U.S. architect gets Italian job

Peter Eisenman to design two train stations near Naples

(ANSA) - Naples, June 26 - Famed American architect Peter Eisenman is to add two metro stations on the slopes of Vesuvius to the string of high-profile constructions he has designed around the world .

Eisenman, who designed the Holocaust Memorial unveiled in Berlin last year, will plan the refurbishment of the station at the Pompeii archeological site and the building from scratch of another nearby .

The basic outlines of the work were presented in Naples on Monday by top officials from the regional government. The second of the two stations, which are part of the 'Vesuviana' railway linking Naples to surrounding towns and villages, will serve a much visited religious shrine .

The objective is to link the two stations - Villa dei Misteri and Pompeii-Santuario - through an ambitious plan which will involve shifting part of the railway line underground .

"In all my projects I try to unite the present and the future. I will try to do the same in Pompeii, which has important religious and historical dimensions," Eisenman said .

As well as his recent work in Berlin, Eisenman has also put his name to prestigious projects such as the Manhattan Waterfront and the Koizumi Sangyo Building in Tokyo .

The 74-year-old architect is seen as one of the foremost practitioners of a movement in architecture known as deconstructivism .

Eisenman's work, in which fragmented forms are common, often attempts to 'liberate' architectural form from all meaning, according to experts. Detailed plans for the Neapolitan project are to be presented in the autumn at Venice's Biennale architecture exhibition .

Locals will also be able to get a look at what is being planned thanks to a new museum scheduled to open soon in Naples. The museum will show visitors scale models of all the city's modern architecture .

"It will be a museum of modern architecture, a museum to which people can go to see projects that have already been completed and those that are still under way," said regional government chief Antonio Bassolino .

"Lots of architects are at work in Naples and they're all top names," he added .

Photo: Berlin's Holocaust Memorial

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