Hyper-striated Space (2021)
Columbia GSAPP Advanced Studio
Instructor: Michael Bell
From Roadways to Earthways
Autonomous trucks equipped with computer vision navigate landscapes quantified by satellite cartography. Once definitive navigational devices, roadways become increasingly indistinct, merging with the Earth itself. Vehicles move on modified tires, transforming hardened asphalt lines into terrains where pre-developed landscapes re-emerge. Augmented reality expands perception, projecting a borderless landscape beyond the vehicle’s frame.
Site: Nevada, I-80, Tahoe Reno Industrial Center
The project is located along Interstate 80 (I-80) within Nevada’s Tahoe Reno Industrial Center (TRI), the world’s largest industrial park and home to Tesla’s Gigafactory as well as other major tech companies. This corridor is emerging as a key hub for autonomous trucking, where the off-road landscapes of the Nevada desert intersect with the industrial zone to generate new terrains of mobility.
Expanded Scales of Vision
From primordial sight to telescopes, satellites, augmented vision, and AI sensing, human perception has continuously expanded. Autonomous navigation no longer depends on signs or fixed routes, liberating mobility from linear trajectories and enabling multiple, fluid interpretations of movement. This shift transforms driving into an exploration of richness, choice, and journey rather than mere efficiency.
Infrastructure as Field
A selected section of I-80 is unfolded into a testing ground where two conventional two-lane highways diverge and expand into a field-based infrastructure. Embedded power lines transform the surface into a supercharging network, and vehicles, guided by computer vision, are liberated from rigid lanes to move freely across the open field. If linear routes serve cargo movement, off-road terrain becomes a space for human experience and exploration. Infrastructure thus shifts to an expansive, nomadic spatial condition.
Truck Stop as Lifted Topography
At the center of this infrastructural field lies the truck stop—not a final destination, but a node to pause in order to move again. Conceived as a lifted terrain that echoes the surrounding mountains, it mediates between movement and retreat. Beneath its elevated ground, autonomous vehicles access repair, charging, and a robot drive-thru for goods. Above, the raised surface unfolds as a human-centered layer, offering spaces for rest, meditation, and wellness through facilities such as showers, capsule hotels, and lounges. At its highest level, the rooftop extends the desert landscape into walkable surfaces and observatories, offering panoramic views. In this way, the truck stop emerges as both an infrastructural hub and an architectural device that blurs the boundaries between road, infrastructure, and terrain, enabling a nomadic way of life.
1F plan (truck zone / human zone)
2F plan (resting area / private & public zone)
RF plan (walkable area / slope / skylight)
Dynamic Fields of Vision
AI vision and augmented reality overlay personalized information onto natural terrains and architectural surfaces, transforming them into environments that reveal new pathways rather than imposing fixed routes. Spaces evolve into dynamic fields with fluid boundaries, responding to the movements of both people and vehicles. This shift reduces reliance on static infrastructure and encourages adaptability to environmental conditions, reimagining infrastructure not as a fixed system but as a living landscape of interaction and possibility.