HOW DO WE WANT TO LIVE?
Suburbs are typically thought of as dystopian, insulated places. Currently, on display at the Time Space Existence exhibition during the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, the Hyperloop Suburb, a speculative immersive installation, explores whether hyperloop technology can breathe new life into these liminal spaces. The implication for suburbs, situated between the urban and pastoral, suggests an impending regional re-think, asking the primal question “How do we want to live?”
BRINGING AIRPLANE SPEED TO GROUND LEVEL TRAVEL
Bringing airplane speed to ground level travel, a hyperloop is a high-speed transport system capable of closing the distance between the city and its rural periphery. Thanks to worldwide testing of this impending, sustainable, electromagnetic propulsion high-speed transportation system, cities will easily be able to connect to the surrounding suburbs and countryside.
URBAN PASTORAL MERGE
The exhibit examines speculative regional, neighborhood and housing implications of this potential urban-pastoral merge. Compact, low-tech sustainable homes, graphically displayed in black and white in the installation, are situated in a cluster around a purposely under-programed communal commons that houses social, cultural and family events. The video loop on the floor speaks to the potential for community engagement within this common space. Barriers between clusters will disappear with the advent of view corridors to the city and countryside beyond. Vivid colored angled planes behind the houses depict this neighborhood network that links offices, hydroponic food incubators, drone ports, and community cultural space.
WAKE-UP CALL
Communities that share a common thread of productivity and connectivity can create sustainable, culturally diverse, impactful, houses, communal clusters, neighborhoods, and regions. No longer viewed as just an exit strategy for monolithic anti-urban millennials, aging baby boomers, informal settlers or others fleeing the effects of gentrification, the porous prototype of the Hyperloop Suburb offers a diverse, democratic alternative to the problem of urban displacements. That said, it is imperative that architectural and urban thinking run parallel with the advancement of transportation technology. Toward that end, we offer a speculative three-dimensional experiential installation addressing these pivotal issues. The exhibit serves as a wake-up call to all involved to simultaneously consider the potential of the broader communal implications of current technological transportation exploration.
