Life at the Speed of Rail

http://www.vanalen.org/lasr

How will high-speed rail change American life in the coming decades?

At this critical moment for American infrastructure, Van Alen Institute calls on the international design community to envision the cultural, environmental and economic impact of a new rail network.

Life at the Speed of Rail seeks the visions of the architectural design community, planners, graphic designers, artists—anyone who wants to contribute to the discussion surrounding high-speed rail.

At a time when politicians are debating billion-dollar transportation projects, Van Alen Institute is taking the conversation to the public. American culture is driven by colorful narratives and imagery, yet the story of high-speed rail has been told in black and white, with facts and figures (or drab maps and speeding bullet trains). It’s clear a broader vision is needed to add complexity and depth to this national discussion, and Life at the Speed of Rail is designed to offer just that.

Above all, high-speed rail poses an urgent design challenge—one calling for creative solutions at every scale, from the café car to the megaregion. In this Call for Design Ideas, entrants are asked to produce projects and narratives picturing the wide-ranging impacts that a new transportation network will have on the nation’s communities, whether urban or rural, rail-riding or car-centric, heartland or borderland. By collecting these ideas and images of a transformed America—be they specific, pragmatic, or speculative—we’ll better understand the hopes and fears of our current moment and be better equipped to decide whether and how we build this new infrastructure.

WHAT MIGHT THESE VISIONARY IDEAS LOOK LIKE?
Life at the Speed of Rail calls for participants to produce projects and scenarios that engage high-speed rail at all scales — architectural, metropolitan, regional, national. Participants may decide to tackle one or more of these scales and produce projects that reimagine the high-speed train itself, the section of the railway line, the design of crossings and intersections, the form and program of railway terminals, the graphic identity of the high-speed rail network, and so on.
We invite architects to imagine new rail modes, new infrastructures, new cities and social spaces. We want landscape architects to picture rail paradigms that embrace topography, ecology or sustainability. Urban planners, convince us that high-speed rail will rejuvenate your downtown or launch a new sub-suburban geography. Graphic, product or interactive media designers, put your talents to work reimagining the brand of high-speed rail or create apps to facilitate better train travel. If you’re a filmmaker, show us a “documentary” from the future about how the US met or failed to respond to the infrastructural challenges we’re facing. Writers and poets, craft a critique (or hymn) for high-speed rail, or fire off a transportation manifesto. Or best of all, get together in teams that reach across all disciplinary boundaries!

IMAGE LIBRARY
In the past the American government supported programs, such as the Depression-era Works Progress Administration, to create a visual record of changing American life. The result was a catalogue of iconic images of the Depression’s impact and America’s expanding infrastructure. Life at the Speed of Rail’s simple format and local emphasis empowers all Americans to show what a new transportation system would mean for their community’s future.
A selection of entries will form the foundation of an image library — a resource for print and online media seeking better ways of illustrating and analyzing infrastructure needs. Through its engagement with a diverse set of contributors contemplating all scales of high-speed rail’s impact, the competition leverages the design community’s creativity to inform the infrastructure debate.

AWARDS & PUBLIC DISCUSSIONS
Van Alen Institute and the fellows will select 10 of the most inspiring and thought-provoking entries and award them $1,000 each; a broad selection of entries will receive honorable mention and inclusion in an online exhibition and print publication. During the summer, the advisory committee will curate the submissions and discuss them with winning entrants in a series of public discussions hosted at partner organizations located in contested high-speed rail megaregions around the country.