Barcelona-based studio EMBT has revealed images of a mass-timber metro station, which is under construction in the Centro Direzionale area of Naples.
The Naples Underground Central Station is being built in a neighbourhood designed by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange as part of a major upgrade to the city's infrastructure.
Naples Underground Central Station will be located in a neighbourhood designed by Kenzo Tange
The studio, which is led by Benedetta Tagliabue, chose to build the station from wood to create an organic contrast to 1970s district.
"Kenzo Tange designed Centro Direzionale and he built a very Kenzo Tange-type of city with reflective skyscrapers and a piazza, very 1970s, very clean," Tagliabue told Dezeen. "It didn't work because it's so different from the rest of Naples." The station is being built from mass timber
Instead, Tagliabue's design was informed by older parts of Naples.
"It's a place where there are a lot of offices and a lot of business space but at five o'clock at night, it's deserted and very dangerous," she said.
"So the idea of making a new station there and connecting with the new subway line was also to try to introduce a piece of nature and a piece of the original part of Naples into this artificial piece of the city."
Undulating arches will cover the station
The swooping new station is being built on top of existing underground lines, replacing a previous building that was little more than cover f...