structure by Collectif MAGMA looks again at Torre Lunano and the scattered stone buildings in the surrounding landscape, but does it in timber rather than masonry. Made for the Fe.M – Festival di Microarchitettura, it sits along a walking path as a lightweight landmark rather than a permanent monument.

The structure is straightforward and clever. Eight triangulated timber frames, made from pine battens, create the tower, while more than 500 timber shingles hang in ten layers from jute ropes to form an outer skin that shifts with the wind. That moving envelope lets air and sound pass through, and changes the light inside. Two narrow doors frame views of the hills, while the repeated frames draw your eye upwards to the sky.

It was designed and built in two weeks using self-build methods and a repeated system, with a small team of amateur builders fabricating frames and shingle modules in an open-air workshop before assembling them on site. Designboom says the project was submitted through its DIY submissions feature, so this reads as a project showcase rather than a critical review. Still, for anyone walking the Lunano hills, it sounds like a thoughtful detour into how a temporary structure can echo an older landscape.

Our summary of a story from designboom, published 2 October 2026. Read the original