Hyper-Speed Vertical Train Hub Concept

Two British designers, Christopher Christophi and Lucas Mazarrasa, received honorable mention in eVolo’s 2014 Skyscraper Competition for their Hyper-Speed Vertical Train Hub concept. This year’s competition marks the ninth year that eVolo Magazine has hosted a competition to recognize outstanding ideas for vertical living through the novel use of technology, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations. The Magazine picked three winners from the 525 projects from 43 countries that were submitted. The Hyper-Speed Vertical Train Hub was one of 20 projects that received honorable mention.

The Hyper-Speed Vertical Train Hub concept calls for putting a high-speed rail station on the side of a skyscraper. This will both save space on land, which can be used to build a park around the train station, and increase transportation capacity. The trains would use magnetic tracks that continue up the side of the tower station. Each passenger would take an elevator directly to his or her floor to board their own passenger compartment that can swivel so that the passenger remains upright at all times. The train cars would be able to hold 10 people in two rows facing each other. Once the train is ready to leave the station, it would travel down the side of the tower station and enter underground tunnels that would connect it to its destination. Click here to see a slideshow of some renderings of the concept.

Yong Ju Lee was awarded first place in the competition for his project Vernacular Versatility. Lee’s design reinterprets traditional Korean architecture in a contemporary mixed-use high-rise. Vernacular Versatility transforms a traditional one to two-story Korean House, called a Hanok, into a complex high-rise structure. A Gagu is a wooden connection that acts as the main structural element in a Hanok. According to Lee, “The Gagu is located below the main roof system where the column meets the beam and girder and it is fastened without the need of any additional parts such as nails – this connection is one of the main aesthetic characteristics of traditional Korean architecture.” Due to the advances in computer modeling software, Lee believes this traditional design can be brought to the present day with “efficiency and beauty.”  Details about the winning design can be found here.