Overview
As any destination-hopping traveller knows, actually jumping between multiple locations isn't as fun as it sounds. Sure, visiting as many places as you can in a single trip is great, but the minutiae of moving between stopovers is far less exciting. Think complicated itineraries scheduled down to the last second, too many airport waits, and continually packing and unpacking your suitcase — you're exhausted just reading about it, aren't you?
Inspired by Elon Musk's proposed high-speed, compressed air-powered transport system, the Hyperloop Hotel aims to take the hassle out of multi-destination trips by turning hotel rooms into a form of travel. Designed by University of Nevada graduate architecture student Brandan Siebrecht, and winning the student category at this year's Radical Innovation Award, the concept uses Musk's Hyperloop to move modular suites between 13 US destinations.
Siebrecht's proposal relies upon shipping containers turned into hotel rooms, that can then easily undock from base sites in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, Portland, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Seattle and Washington, DC. Each suite would be fully customisable, featuring spaces for sleeping, bathing and living, while the permanent structures in each city would boast the usual on-site hotel amenities.
With the Hyperloop currently in the testing phase — and mooted to become operational as early as 2018 — Siebrecht believes it could be as little as five years until his idea becomes feasible. Unsurprisingly, however, it won't come cheap. He has floated a cost of US$8-10 million per hotel, and suggested US$1200 per person for travel and a one-night stay.
And as for just how long you'd spend in transit, the system Musk describes as a "cross between a Concorde and a railgun and an air hockey table" will reportedly cut travel time down considerably. In the US, it has been suggested that the trek from LA to San Francisco would take just 35 minutes. In Australia, apparently zipping from Sydney to Melbourne could happen in a mere 55 minutes.
Via Live Science / Inhabitat. Image: Radical Innovation Award.