Mediopadana Station

For every emerging city, one of the most effective ways to connect itself to the rest of the world is through transportation hubs – and this railway station in Reggio Emilia, Italy is doing it in style.

Sitting four kilometers north of the city center, Reggio Emilia’s Mediopadana Station is hailed as a thriving urban hub for local and regional public transport – functioning as the sole stop for the Milano-Bologna high-speed railway line.

Along the A1 “Autostrada del Sole” that stretches parallel to the railway, the new station can also be enjoyed as a unique architectural landmark embodying the sense of movement apparent in Santiago Calatrava – the designer’s works.

Mediopadana Station’s design concept naturally evolved from a “sail” to a “wave,” seamlessly adapting to the constraints of its existing viaduct as well as the 500-meter high-speed railway track that forms the station. Further merging its old and new structures is the introduction of multiple platforms and canopies designed with a futuristic flair – celebrating speed in the most visually-enticing way.

Looking closer to its three-dimensional sinusoidal form unfolds a repetitive pattern of 25.4-meter long modules with a succession of 25 steel portals evenly spaced at one-meter distances. To cover the entire platforms, laminated glass is sandwiched between its white-painted steel elements – creating a sleek yet dynamic wave effect.

Upon arrival, passengers are immediately welcomed by the main entrance marked with a large, projecting canopy designed to be more “dynamic” compared to the “calmer” waves at the sides. Breathing life into the station’s frontage is a combination of a landscaped piazza, 300 parking slots, and a drop-off area.

Inside, the station evolved along a viaduct divided into two concourses – the upper level that houses train platforms and railway tracks, and a lower level centered on customer services such as information counters, ticketing offices, exchanging areas for regional trains and bus lines, retail units, taxi stands, and future expansion areas. Due to its sinuous form, ceiling heights vary from 7.5 to 14.5 meters above the platforms, while composite concrete-and-steel columns populate the station for added support -with increments every 25 meters for each of its steel rib.

Mediopadana Station in all its sinusoidal form superbly celebrates the robustness of speed while staying still – giving homage to a kind of foreign monumentality seamlessly integrated into the local cultural identity over northern Italy’s vast plains.