S-Tiles - ARTE METRO, ROMA

Photo: [1]	[ARTE METRO ROMA]
	Name: Arte Metro Roma	Design: Paolo D’Orazio direttore artistico
	Destination of use: public transport infrastructure	Manufacturer: Sicis
	City: Roma	Ceramic Materials: mosaic in Murano pasta, series Murano Asmalto Mosaic
	Country: Italia
	Type of intervention: coverings
	Costumers: Comune di Roma
	Year of completion: 1999 - in corso
	The Project
	The subway A line Anagnina-Battistini was opened in February 1980, 25 years after the Anagnina-Ottaviano section of the old branch of the present B line (Laurentina-Termini – simply called ‘metropolitana’ at that time). It was extended with five new stations between 1999 and 2000. Discussions about the necessity to construct a second subway line, more or less following the path of the present A Line, started at the beginning of the fifties while the Termini-EUR section of Line B was being finished. The new stations of the A Line, of the same as the B Line, were built according to the most modern architectonic criteria, in line with European standards and without architectural barriers. The project “Arte Metro Roma” has continued this policy of restructuring and improvement begun a decade ago. It has seen subway stations being progressively transformed into a kind of permanent underground museum. Nineteen of the forty-seven stations have already been transformed with a covering created ad hoc by ninety-six artists coming from all over the world. The project, conceived and directed by the maestro Paolo D’Orazio, allows the broadest freedom of choice to the artists with respect to subject and execution. They are based on collaborations of often very different artists. In this way it has been possible to enhance the liveliness and variety of individual works, something that, as a survey among passengers has confirmed, has been particularly appreciated.