News/Research

Nicholas de Monchaux Quoted in The Guardian on the Hyperloop

17 Oct, 2017

Nicholas de Monchaux Quoted in The Guardian on the Hyperloop

Elon Musk, billionaire entrepreneur and CEO of Space X, is chasing his mission to build a new highway under the streets of Los Angeles where cars would be allowed to go 125 MPH in attempts to avoid all the famous LA traffic.

Nicholas de Monchaux was quoted in the article on whether he found the project aspirational or absurd.

“Visionary proposals are an essential way to come together in discussion about the city,” says Nicholas de Monchaux, an associate professor of architecture and urban design at the University of California, Berkeley. Big ideas for the future city are nothing new, and although these schemes can sometimes seem preposterous in their ambitions, de Monchaux says they have a power to inspire.

"Utopia literally described an island of cities that didn’t exist and couldn’t exist,” says de Monchaux. “But utopias help us think about the world as it actually is and ways we might want to change it – or not.”

The project is still in its early stages, although digging under Musk's property has begun.