Napoli Porta Est Masterplan

MIC-HUB is part of the winning team, led by Zaha Hadid Architects, of the international competition for the new Napoli Porta Est masterplan, which includes the new headquarters of the Campania Region.

The masterplan reconnects the city’s fragmented urban fabric, redefining the panorama through an innovative and sustainable project. The city will use unused railway yard areas to construct a large urban park, at the centre of which will stand the new headquarters of the Campania Region. Called ‘The Lighthouse’, it will become a new landmark for the city of Naples.

The disharmonious collocation of the abandoned railway areas, the station service facilities, car parks, and bus terminals and depots, has always excluded this portion of the urban fabric from a coherent development of the city.

The isolated district is considered unsafe, having inadequate public spaces, as well as physical and psychological barriers, which hinder mobility and social interaction.

The masterplan promotes a profound, sustainable and resilient urban transformation of the city’s derelict zone, creating infrastructures that can be adapted to future uses, and the new urban park. It will also provide for one of the largest Italian/European transport hubs, integrating national and regional railway networks with metro, urban and suburban bus lines, the new BRT, a bicycle station and interchange car parks.

Reordering and resolving the hierarchy of traffic flows in one of the city’s primary interchanges that serves as a gateway to the Italian transport network, the project unlocks the potential to reconnect the eastern part of the city to the historic centre of Naples.

The masterplan enables the regeneration of over 30 hectares of abandoned industrial buildings and areas for use by the city’s residents and tourists.

At the urban level, the creation of a new green connecting boulevard will give large public spaces back to the city, creating urban links that will guide pedestrian flows from Porta Nolana and Piazza Garibaldi to Central Station and the new park, as well as to the Business Centre and its new metro station, thanks to a new cycle and pedestrian path.

MIC-HUB’s experience in sustainable mobility and public space design helped the team to:

– define strategies for urban connectivity through the creation of new routes and areas for soft mobility;

– create a more efficient road network;

– analyse the project’s impact on traffic and mobility;

– integrate public transport in the intermodal node.

The idea behind the project is to promote a more inclusive and sustainable mobility. This ambitious project is not only an urban transformation plan, but also a model for a more sustainable and inclusive mobility in Naples.

The project team is led by Zaha Hadid Architects and consists of:

Local Architect: Barracco Smith

Structural and Civil Engineering: Interprogetti SRL

M&E Engineering: Macchiaroli & Partners

Landscape Design: Martha Schwartz Partners

Artist and Lighting Design: Jason Bruges Studio

Cost Consultant: BC Consulting

Traffic and Urban Mobility: MIC-HUB

Safety in construction: Gianni Artuso

Archaeologist: Viviana Mancusi

Economist: Prof. Massimo Marrelli

The Napoli Porta Est Masterplan international design competition was organised by the Campania Region together with Naples City Council, FS Sistemi Urbani (the Italian Railways regeneration group RFI) and the railway operator EAV.