This spring, students and faculty from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis worked with Virgin Hyperloop One to investigate the impacts and potentials of the proposed Missouri route from St. Louis to Kansas City…

Over the course of the semester, students created symbiotic, mega-regional infrastructure proposals for hyperloop in Missouri. The projects spanned all facets of urban design, including utilizing hyperloop to bridge urban/rural divides, equalize the cost of living across mega-regions, and create specialized economic and industrial clusters.

For example, one series of projects explored the emergency response potential of hyperloop by creating medical pods that could rapidly deploy doctors and first aid supplies or operate as mobile hospitals. Simultaneously, portals (or stations) could serve as evacuation hubs for people fleeing disaster, stocked with naturally-harvested and cleaned water, food supplies and batteries charged with renewable energy.
More>>