L'Europe à Grande Vitesse
by Arjen Mulder and Jacqueline Tellinga

High-speed trains are passing by cities and airports, are changing the landscape and are causing a new hierarchy in infrastructure and economic potentials in Europe. Within a few years the Netherlands will be connected to this high-speed network. In the middle of political discussions about the TGV and the expanding national airport Schiphol, this book approaches the modernisation of means of transport explicitly as a design issue. Should the TGV be hidden in the landscape or should it be used to stimulate our imagination? How can the passenger navigate airports where different complexe spatial programmes are mixed together? How can we use the experience of dynamic speeds to design big infrastructures? What are the consequences of the increasing mobility for urban developments and travel behaviour? Nineteen architects, urban developers, landscape architects and critics made a journey by different traffic junctions in North-West Europe. This compilation of their stories reflects the versatility and dynamics of the subject. It also gives an up to date overview on stations, airports and other infrastructural works in London, Lille, Paris, Lyon and other cities.