Mass Timber Metro Station Under Construction in Naples, Italy as Part of a Major Infrastructure Upgrade

EMBT, the Barcelona-based studio, has revealed images of a mass-timber metro station which is currently under construction in the Centro Direzionale area of Naples, Italy. The Naples Underground Central Station is being built in a neighborhood designed by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange as part of a major upgrade to the city’s infrastructure. The studio, which is led by Benedetta Tagliabue, chose to build the station from wood to create an organic contrast to 1970’s district.

“The area is called Centro Direzionale,” Tagliabue told Dezeen. “Kenzo Tange designed it and he built a very Kenzo Tange-type of city with reflective skyscrapers and a piazza, very 1970’s, very clean. It didn’t work because it’s so different from the rest of Naples.”

The station is being built from mass timber. 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 for the staircase down to the metro platforms.

“We are working on an existing series of platforms and if you put more weight on top, you never know how much you can put,” Tagliabue explained. “Wood is a very light material, and it combines very well with the pre-existing structures.

“Wooden columns sit atop a concrete structure. “We used the pre-existing concrete structures, the pre-existing columns, and we inserted new wooden columns in that,” she added. “We matched the steel part of the concrete to make the base of the new columns, and then the rest of the column is totally made in wood.”

The station was designed to evoke a “walk in the woods.”