Naples, Italy

“Our design sets out to establish a more harmonious connection between this artificial podium and the heart of the city, generating a more sustainable and attractive public space,” the architects explain,” states Benedetta Tagliabue – Miralles Tagliabue EMBT.

“Our concept revolves around the idea of making Naples emerge from the underground, as if it were a volcanic bubble.”

The city of Naples has embarked on the regeneration of city life on an existing urban megastructure.

In 2004, the City of Naples commissioned several internationally renowned architects to build a train station for the city’s new subway system. The leitmotif of the project is to give a strongly recognizable identity to the environment in which it is located.

Part of a major transportation investment program, Naples Metro Line 1 successfully integrates archaeology, architecture and contemporary art, with new stations conceived by internationally renowned architects, such as Sir Norman Foster, Massimiliano Fuksas, Alvaro Siza, Dominique Perault, Karim Rashid and Benedetta Tagliabue, that allow for entire new “underground” worlds being discovered.

Miralles Tagliabue EMBT’s new station with its underground connection will be responsible for the transformation of the artificial surface of the area into a complex topography, with several pedestrian levels and a building with an extraordinary structure.

Several public spaces will provide a physical representation of the present and the past ‘The Centro Direzionale’ area, where the new metro station will be located, is a complex of towers and platforms designed in the 70s.

This new station would be an improvement in the connectivity between this area and Naples’ town center.

The new public spaces would allow different, fresher uses.

Our aim is to improve the access and appearance of public transport in order to make it more attractive to use.

The station is an organic object with a light timber structure and a large-scale covering, creating a shady square where people can stop.

The choice of using wood derives from the need to incorporate a pre-existent structure, as well as our determination to give the square a clear identity.

The green areas are an important element of the project that unfold in a continuous layout accompanying pedestrians from the city into the station.

The station’s great roof creates shaded resting areas at the level of the square, a square that is currently hardly usable during the hot spring and summer weather as it is completely exposed to the sun.

The new surrounding green areas will help to control the temperature. The roof lets natural light in, giving the station a hybrid character of interior and exterior, whilst also reducing the cost of artificial lighting during the day.

The original idea was to use materials that shared a connection with the local Neapolitan tradition, such as basalt lava stones and a ceramic finish on the roofing.

However, due to budget cuts during construction, many of the stone features and the covering itself were replaced with resins.

“We intend to complete the roof with the work of a street artist, covering the structure with the portrait of a Neapolitan face that will be visible from all the surrounding buildings. Art, in fact, together with architecture and archaeology, is one of the three “As” characterizing the projects for the Naples subway stations,” explains Tagliabue.

Project: Naples Underground Central Station
Architects: Miralles Tagliabue EMBT
Design Team: Benedetta Tagliabue, Joan Callís, Eugenio Cirulli, Alessandra Deidda, Cecilia Bertozzi, Mirko Silvestri, Joanna Karatzas, Gabriele Rotelli, Guile Amadeu, Lucien Puech, Valeria Alfonsi, Michela Cicuto, Francesca Martinelli, Guido Bigolin, Maira Carillo, Jan Kokol, and Andrè Temporelli.
Client: Metropolitana di Napoli
Photographers: Paolo Fassoli