© Simone Bossi
© Simone Bossi
© Simone Bossi
© Simone Bossi
© Simone Bossi
© SET Architects
© SET Architects
© SET Architects
Since 2008 Bologna has been connected with Milan by a high-speed railway line; the connection to Florence was completed one year later. Today those travelling to Europe’s oldest university city by long-distance train generally arrive at one of the four new underground platforms. The roof of the underground train station is an uninspiring, empty asphalted place in the city, with no access for the public.

The only exception is a services and entrance building, erected by the state railway company’s engineers at a street junction, diagonally opposite Bologna’s old main train station. In 2014, on the roof of this building, they made a square paved in light-coloured granite on the roof of this building, which initially had no concrete function.

In 2015 the Jewish community of Bologna launched a competition for a Shoah Memorial on this site. As winners the jury under Peter Eisenman chose SET Architects, a trio of young architects from Rome. Their design not only relates intelligently to its location but also makes the horror of the Holocaust physically perceptible.