Japan has always prided itself on it’s ability to be on the cutting edge of science and technology. If there is a culture that values such advancements, it’s the Japanese. Now, they will attempt to create a technology so revolutionary and so cutting edge that no one will even be able to see it.
Japan’s Seibu Railway Company has taken on world acclaimed architect Kazuyo Sejima to design and build the world’s first “invisible” train. Following on the huge success of their famed bullet trains, the Japanese look to introduce the first invisible train for passenger service by 2018.
Sejima’s creation will be constructed of highly reflective materials that will, quite literally, make the bullet train invisible to onlookers as it speeds through Japan’s countryside at well over 350 miles per hour. The key, says the architect, will be to take a page from Frank Lloyd Wright and ensure that the train just blends with its surroundings. The 2018 launch of the new train will coincide with Seibu’s celebration of the company’s 100th year in existence.
Architect Kazuyo Sejima
Sejima is the winner of the prestigious Pritzker Prize for architecture for many of her buildings that tend to blend and have soft edges to them. She looks for the same softness with the invisible train.
She says that she would like the train to be a place “where large numbers of people can all relax in comfort, in their own way, like a living room, so that they think to themselves, ‘I look forward to riding that train again.'”
It is not the first time Sejima has used such reflective material on a creation. She used it for her design of the famous Le Louvre Lens Museum in Paris. While the designs and the technology have not been widely circulated, it is believed that Sejima’s concept can be applied to any currently existing train. It will be possible to round and soften current trains with the mirrored material and make them more attractive and invisible.
“The limited express travels in a variety of different sceneries,” said Sejima, “from the mountains of Chichibu to the middle of Tokyo and I thought it would be good if the train could gently co-exist with this variety of scenery.”
PHOTO CREDITS: Seibu Railway Company