After winning the competition in 2006, Eisenman Architects are now finalising their design for the new Pompei Santuario station on the Circumvesuviana railway line. The construction work, set to begin in 2008, will cover an 18,000-square-metre site that will connect the two parts of the city separated by the railway.

Eisenman’s brilliant application of architectural theory and practice drew inspiration from the multiple urban grids that alternate in the area. He then developed this interstitial zone’s morphological characteristics in three dimensions.

The shape of the steel and concrete station building, as well as the interior pattern of solids and voids, is based on the superimposition of the Roman axes with the irregular grid of pre- Roman times. Natural light will filter through the translucent roof down to the service voids on the ground floor and to the underground platforms. Cladding in lava stone and Travertine will reinforce the building's link with its context. During the second phase of the programme, the grid that generates the layout of the outdoor areas and routes to the new building will be developed towards the area of the excavations, up to the Villa dei Misteri station, which is also part of the competition. Silvia Monaco