Imagination Run Wild: The Hyperloop Hotel

Each year the Radical Innovation Award recognizes a new design that could disrupt architecture of the hospitality industry. John Hardy, the CEO of the John Hardy Group, the development consultancy behind the annual competition, explains that the competition “began as an experiment because [he] wasn’t seeing a lot of creativity in the hotel business.” This year’s student winner concocted a hotel design that is truly radical in every sense of the word.

(Source: Radical Innovation Award)

Brandan Siebrecht, a graduate architecture student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas proposed the sustainable, modular “Hyperloop Hotel.” Based on the high-speed transit system being developed by Elon Musk, the hotel room itself would be a luxury hyperloop pod.

The hyperloop tracks would connect 13 hotels around the country — located in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Denver, Sante Fe, Austin, Chicago, Nashville, Washington, D.C., New York City, and Boston — therefore eliminating the need for separate transit tickets for your next cross-country excursion. Keep in mind, that flat fee (which does not include the cost of the overnight stay) would be $1,200.

You may have already guessed that current technology does not yet allow for this design, although Siebrecht believes construction could be possible in the next five to 10 years. This is enough feasibility for the Radical Innovation Award judges, who prize creativity and out-of-the-box thinking above all else for the student award.

The Hyperloop Interior. (Source: Radical Innovation Award/Architectural Digest)

In the event that the Hyperloop Hotel is built, Siebrecht proposes each room be constructed of a repurposed shipping container remodeled to feel luxurious (and travel at 750 miles per hour). Each hotel room would contain an office space, a living room with a flat screen TV, a bedroom and a bathroom. All of that is expected to cost roughly $10 million per unit.

Siebrecht’s design allows for each of the repurposed shipping containers to be customized in terms of layout and design. Hotel guests would also be able to customize and manage their experience through an app.

The three professional finalists: Vertical Micro-Climate (left), Living the Till (center) and the Play Design Hotel (right). (Source: Radical Innovation Award)

Aside from the student winner, three professional finalists were chosen to compete for a grand prize intended to help make the radical idea a reality. The first of those finalists is Arno Matis Architecture’s “Vertical Micro-Climate,” a mountain-top resort that provides a “bright year-round indoor/outdoor tropically-inspired environment.” The EoA Group’s submission “Living the Till” conceptualizes a seasonal treetop hotel that floats 30 feet above the forest floor. The third finalist is the Play Design Hotel, an inhabitable design gallery intended to connect local designers to international travelers; this design alone has already been constructed and is up-and-running in Taipei, Taiwan. Honorable mention was given to the Garden House, conceptualized and built by physicist Caspar Schols.