Archinect - News

Zaha Hadid Architects unveils latest photos of serpentine Napoli Afragola railway station

2018-08-29T15:57:00-04:00

Located about 7 miles north of Naples, the Napoli Afragola railway station designed by Zaha Hadid Architects has been operating for a year now. To mark the occasion, the firm released some new photos of the snake-like building taken by Hufton + Crow.

As part of Italy's expanding high-speed rail network in preparation of growing demands for train travel, the new station is the first part of a multi-phase project expected to be complete in 2022. Inaugurated last year with 18 high-speed trains in each direction, services will increase to 28 trains as new infrastructure is built. Most recently, the train station received the 2018 Surface Travel Award for Transportation.

Photo © Hufton + Crow.

Located within Italy's new north/south high-speed rail corridor, Napoli Afragola will connect some 15 million of Southern Italy's residents with the national railway network. It will also enable goods and passengers from Europe and northern Italy to have easier access to Italy'...

Almost two decades in the making, the ZHA-designed Napoli Afragola Station is finally inaugurated

2017-06-07T13:48:00-04:00

The cosmopolitan, bustling city of Naples serves as the gateway to the south of Italy—but the mechanics of that gate are a bit creaky. The main station of the city, Napoli Centrale, is over fifty years old and is currently being renovated. Even with renovations, however, the station will be congested. So, in the early 2000’s, the city looked north to the city of Afragola, within the Naples metropolitan area, for the site of an additional train station. Yesterday, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni inaugurated the building ahead of the start of regular services on June 11.

The gleaming new station was designed by the late Dame Zaha Hadid and bears many of her design signatures, from curved structural concrete elements to Corian-clad steel ribs. It’s designed as an “urbanized public bridge” connecting the communities on either side of the tracks. In fact, the passenger concourse is the walkway bridging the tracks, and houses all services for departing, arriving, and connecting passengers. ...