Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has released a teaser video showing off its design of a Hyperloop project that promises to link Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The ultra high-speed capsule transport aims to turn the 93-mile trip between the two busy cities into a minutes-long commute, offering an efficient means of moving both people and cargo. Jakob Lange, a partner and head of BIG Ideas (the design firm’s tech division), leads the video sneak peek ahead of the Hyperloop design’s November 7 unveiling.
BIG’s design is the result of a partnership with Hyperloop One (formerly Hyperloop Technologies), which is one of the two companies racing to build the first working Hyperloop track in the United States. Hyperloop One recently tapped BIG to aid in the design of its Hyperloop plans for the United Arab Emirates, with architecture and engineering firms AECOM and Arup on board to translate the technology into actual infrastructure.
Related: Hyperloop One raises $50M and hires former Uber CFO as an advisor
“We are in a new time now where you can develop a new transportation system in very few years and change the world,” said Lange in the video. “We’re not waiting for new technology like carbon nanofibers or anything in order to do this. We have everything we need to do it.”
BIG’s design involves Y-shaped supports that elevate the Hyperloop itself, a track that carries high-speed passenger pods from one stop to the next at speeds over 700 miles per hour. The technology behind Hyperloop One’s UAE project may not be that different from tests of its propulsion system in the Nevada desert, where the proof-of-concept prototype reached 116mph in a staggering 1.1 seconds this past May. Still, there is a lot we don’t know about how the UAE track will be built, when construction might begin or end, and how much the project will cost. BIG’s teaser video offers an early peek at the design, with more coming on November 7, but even that could change in response to the demands of the still-emerging technology.
Via Dezeen
Images via BIG
