MAD Architects Designs Pylon Infrastructure for HyperloopTT

Written by Eric Baldwin
Published on September 11, 2019

MAD Architects have designed a new pylon infrastructure with Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HyperloopTT). Created as an elevated rapid transport system, the project is made to demonstrate how the artificial can merge with nature through a new urban infrastructure. MAD’s proposal aims to rethink the future of travel and reshape the way we plan and use public space.

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Designed to enhance connectivity between cities and people, the transportation system will also establish a renewed connection between people and the city through car-free raised green walkways along the roof of the tunnels. The scheme aims to activate spaces below in the form of parks and recreation areas. Since 2013, HyperloopTT has been focusing on developing solutions for major urban problems: overcrowding, traffic congestion, and pollution. By designing a low-pressure, high-speed sustainable tube-based transportation, the company aspires to connect people and cities that are distances apart at hyper-speed.

MAD was commissioned by HyperloopTT to conceive a versatile pylon design that while acting as structural support for its transportation system. The pylon needed to be easily integrated across diverse environments – from a city center to rural farmland to the remote desert. MAD’s scheme harnesses solar and wind energies to power the HyperloopTT system. The transportation tunnels are outfitted with bendable solar panel skin modules that are used to power the Hyperloop itself, along with LEDs installed along its surface that function as interactive information boards. Bladeless wind turbine forests positioned at certain sections of the HyperloopTT system will harness the vorticity of the wind, creating a main source of power for the transportation network, lowering overall energy costs.

As MAD explains, the pylon design minimizes the system’s physical footprint by lifting its functions almost 7 meters aboveground. The move was made to eliminate the possibility of collision with road traffic, which in turn decreases the cost of land acquisition. It is composed of a single-mold fiber glass structure. At the same time, sustainability is further emphasized through urban farming opportunities. The base of each pylon is conceived to host crop-growing facilities that encourage urban farming. The energy sourced from the solar-powered LEDs allows the plants to be self-sustainable, forming an organic infrastructure.

HyperloopTT has revealed a full-scale 320m passenger system in Toulouse, France, that is currently in the process of integrating its full-scale passenger capsule for human trials in 2020.

HyperloopTT Design Team:
Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano, Dixon Lu, Matthew Pugh, Wang Tao, Chris Nolop, Nathan Kiatkulpiboone

News via MAD Architects