Passarola I Music Variations on the Past and the Future is a cultural research and creation project in the fields of music, design, and new technologies.

It is rooted in the sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti and in the invention of the Passarola, the first flying machine in the world, created by Father Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão.

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Terra has commissioned and is currently producing the Comporta Weather Station, which is to be located in the village of Carvalhal. It is meant to capture glimpses of regions’ flora and fauna and to study how the ecosystem is influenced and affected by the weather.

Collaborating with designers, musicians, sound-designers, poets and artists, we are interested in understanding how creative disciplines can address the issue of climate change in unexpected ways.

This project initiated has part of the World Weather Network, created by ArtAngel.

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Fazer Bem is one of Terrafoundation's first programmes, and its main objective is to promote the social inclusion of women by way of educational and training actions in the areas of design and crafts, contributing to their sustainability and economic independence.

It aims at gender equality and female empowerment. It is also about introducing creativity and design as elements of innovation through the use of natural and sustainable materials, stimulating the creation of artifacts with their own identity and cultural values.

Music is an anthropological constant, and a structural element for human development and thriving.

The music we love can help define our identity: it marks our ethnicity, race, class, religion, culture, subculture, and generational identities, among so many other identities.

It marks also our relation with our planet and the ecosystems surrounding us, as well as with our history and our future.

Born in 1685 - a pivotal year in the history of music, as Bach and Handel were also born then - Domenico Scarlatti exemplifies the profound role of music in shaping European cultural identity. Whether through his musical and geographical journeys or the way he internalized Europe’s diversity and unity within his compositions, Scarlatti embodies the unique power of musicians as architects of a Europe that is both one and diverse.

Via Scarlatti | Culture and Innovation as the Soul of Europe revisits the early 18th century not as a distant past, but as a moment of cultural and human flourishing from which we might draw inspiration to build sustainable, creative, and inclusive futures.