Anish Kapoor's long-awaited underground station set to open in Naples

Curved panels of weathering steel swaddle this entrance to Monte Sant'Angelo Subway Station in Naples, completed by sculptor Anish Kapoor with London studio AL_A.

Set to open on 11 September, the textured pebble-like entrance is one of two created by Kapoor and Amanda Levete's studio AL_A linking to the underground in Naples' Traiano district.

The other Kapoor-designed entrance is marked by a smooth, tubular aluminium form sunken into the ground.

Thursday's official opening marks the end of the long-awaited project, which Kapoor was invited to design in 2003 as part of the regeneration of Traiano.

The sculptural weathered-steel entrance, which was installed in 2022, was designed to appear as though it grows out from the earth, punctuated by an inverted funnel that guides visitors underground.

Meanwhile, the sunken aluminium station entrance, installed in 2017, evokes a void in the ground and corresponds to its low-rise surroundings.

Both entrances link to a network of previously abandoned tunnels and, according to Kapoor, their designs draw on the geology of their surroundings in Naples.

"In the city of Mount Vesuvius and Dante's mythical entrance to the Inferno, I found it important to try and deal with what it really means to go underground," said the artist.

In an interview with the Guardian in 2003, Kapoor told Dezeen founder Marcus Fairs that the project was designed as "a sculpture that you enter".

"These are not buildings," Kapoor said at the time. "They are toying with form at architectural scale but they are not buildings. I loathe making anything practical whatsoever. The funny thing about art is that it's useless. It doesn't do anything. That's very important."

Work on the construction site began in 2009. Kapoor was originally working with Future Systems – the studio of architect Jan Kaplický and Levete – to deliver the project. It was later taken over by Levete's eponymous studio AL_A.

Inside the tunnels themselves, the rough concrete walls have been left deliberately unfinished.

Elsewhere, Kapoor also recently completed his long-awaited sculpture that appears to be squashed by a New York skyscraper.

Other station designs recently featured on Dezeen include an "inverted skyscraper" by Dominique Perrault in Paris and Zaha Hadid Architects' perforated terminal in Saudi Arabia.

The photography is by Amedeo Benestante. 

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