Subways have revolutionized our lives, especially in our daily commutes. But subway stations are not just transit points for public transportation: they are often works of art, places to explore with strong cultural value, fascinating and unique in their own way.
1 – Toledo Station, Naples
In the heart of Naples, Toledo metro station is one of the art masterpieces of Line 1. Designed by Óscar Tusquets Blanca, it descends up to 50 metres underground and transforms the journey into an experience of light and colour, from the black of the rock to the blue of the sea, becoming a symbol of the meeting between engineering and beauty.
Around this emblematic example, Webuild has created other subway stations on the line as part of the Art Stations programme: Università, Dante, Museo, and Materdei, places where architecture and creativity reshape the daily experience of passengers.
2 – Drassanes, Barcelona
Drassanes Station in Barcelona is an environment suspended between reality and science fiction.
Continuous surfaces, sharp lines, and luminous geometries create a space that seems straight out of a Kubrick film: a futuristic corridor made of fluid shapes, amplified perspectives, and vanishing points that guide the eye, completely reinventing the subway travel experience.
3 – Candidplatz U-Bahnhof, Munich
Candidplatz Station in Munich’s subway, inaugurated in 1997 and dedicated to the Renaissance painter Peter de Witte, known as “Candid,” is a chromatic triumph that transforms public transportation into an almost perceptual experience.
Ceilings, walls, and columns are covered with a continuous sequence of colors that blend into one another, creating an immersive, vaguely psychedelic rainbow effect, true to the artistic vocation evoked by its name.
4 – Iidabashi Station, Tokyo
Iidabashi Station in Tokyo is a brilliant exercise in contemporary architecture, an interweaving of glass and anodized metal that captures and multiplies light.
Dominated by shades of acid green and silver, the Iidabashi Station was completed in 2000 by architect Makoto Watanabe, who envisioned it as a vibrant, fluorescent space, always in motion, capable of transforming commuters’ passage into a dynamic visual experience.
5 – Tunnelbana, T-Centralen, Stockholm Metro
Stockholm metro, the Tunnelbana, is often described as “the longest art gallery in the world”: sculptures, mosaics, paintings, and installations transform each subway station into a visual story of the city.
Among the most iconic Stockholm metro stations is T-Centralen, a cave painted in blue and white, where floral motifs and stylized figures seem carved directly into the rock. A suspended, almost fairy-tale-like environment that takes your breath away and perfectly embodies the artistic spirit of the entire network.
