As it so often happens in Beijing， it all started with a random encounter “somewhere in a hutong.” Summer 2017， a young doctorate researcher told me about the Belt and Road Initiative and China’s plan to revive the ancient Silk Road.
　　What immediately fascinated me as an aspiring designer in the field of urbanism was the ambition to build “things”that could help connect people to other people and enable them to collaborate toward a common goal. That sounded extremely exciting， the most successful companies and organizations investing millions into designing buildings and campuses that would enable people to work together smarter and have more fun in the process. Imagine that happening for an entire continent， or two even？ Wouldn’t the world be a better place？
　　As a designer I also knew all too well how much an initial idea can end up working out differently in reality. What would it actually take to realize an ambition stretching beyond a single country or a continent？ How do you actually build infrastructure that can truly transform people’s lives for the better？
　　Now， when I heard “revival of the ancient Silk Road，” I could just hear the caravan bells ring， just like President Xi Jinping in his speech announcing the launch of the Silk Road Economic Belt in Kazakhstan in 2013. We all have an image of vibrant trade cities and bazaars along the Silk Road， but what does this new Silk Road look like？
　　When we really boil it down to the tangible things we all can see， the Belt and Road Initiative， which also includes the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road， is mainly an infrastructural mega-project， with the primary goal of constructing new highways， railways and ports meant to bring prosperity to the countries involved. New roads， factories and ports going through untouched regions very likely will cause new settlements and future cities to rise up from the ground.
　　Intrigued， I set out to understand the Belt and Road Initiative both in theory and in reality and traveled to its flagship project Horgos Gateway—a dry port and a cross-border trade center between China and Kazakhstan. Khorgos， positioned at the heart of Eurasian continent， represents everything the Belt and Road Initiative set out to be. A new economic node jointly built by two neighboring countries in a region previously untouched by globalization. It became evident that to pave the way for the new Silk Road， engineering， planning and even the goodwill of the world’s mightiest decision makers were not yet enough to create those happy new cities where people from all over the world would thrive. The Belt and Road Initiative has an enormous transformative potential （at the very least within China）， because of the alignment between policy goals， technological progress， abundant resources and the unparalleled development speed characteristic of China. However， this being a double-edged sword， it’s crucial to review history and implement better solutions in actual practice.
　　Graduating， I did dream to reach beyond a single university into the bigger world of practitioners out there. But taking a realistic view at the building industries， and facing skepticism within the international academic community because the scale of the initiative is too big for us， I could not imagine that I would actually ever find what I was hoping for.
　　Just when I was about to give up on my Silk Road adventure， I found Ballistic Architecture Machine， an interdisciplinary design studio on a mission to transform the urban landscapes of our cities. BAM！ A group of designers ready to just say yes to the challenge of the century and design for a new Silk Road！ BR