Source: University of Cagliari, 25 November 2025
From 27 to 29 November 2025, the second edition of ET WORKSHOP | BEYOND UNDERGROUND will take place, an initiative promoted within the framework of the agreement between the Autonomous Region of Sardinia and the University of Cagliari to support the candidacy of the Sos Enattos site as the Italian location for the Einstein Telescope, the next-generation European observatory for gravitational waves. The event will involve around one hundred students from 14 architecture schools participating in the 27th edition of the Villard seminar, dedicated to the study and design of Italy’s inland territories. The candidacy of the Einstein Telescope represents a unique national case study, capable of stimulating reflection on the relationship between underground infrastructures, surface architecture, and the landscape.
The workshop will open on Thursday, 27 November in Cagliari, at the Aula Magna of the Faculty of Architecture, with the inaugural lecture by professors David Escudero Boyero and Manuel Rodrigo De La O Cabrera from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, entitled “Cultural Landscapes: From Research to Design”. This will be followed by immersive activities in Orani, including a visit to the Nivola Museum, focusing on the exploration of the cultural and artistic characteristics of the territory.
On Friday, 28 November, participants will travel to the Sos Enattos site for a tour of the mining galleries and a public conference hosted at the Mining Museum. Speakers will include regional and local institutional representatives, experts from the INFN, and the internationally renowned landscape architect João Nunes, who will deliver the lectio magistralis “Site Specific: Possible Strategies for the Einstein Telescope Scientific Park”. In the afternoon, students’ research projects will be presented, along with the launch of the ET CONTEST – BEYOND UNDERGROUND, a competition dedicated to new ideas for the architectural and landscape enhancement of the Sos Enattos area. The day will close with a public debate on the challenges and prospects of Italy’s inland territories.
The event will conclude on Saturday, 29 November in Cagliari, at EXMA – Municipal Center for Art and Culture, with the inauguration of the exhibition Free Space – Transformation – Habiter, dedicated to Lacaton & Vassal, winner of the 2021 Pritzker Prize. For the first time in Italy, the exhibition retraces thirty years of the firm’s work, highlighting the relationship between architecture, inhabited space, and the social dimension of design. The inauguration will be preceded by a lecture from Anne Lacaton and Jean Philippe Vassal, in the presence of the Rector of the University of Cagliari, Francesco Mola, and institutional authorities.