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| 351 NAPLES SUBWAY 2003 |
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| A collaboration with Anish Kapoor. The brief from
the City of Naples, to create a fully-functioning tube station
that is in itself a work of art, demands a synthesis of purpose
and beauty that is fundamental to our creative process. A second
primary point of inspiration is the site. At the surface the
station is anticipated to be the central element in the functional
and cultural regeneration of the Traiano district that has suffered
in its recent history from infrastructural isolation and neglect.
Simultaneously the network of tunnels and vaults designed and
subsequently abandoned midway through a previous tube station
project, describes an underworld barely tangible in the gleaming
and sanitary underground spaces of contemporary subway projects.
In the shadow of Vesuvius and embedded in layers of early civilisation,
these dark and brutal concrete shells have been inspirational
to our formal and material approach. |
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| We began the process by stretching and moulding plasticine
forms, synthesising the primary access requirements within and
around the existing negative volumes. Simultaneously we gathered
material inspiration and inspiration material to support computer
visualisation of the internal spaces. As layers of programme
have been introduced, the eternal tension between form and function
has been developed through a series of models and drawings while
preserving the singular purpose and drama of the forms. |
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Completion
Contract Value
Client
Concept Engineer
Structural + Services Engineer |
2008
£50 million
S.E.P.S.A.
Arup
Tecnosistem |
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