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The Hills are Alive… Poster for architect
Richard Rogers' lecture  …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 Toledo further into the city; then to Piazza Municipio (the city hall) and the passenger port of Naples; then run a straight line by the university (stop) to via Duomo (stop) to the main train station at Piazza Garibaldi. Those five stops—Toledo, Municipio, University, Duomo, Garibaldi—are in various stages of completion. 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." It will be finished in 2012, and if
you believe that, I have an airport I'd like to sell
you. One question: if the plumbing is on the outside,
does that mean I will have to go outside to…well, you
know. [update:
——> see number 15 in further entries...below] Further entries on the metropolitana: |
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.