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. ...

The Salerno maritime terminal: Zaha Hadid's first posthumous project inaugurated in Italy

2016-04-26T14:05:00-04:00

On the long approach from the sea, the flowing, horizontal silhouette of this all-concrete structure, bracketed fore and aft by leaning walls, stands out from the heavyset classicized buildings along the waterfront promenade [...] Prime Minister Matteo Renzi visited the site on Sunday, calling it a masterpiece. The absence of Ms. Hadid, 65, who died on March 31 without ever seeing the finished terminal, was keenly felt both days.

The city of Salerno, some 60.5 km south of Naples, gained a major new architectural icon this week. A 50,000 sq. ft., €15 million maritime terminal, it's also the first project by ZHA to be inaugurated after their principal Zaha Hadid passed away last month.

Before the inauguration ceremony, portraits of the late architecture were plastered around the city. "Goodbye Zaha Hadid, Genius and Modernity. Inspiration and Transformation, Light that takes shape," they read. "Salerno will proudly care for and cherish the Maritime Terminal.” Half of the 400-person firm reportedly travelled to Salerno for the ceremony.

Actually, rather than a new project, the Salerno terminal was twelve years in the making, with contractor bankruptcies and other financial woes creating major delays. As such, the building was designed the old way: while computers were beginning to be used, the project was designed mainly with models and drafting.

Paola Cattarin, the project architect, describes to the Times: "It w...