Call for Entries: Design a Test Center for a Futuristic Transport System

Published on June 15, 2020

YAC - Young Architects Competitions - launches HYPERLOOP DESERT CAMPUS, a competition of ideas aiming to design a new test center for the Hyperloop technology. A cash prize of € 15,000 will be awarded to the winners selected by an outstanding jury panel made of, among the others the Pritzker Prize 2010 Kazuyo Sejima, Winy Maas (MVRDV), Ben van Berkel (UNStudio), Nicola Scaranaro (Foster+ Partners), Carlo Ratti.

A Test Center for a Futuristic Transport System

Immense and dusty expanses surrounded by reddish rocks and swept by fierce winds: in a world that seems to have domesticated all mysticism, the deserts represents the last place where fragments of mystery are preserved.

As a matter of fact, there is an insane fascination in what is hidden, a hint of sweetness in what is fatal for us; but if the desert represents the inaccessible and fatal place par excellence, it is to the desert that we must look to see the dawn of a new chapter in the history of mankind.

In the heart of the Nevada desert, a few kilometers away from Las Vegas, the first test center of Hyperloop -the futuristic means of transport that will connect cities and nations at a much-higher speed than planes- has been created.

This technology has needed the desert’s spaces and isolation to grow and consolidate but has advanced to the point that it requires a more-advanced testing and study center, where the brightest minds on the planet can collaborate to define practices and methodologies that can transform today's visions into tomorrow's reality.

For this reason, Hyperloop needs to expand its test center: this is why YAC is pleased to present Hyperloop Desert Campus.

Lost in the American desert, among the salt basins and millenial desolations where the steam of the ancient locomotives was first hosted, architects will be asked to shape the most recent dreams of innovation and speed through an iconic building located in one of the most majestic and suggestive contexts on the planet.

This will be the place where the history of mankind will be written; the new Hyperloop campus will not be a mere building, but rather a real sanctuary of science, a place where the impossible becomes possible, where it will be possible to celebrate the ancient and always-renewed race towards the most heartfelt and irredeemable ambition of our species: progress.

Jury

Kazuyo Sejima (SANAA)
Winy Maas (MVRDV)
Ben van Berkel (UNStudio)
Nicola Scaranaro (Foster+ Partners)
Carlo Ratti
Chad Oppenheim (Chad Oppenheim Architecture + Design)
Linna Choi (Oualalou Choi)
Hasan Çalışlar (Erginoğlu & Çalışlar )
Paolo Cresci (Arup)
Italo Rota
Fedele Canosa (Mecanoo)
Fedele Canosa (Mecanoo)

Prizes

1st Prize: 8.000 €
2nd Prize: 4.000 €
3rd Prize: 2.000 €
2 Gold Mentions: 500€ each
10 Honorable Mentions
30 Finalists

Calendar

15/06/2020 “early bird” registration – start
12/07/2020 (h 11.59 pm GMT) “early bird” registration – end

13/07/2020 “standard” registration – start
09/08/2020 (h 11.59 pm GMT) “standard” registration – end

10/08/2020 “late” registration – start
20/09/2020 (h 11.59 pm GMT) “late” registration – end
23/09/2020 (h 12.00 pm – Midday - GMT) material submission deadline

More information at www.youngarchitectscompetitions.com
Contacts: yac@yac-ltd.com