The excavated subterranean architecture and the extensive system of cisterns in the Sassi area represent the visual, spatial and structural element that has established the city of Matera as a World Heritage Site.

The Invisible Pavilions project focuses on the refurbishment of some of these architectural features, to promote reflection on the responsibility of aesthetics, architecture and artistic research in the process of creating, regenerating and redeveloping places. The pavilions will not only be new regenerated places to be returned to public use, but also a meeting point for citizens and visitors, to discuss the most important and critical regional issues in the wake of the legacy of Adriano Olivetti, who helped make the city in Matera an interdisciplinary open-air laboratory for architecture, social sciences and town planning.  The project, drawn up and coordinated by Angelo Bianco and Giusy Checola, with scientific consultancy from Philippe Nys, philosopher and expert in space hermeneutics, started its activities in 2018 with a programme of workshops and study seminars involving researchers and experts (Markus Haraldsson, Matteo Balduzzi, Lucio Fumagalli, Gabriella Gilli, Alessandra Pioselli, Roberto Martino, Emanuele Rizzardi, Antonello Tolve, Ferdinand Richard, Donato Faruolo) from different disciplinary fields, with the common aim of formulating proposals for the recovery of the cisterns and their refurbishment. The project is part of the activities of the SoutHeritage Foundation, which for years has designed and proposed exhibition itineraries to reinvent, in a contemporary dimension, significant spaces of the architectural heritage of Matera and Basilicata.