MoDus Architects Builds Curving Concrete Tunnel Entrances In South Tyrol
Italian architecture company MoDus as part of its work on the Central Juncture Ring Road Bressasone-Varna in Northern Italy, has given an undulating concrete portals and sculptural chimneys of weathering steel design to a road which tunnels through mountains in South Tyrol.


The design project for the three mile long ring road that connects Varna to Bressanone and bypasses the latter’s historic city centre was entrusted to MoDus Architects, with the goal of designing a series of interventions – including signage, acoustic barriers, tunnel portals and ventilation chimneys.
Three of the portals are curved and one is more angular. Striations from the board-marked concrete have been left visible, acting as visual markers that outline the shape of the tunnel mouths.
According to MoDus Architects, the portals were imagined as "expressive figures whose raised heads emerge from the buried, unseen networks" of the roads hidden in the hillsides. The project was approached with the dual aim of minimising the visual impact of the infrastructure on the natural landscape and creating a unifying identity for Varna and Bressanone.
The studio kept in mind the need to design the project in a way to attract residents who live near the tunnel as well as making an impression on motorists passing through.
Construction began in 2017 and finished at the end of June 2020. The next and final stage of the project is to extend the ring road five miles to Varna, and is due to complete in 2025.
- date publishedAugust 3, 2020
- categoryArchitecture
- original sourceDezeen↗