C'est l'heure de bien faire — Fall 2026

Studio Portaluppi's cultural programme reflects the people-centred philosophy at the core of Filippo Taidelli's architectural approach: a culture of building rooted in saper fare, therapeutic beauty, and the healing potential of the built environment.

Its inaugural title, C'est l'heure de bien faire (It's time to do things well), carries multiple meanings, evoking both the craftsmanship of making things well and an imperative to act responsibly. The phrase encapsulates the shared ethos of Filippo Taidelli Architecture and Studio Portaluppi, where architecture is understood as both an ethical and a material practice—rooted in imagination and the art of making, and developed through integrated design and human relationships that foster well-being.

The inaugural programme explores the imaginative potential of architecture through a series of interventions centred on touch, sound, sensory memory, and material experience.

#1 LISTENING - 8 Novembre 2026

Curated by Julia Koropoulos, in collaboration with Elena Lasala

Chamber Music 4:30 pm (for general public, sold out) | 5:00 pm and 5:30 pm

Olivier Messiaen, excerpts from Quatuor pour la fin du Temps (1941)

Talk | 6:00 pm

Designing the Invisible

On November 8, Listening brings two excerpts from Olivier Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du Temps (1941) to the air-raid shelter beneath Piero Portaluppi’s historic studio. Abîme des oiseaux and Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus will be performed in an intimate listening experience that brings sound, time, space, and the body into dialogue. The performance of Intermède, the fourth movement of the Quatuor, in the historic studio marks the transition between the experience of the bunker and the subsequent talk. These are conceived as complementary moments within a single journey, in which musical performance opens up to dialogue and the sharing of knowledge.

The performance is grounded in an understanding of listening as an active, embodied experience. The proximity between audience and musicians, the acoustics of the space, and the propagation of vibrations bring the listener closer to the very materiality of sound. The musicians engage with the space, adapting and modulating their interpretation in response to its acoustic characteristics. From a phenomenological perspective, listening thus becomes an exercise in attention and a form of perception through which the body comes to know space, transforming our relationship with architecture.

At the heart of Listening is the figure of Olivier Messiaen: composer, pianist, organist, ornithologist, and educator, whose creative universe spans music, nature, spirituality, colour, and complex rhythmic systems. Birdsong becomes musical material; harmonies are associated with precise combinations of colours; rhythm becomes a means of challenging the linear perception of time. Although deeply rooted in the classical music tradition, his work contributed to the development of leading figures in musique concrète and electronic music, making Messiaen an important bridge between tradition and musical experimentation.

Quatuor pour la fin du Temps, one of the most significant works of twentieth-century chamber music, was composed by Messiaen during his imprisonment at Stalag VIII-A, near Görlitz, where it was first performed in January 1941, with the composer at the piano.In the bunker, the two movements—the third, Abîme des oiseaux, for solo clarinet, and the fifth, Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus, for cello and piano - create a loop from the abyss to eternity, from the finitude of time to its dissolution.

“The abyss is Time,” writes Messiaen; birds, by contrast, are “the opposite,” expressing a longing for light, stars, rainbows, and song. From the abyss, the journey moves towards Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus, where time seems to dilate and expand. Inspired by the Book of Revelation and the Angel’s proclamation—“There shall be no more Time”—the Quatuor explores time both in its spiritual dimension and as a musical construction. Messiaen subverts its linearity through distinctive rhythmic structures, including the so-called “non-retrogradable rhythms,” palindromic patterns that remain identical whether read forwards or backwards.

A lighting installation curated by theatre director Fabrizio Visconti, together with lighting designer Guido Bianchi, accompanies the performance, evoking the chromatic associations that Messiaen himself described in relation to the harmonies of his music.

At 6:00 PM, in the meeting room of the historic studio, the performance of Intermède, the fourth movement of the Quatuor, for violin, clarinet and cello, introduces the talk Designing the Invisible, conceived as an informal roundtable in which musicians, designers and sound experts engage in dialogue with the audience.

The impressions evoked by the music become the starting point for an exchange across disciplines, centred on one of the founding themes of Studio Portaluppi’s research: the ability to attune ourselves to the invisible elements of space in order to heighten sensory and emotional perception, reducing reliance on conventional language and encouraging more direct human interaction.

Moderated by Julia Koropoulos, the talk will bring together Elena Lasala, pianist; Luca Ciammarughi, pianist, musicologist and radio presenter; Filippo Taidelli, founder of Filippo Taidelli Architecture; and Giorgio Caimi, Technical Director of Caimi Brevetti. The conversation will begin with Messiaen’s musical language and the experience in the bunker, exploring the perspective of those who interpret his music, the creative act under conditions of constraint, and the relationships between sound and the built environment.

The conversation will begin with Messiaen’s musical language and the experience in the bunker, exploring the perspective of those who interpret his music, the creative act under conditions of constraint, and the relationships between sound and built space.Messiaen’s own words also become part of the project through a textual and visual graphic production with art direction by Biffipol.

PROGRAMME

Olivier Messiaen
Excerpts from Quatuor pour la fin du Temps (1941)

BUNKER 16:30 (for general public, sold out) | 5:00 pm and 5:30 pm

Chamber Music

Three listening sessions | approximately 20 minutes each

Abîme des oiseaux
Selene Framarin, clarinet

Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus
Martina Rudic, cello
Elena Lasala, piano

HISTORIC STUDIO | 6:00 pm

Chamber Music | approximately 2 minutes

Intermède

Selene Framarin, clarinet

Alexia Tiberghien, violin

Martina Rudic, cello

TALK | To follow

Designing the Invisible

Speakers :

Elena Lasala, pianist

Luca Ciammarughi, pianist, musicologist and radio presenter

Filippo Taidelli, architect, Filippo Taidelli Architecture

Giorgio Caimi, Technical Director and Head of Open Lab at Caimi Brevetti

Moderater: Julia Koropoulos, curator, Studio Portaluppi.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Studio Portaluppi wishes to extend its special thanks to the following individuals for their generous contributions, dedication, professionalism and passion in bringing Listening to life.

Musicians: Selene Framarin, Martina Rudic, Alexia Tiberghien, Elena Lasala

Speakers: Luca Ciammarughi Giorgio Caimi

Lighting Installation: Guido Bianchi, Fabrizio Visconti

Graphic Design: Biffipol

Sound Recording: Stefano Ligoratti

Video and Photography: Luca Quagliato, Masiar Pasquali

TOUCH — January 2027

Touch begins with an archival research project developed in collaboration with Francesco Marsotto, dedicated to identifying and mapping the over 400 marble pieces that compose Portaluppi’s original meeting-room floor. Preserving traces of multiple territories and temporalities, the project reveals a tangible cartography of materials, geographies, histories, and narratives.

The cultural programme will unfold through events, presentations, conversations, performances, workshops, and educational activities. Further information regarding participation and registration will be announced through Studio Portaluppi’s official channels.