Over the past 48 hours a virtual design contest to produce three Hyperloop terminals in Dubai has connected BIM managers and designers from across the globe. Six finalists will find out their fate later this week and will present their designs on 4 October.
The eighth instalment of the Build Earth Live international BIM event has challenged participants to imagine and design the world’s first Hyperloop system to connect Dubai and Fujairah City for seamless passenger and freight transport.
Participants had to design three Hyperloop terminals – at Al Maktoum International Airport, Dubai International Airport, and Fujairah International Airport – as well as the Hyperloop track infrastructure and route between the three terminals.
At the core of the contest, which aims to improve working practices in a BIM project environment, will be the design of station termini within the context of the two cities in the United Arab Emirates.
Collaborating against the clock, the competition has attracted 65 teams from 26 countries, including entries from Aecom, Gensler and Arcadis.
The event has received official backing from the Dubai government, with the Dubai Future Foundation and Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority supporting the virtual contest.
Representatives from the finalist teams will be hosted by the government in Dubai for judging and the awards ceremony.
Alongside the Dubai government the event is also supported by Hyperloop One, a company that is developing the world’s first Hyperloop, and software developer Vectorworks.
The UAE competition will be the eighth Build Live contest and follows the Build New York Live
competition that took place in September last year. That contest was won by a UK team led by Ryder Architecture
that included the BIM Academy, Willmott Dixon Construction, i2C, Ravetllat Ribas, Cundall, SLR Global Consulting and Summers Inman.
