Reggio Emilia Station by Santiago Calatrava

By mcosta / October 8, 2021

Andrea Sensoli -- Exclusive interview with Andrea Sensoli. SUPERFUTUREDESIGN* is a sister concern of ASZarchitetti, founded by Andrea Sensoli with three partners Cecilia Morosi, Iacopo Mannelli, and Andrea Rettori. The...

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City Guide

Reggio Emilia Station by Santiago Calatrava

This is the brand new railway station, and the only stop, on the high-speed line between Bologna and Milan.

The waves are a sequence of steel and glass modules extending for almost 500 meters in a 3D roll which creates different colonnaded façades: a rough sea at the front and a lighter one at the back. A glass roof over the platforms is supported by steel and concrete struts.

This train station, open since 1859, is part of the Milan-Bologna railway, being a great way of passage between this two important cities.

The original passenger building was replaced in the mid-1930s with a new one, designed by the architect Angiolo Mazzoni. A few years later, the 1930s building was destroyed by bombing during World War II. It was replaced by a new structure, designed by the architect Roberto Narducci.

Described by some as ‘organic madness’, Santiago Calatrava’s design for Reggio Emilia Station is yet another stunningly beautiful, highly engineered design of epic scope. It is as much a sculpture as a building. He uses sharply angled elements as the primary structure which are repeated along the rectilinear floor plan, at gradually varying heights and lengths to create an undulating wave like elevation and interior spaces.