The Art Stations of Naples

Author of article: Stefania Fabozzi (Young Member of SIG)

Authors of paper: F. Brenci

It is not a novelty that subway of Naples is an 'underground museum' combining the past, thepresent and the future. It still retains a precious archaeological heritage (e.g. catacombs ofbeauty) which rises with every new project for a station. So, the 'underground' butcontemporary museum connects with the tradition and the history of the city.

The contemporary underground museum of Naples is famous all around the word for the Art Metro Station that dates back to 1995, when it was clear that, beyond purely engineering intervention, there could be spaces that would make the difference for the citizens and the world.

Distributed along the Lines 1 and 6 of the Naples Metro network, art stations are the result of extraordinary constructive and synergic dialogue between architects and artists, engineers and committee. Though the architectural design of the work is the constant dialogue and collaborative effort of all the players - namely architects, artists, engineers and Committee.

Between the most beautiful art stations of the city, it can be celebrated the following ones: -Garibaldi Station: designed by Dominique Perrault, the French architect and urban planner of Garibaldi station, was also entrusted with the redesign of the square above it; -Università Station: designed by Karim Rashid. The Anglo-Egyptian architect envisioned spaces ‘that embody the knowledge and language of the new digital age, that transmit the ideas of simultaneous communication, innovation and mobility, ideas which characterize their ongoing Third Technical Revolution’; -Municipio Station: When work is complete, the Town Hall project undertaken by Portuguese architects Àlvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura will bring metro Lines 1 and 6 together in one large transport hub; -Toledo Station: The project of the Catalan architect Oscar Tusquets Blanca also affected the area above, transformed into pedestrian zone and upgraded aesthetically.

Metro Line 1 “Toledo Station” - Naples It is a 'traveling' art that supports the speed of the contemporary world and fulfils what its main features are. It becomes so familiar to the ‘travellers’: familiar and social, and goes beyond the concept of decoration, because, as complex and colourful it is, it strategically attracts the attention of the citizen, which is culled during his daily routine.

‘...I would like people in general, and not only architects, to understand that architecture is not only what it looks like, but also what happens in it...’

Bernard Tschumi in The Manhattan Transcripts , 1976-1981.

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