The international competition held for Bologna Central Station’s New Integrated Complex has ended with Arata Isozaki the winner, picked by the jury headed by Gae Aulenti from the 11 finalist projects. So it is the Japanese architect who will be designing Bologna’s new intermodal hub. Bologna is Italy’s fifth largest train station in terms of movements. But its key position in the sorting of traffic flows along the north-south axis makes it much more important. Hence the necessity to redesign the city’s railway station: above all, in view of the High Speed network under construction but also, more generally, within the perspective of a plan launched by the State Railways to renew the country’s stations. A redevelopment programme has already begun, with major projects such as those of Naples Afragola and Florence Belfiore, designed by Hadid and Foster respectively. Like all nineteenth-century railway stations, that of Bologna requires contemporary architecture to bridge the rift in the city’s continuity caused by its presence. The positions of many of the old city railway stations, even more than their architectural aspect, state their adherence to a typically modern urban design. The density of cities today has caused architecture to envisage a different role for travel hubs, as means of connecting and integrating spaces rather than as elements of urban definition. (Flavio Albanese)

Futura 787 (Arata Isozaki) The winning project directed by Isozaki (with Ove Arup and M+P & Partners) is presented as a closed but fascinating body. Defi ned as a “condensate of city”, it fi ts quietly and unobtrusively into the heart of Bologna, with no excessively high-rise volumes. The Japanese architect’s design suggests a reconstructed urban centrality for the specifi ed zone, through the concepts of continuity, horizontality and decomposition. Isozaki moreover, has attempted to establish a link between the future of Bologna Station and its tragic past (...) by perforating the membrane of his structure with lacerations and apertures redolent of the physical and spiritual wounds infl icted by the bomb attack on the place and the city as a whole.
(F. A.)

MVRDV (Natalie De Vries- Winy Maas) This piece of city is suspended above the railway lines which will operate without interruption during construction of the new complex.

UNStudio The roof over the two station levels, allocated to commercial, recreational and catering purposes, is the project’s most striking feature.

Cruz y Ortiz Arquitectos The station volume is a single compact shell with a maximum height of 20 metres.

M.B.M. (Oriol Bohigas) The solution proposed is a slab, which alternates the presence of public squares and green areas.

Agenzia di architettura 5+1AA (Alfonso Femia) The multipurpose slab covering the platforms is treated as a tissue of courtyards on three levels

Souto Moura Arquitectos Clarity volumetric in the horizontality of the design and its limited impact on context.

Ingenhoven Architekten The three fundamental parts of the station are independent and can be built separately.

Ricci & Spaini The architects start from an analysis of the pedestrian fl ows relating to the station’s various routes and uses.

Stefano Boeri The six volumes designed are laid out under a large suspended and constantly changing rectangular roof.

Jean Nouvel The most characterizing choice has been to place the intermodal arcade 15 metres below rail level.