saudi arabia has unveiled plans for THE LINE, a 170 kilometer (106 mile) belt of communities connected without the need for cars or roads. described as ‘a revolution in urban living’, the project has been put forward as a blueprint for how people can co-exist in harmony with the planet. THE LINE will be completely free of cars and streets, with residents given access to nature and all of their daily needs within a walking distance of five minutes. furthermore, the team behind the project says that the linear development of hyper-connected AI-enabled communities will be powered by 100% clean energy.
all images and video courtesy of NEOM
located in NEOM, linking the coast of the red sea with the mountains and upper valleys of the north-west of saudi arabia, THE LINE was announced by his royal highness mohammed bin salman, crown prince and chairman of the NEOM company board of directors. ‘by 2050, one billion people will have to relocate due to rising CO2 emissions and sea levels,’ says his royal highness. ‘90% of people breathe polluted air. why should we sacrifice nature for the sake of development? why should seven million people die every year because of pollution? why should we lose one million people every year due to traffic accidents? and why should we accept wasting years of our lives commuting? therefore, we need to transform the concept of a conventional city into that of a futuristic one.’
image by gary cummins
although walkability will define life on THE LINE, with all essential daily services within a short walk, ultra-high-speed transit and autonomous mobility solutions will make travel easier and give residents the opportunity to reclaim time to spend on health and well-being. it is expected that no journey will take longer than 20 minutes. the communities themselves will be powered by artificial intelligence and will continuously learn in order to ‘make life easier’ for both residents and businesses. it is estimated that 90% of available data will be harnessed to enhance infrastructure capabilities. from an environmental perspective, THE LINE will comprise carbon-positive urban developments powered by 100% clean energy.
NEOM is a region in northwest saudi arabia on the red sea being built from the ground up as a ‘living laboratory’. eventually the location, comprising towns and cities, ports and enterprise zones, research centers, sports and entertainment venues, and tourist destinations, will be the home and workplace to more than a million residents from around the world. it is hoped that THE LINE will create 380,000 new jobs, spur economic diversification, and contribute SAR 180bn ($48bn USD) to domestic GDP by 2030. construction of THE LINE will get underway in early 2021.
image by aaron jenkin
project info:
name: the line
location: NEOM, saudi arabia
status: construction to begin in early 2021
ARCHITECTURE IN SAUDI ARABIA (27)
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Why a line? A circle creates higher mobility.
Nice concept and idea.
On the other hand, do we need to build something new? How much energy and resources are needed to build this city to move people form elsewhere? Who can afford to live there? What do we do with cities that already exist and how can those be improved? Food for thoughts.
The city described sounds realistically fantastic; i.e. I think it is fantastic as a concept whilst also being realistic. The text mentions the amount of people who die per annum from pollution and traffic accidents and the inference is that this new style of living will prevent that. So in effect it is saying that around 8 million peoples’ lives will be extended, not saved because we all have to die of something sooner or later.
The real problems we face as a race is how to continue to provide an ever increasing population with clean water ( an absolute essential to continued living ) and food ( almost just as important ), when we are doing nothing to eradicate the real problem which is over population. There must come a ‘tipping point’ whereby our planet cannot feed and water us all. I believe the next global war will be fought for the security of those very basic items, food and water; although the reason for it will be disguised as something totally different.
So yes I applaud the new city concept as it will just about eradicate pollution from travel and road deaths; but the very acts of removing those deaths from the daily toll will only exacerbate the underlying problem – an infinite and unchecked population tied to a finite volume of food and water. Also bear in mind that whilst we, theoretically, have an ability to grow more food, we are the somewhat tardy custodians of a fixed amount of the most essential element to us as a race, i.e. water. We cannot create any more than we already have. Ironically it may be that the melting of the ice-caps will be a temporarily saving event; but even that is only a ‘stop-gap’ arrangement unless we all face the reality of too many people.
This is not an easy argument to foster, as it implies that to do my bit towards our salvation as a race I must forgo the pleasures of children and grandchildren. Even worse will be the dilemma our law makers and politicians will have to face when the hard decisions finally arrive and need to be addressed.
So I believe, like it or not, that we will be forced to face this issue and the longer we leave it the more problematic it will be.
Interesting concept.
Will inequality exist in this new society, will it be available to the rich only? Inequality is one of the cancers of this world today. We humans need to live in harmony with ourselves and nature first, before we try and live with robots and hi-tech technology.
So how do you manage the pedestrian layer so that nature is largely unaffected? Seems unlikely.
“LINE”
Stand for “Living In Natural Environment”
I am glad to see this project. As architect I have done a linear’s city project in 1994 http://www.linearcity.ca
This was my contribution to try to make cities for billions of people with functional public transport, ecological cities and better social contacts and this with a realistic transition. If I knew winch one to contact I get give them for free my expertise.
Passionate for working in this project
I was a Development Manager with Nakheel in Dubai