Welcome to the Suspended Santuary.

Site: Florence, Italy

Critics: Elisa Kim, Igor Marjanovic

Santa Maria Novella Train Station in Florence, designed by Giovanni Michelucci, is the site of this sanctuary. Inspired by the large immigrant population in nearby Pistoia, for whom the train serves as a sacred connection between them and their families, friends and communities in Florence, the project seeks to provide refuge to the travelers temporarily stranded at the busy station, waiting for a train or waiting for someone. The suspended trains provide both ground-level public space for meeting, and suspended private space for yoga practice and meditation.

The sanctuary consists of four train pods hovering above the grass area outside the ticket entrance of the train station. From the platforms, visitors walk onto a suspended walkway connected to the canopy outside the entrance, above the redesigned piazza, and into the train pods. The pods can be used as personal yoga and meditation space, or as small yoga instruction space. Other walkways bridge the station and piazza, so that pedestrians and traffic are separated into two axes and layers.