The Hills
are Alive… Poster for architect Richard Rogers'
lecture held in Feb. 2007  …with
the Sound of Metros. (Please don't write
me. I know the spelling is
different; I'm just running out of clever titles for articles about
trains.) When they started construction for the new Naples Metro in the 1970s, everyone knew it would take a long time. The technical difficulties of tunneling beneath one million people from 600 feet down to sea level were formidable. Everyone was right—it did take a long time, and it's not nearly finished. What is done, however, is impressive: you can start up at the high end of the Vomero hill, way past the hospitals, almost to Secondigliano, and 12 or 13 stations later be at Piazza Dante, downtown, in a few minutes. What is left, however, is difficult. Piazza Dante is now to connect to via The original target date for completion was
2006. That has
been pushed back to 2010/11. There are both technical and bureaucratic
reasons
for this. In terms of engineering, the line near the port is getting
water
seepage from the sea, no doubt coming through the landfill that the
port
facilities are built on. Bureaucratically, the entire section from the
city
hall to the train station runs along, over and through some important
archaeology, including the original harbor of the ancient Roman city.
At times,
there are more archaeologists than workers scurrying around the
construction
sites; their job is to decide what stays and what gets plowed under. At
the
Municipio stop, what stays will be incorporated into an underground
museum of
sorts. It's an impressive plan but has delayed completion.
The plans for the very important airport station are in the hands of renowned British-Italian architect, Richard Rogers, well-known for his modernist and functionalist designs and whose works include the Centre Pompidou in Paris (1972-74), the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (1984), the Millennium Dome in London (1999), and the Barajas Airport Terminal 4 in Madrid (2005). Roger's signature design is to leave the internal spaces uncluttered by locating most of the building's services (plumbing, heating ducts, and stairs) on the outside. (Hmmmmm. From Bauhaus to Outhaus?) The key feature of the airport station will
be the
fan-shaped design. The published literature about the
new station has this to say: "The
design for the Capodichino Station represents a significant opportunity
to
contribute to the regeneration of the airport itself. The new scheme
positions
the underground station at the heart of the airport. This will help
reduce the
walking distance between the train platforms and the entrances to the
departure
and arrival terminals. The wide roof section over the new pedestrian
piazza
helps to define routes into and out of the station. Colour-coded
escalators
help to orientate and channel passenger flows through the station. The
roof
which covers this well allows natural light to penetrate deep into the
internal
space of the station, as well as allowing natural ventilation to
circulate
throughout the building. It also provides protection from sunlight and
rain for
the piazza, creating a public space which offers a safe, protected
environment
for those passengers travelling between the station and the airport." |
Even more impressive is the route the metro is
to follow
after it leaves the main station. It will rise up to the airport at
Capodichino
and run out through Secondigliano, swing around and join up with the
Piscinola station (now in operation), thus encircling the city.