"The Line" - Saudi Arabia plans 100 mile long indoor megacity. [Neom]

[tim]

I'm tempted to compare it to any of the numerous mega-cities already in existence. When I visited Chicago, I noticed that the rich literally live in one of the tallest buildings in the world, while homeless people sleep in its shadow.

I didn't say what you said I said but that clearly didn't stop me from giving you a like for misquoting me.

 

[tim]

whoops!!!

 

[extra dry]

The ice cream and cold drinks fran ises will flurish

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

I didn't say what you said I said but that clearly didn't stop me from giving you a like for misquoting me.

I'm sorry if I accidentally attributed a post to you. It wasn't intentional.

 

[SysOut]

Wouldn't building underground be wiser? Cooler?

 

[tim]

I'm sorry if I accidentally attributed a post to you. It wasn't intentional.

I'm sorry that I didn't notice till some time later that you'd accidentally attributed a post to me.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Wouldn't building underground be wiser? Cooler?

Quantum of Saudis

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

I'm sorry that I didn't notice till some time later that you'd accidentally attributed a post to me.

Just to clarify attribution for everyone, the original post I was responding to was post by Tommers.

 

[WouldBe]

Wouldn't building underground be wiser? Cooler?

It's in a desert it will be underground soon enough.

 

[platinumsage]

It’s off to an auspicious start then…

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/neom-saudi-arabia-sentences-tribesmen-death-resisting-displacement

 

[likesfish]

Saudis building a Hive city and elron musk if off to mars.
1984 isn’t the future it’s Warhammer 40000

 

[teuchter]

When I first saw this I assumed it was just a fantasy vanity project but no, they actually seem to be building it.

Drone footage reveals The Line megacity under construction in Saudi Arabia

Footage released by aerial photography company Ot Sky shows work commencing on The Line megacity, which is being built as part of the Neom development in Saudi Arabia.

www.dezeen.com

 

[teuchter]

A comment under that article gives some defence of the logic behind it - at least if you are comparing to a "standard" desert city like LA.

A reply suggests that a ring would be better than a line from a transport efficiency point of view - however I can see that the advantage of a line is that if you manage to get the solar orientation "right" then it applies along the whole length.

Yes, the entire project has egregious issues at the intersection of human rights, politics and economics. And I agree, it's nearly impossible to remove those from the conversation of The Line as a whole. However, if we're just talking about sustainability (which most commenters are), it seems most people are simply wrong. Sure, it's a huge structure that stretches 105 miles. But let's look at the issues. To make things clear, I'm going to compare it to a city that is pretty familiar internationally: Los Angeles. Yes, L.A. is one extreme example when it comes to urban sprawl, inefficiency, low density, etc. so it is being used as a bit of a foil. However, please feel free to compare The Line to any city you know of that is >9 million people and you're sure to find similarities. Okay, here we go! - It is huge. Okay, this one is simply ridiculous. Is it an enormous undertaking? Yes. Is it very rare, or even unheard of, to see development at this scale? Maybe. Remember how many cities China was building at once? To put the line in comparison to something tangible, let's compare it to Los Angeles. The Los Angeles metro area holds approximately 13 million people. Its area is approximately 34,000 square miles. The Line will hold 9 million people, and its area will be approximately 33 square miles! Please check my math on this, but even if I'm missing two zeros, it's still an astounding difference. If they were to expand to house the same population as Los Angeles, it would be a whopping 47 square miles. By the way, the 170km/105-mile length is just barely longer than the L.A. metro area from west to east. - It is a waste of resources and energy. See above. Imagine the amount of concrete, steel, excavation, energy use, loss of wildlife, loss of human life, carbon emissions, unrepairable harm to the landscape, etc. that has gone on in the planning, building, expansion and maintenance of Los Angeles for well over 200 years. Compare that to the number of resources it will take to build something with a footprint 1,000 times smaller in a fraction of the time. - It is inefficient. It is a straight line. There will be public transportation that runs in a straight line. There will be utilities that run in a straight line. Water, sanitation, maintenance issues, anything you can think of, will be in a line. Please, by all means, let me know of a more efficient method of moving things from one place to another that is not a straight line and you win. It runs east-west, the best orientation to combat solar gain. -It is killing nature. Okay, again I have to agree. Within its 500m wide x 170km footprint, it will kill some nature - whatever nature exists in that truly barren part of the world (we're not talking rainforests here). To once again put it into perspective, it is 1/1000 the size of Los Angeles. Not one-tenth. Not one-one hundredth. Landscape saved? 999 times more than was saved in the development of L.A., with the replacement landscape likely to be better. - It will cut off migratory patterns. It may, but we have seen no details about what happens at ground level. Renderings are schematic, at best, and on a scale that does not allow us to even guess about what happens there. Are the two 'towers' solid the entire 170km? We have no idea, but this thing is far from being designed, so let's hope those issues will be addressed, just like issues that come up in every other design project, even at scales in orders of magnitude smaller than this one. -Birds will run into it. Probably some will. The architects have already said that the facades will have printed patterns on them, like many skyscrapers, to help avert this. Now once again see above, and think of how many birds die flying into 34,000 square miles of developed land vs. 33 square miles of developed land that is already working to solve the issue. Would this be better if it were ten straight lines that all intersected in a hub and was only 17 km in any direction? Maybe. What if it made a plus sign? Sure, cool, maybe the next one. As a forward-thinking experiment that truly takes the future of our planet into consideration while leaving behind any traditional notions of what a city could be. I assume most commenters would agree that our cities have only led to our current dire situation, so it's very strange to see such negativity aimed at something that is actually trying to be a solution. Maybe the designers should apologize for making it so big? Better to only house ten thousand, I guess. Fingers tired. Done for now. Please comment (but please read and think before doing so). Thanks for your time.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Sounds more like TV show I'd want to watch than a place i'd want to live.

 

[likesfish]

Mega Saudi One

View attachment 334946

tbf he'd be a dangerously soft liberal in saudi

 

[Crispy]

When I first saw this I assumed it was just a fantasy vanity project but no, they actually seem to be building it.

Drone footage reveals The Line megacity under construction in Saudi Arabia

Footage released by aerial photography company Ot Sky shows work commencing on The Line megacity, which is being built as part of the Neom development in Saudi Arabia.

www.dezeen.com

I see lots of dirt and rocks being moved around but no actual construction. I will be interested (horrified?) if actual structures start to rise.

 

[ohmyliver]

Are they pitching for a live action Bioshock 3?

 

[urbanspaceman]

Apart from all the other impracticalities, Neom is a really juicy military target. It is only 200 meters wide, so a well-placed cruise missile could sever it completely, from side to side. More strikes would dissect Neom into multiple segments, with transport and utilities repeatedly cut. Isolated as the city is, and with few cars or trucks (by design), it would be difficult to recover in the aftermath. I doubt that these considerations will have escaped the notice of Iranian war planners.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Sounds more like TV show I'd want to watch than a place i'd want to live.

Something on the order of "Judge Dredd"?

 

[Indeliblelink]

Here's a clip of the footage the photos are from but it's pretty short and highly edited so still just looks like the world's most expensive sandpit for all we know. This is probably some ground breaking to ensure existing or potential financial backers that their money is indeed being used.

 

[skyscraper101]

They can't even get any progress on the Jeddah Tower after like 4 years of it being put on hold. And that's just one skyscraper. This is never gonna happen.

 

[bluescreen]

The FT's architecture critic isn't impressed (article from 1 August, so no reference to current alleged rock and sand works). He's disregarding the claim (which is unverified) that it will run on 100% renewables, ie, solar and wind. But it's true that Saudi is quietly planning for a post-oil future, but not trumpeting it too loudly as they still want people to buy their oil.

archive.ph

 

[pogofish]

When I first saw this I assumed it was just a fantasy vanity project but no, they actually seem to be building it.

Drone footage reveals The Line megacity under construction in Saudi Arabia

Footage released by aerial photography company Ot Sky shows work commencing on The Line megacity, which is being built as part of the Neom development in Saudi Arabia.

www.dezeen.com

I had wondered what construction was going-on. Thanks.

Hunting around on Google Earth only shows-up other, more conventional parts of the wider Neom project under construction, namely the port, airport, a basic road system, industrial facilities, resorts/golf courses/palaces for Saudi royals/rich and a very large area of work camps/construction support.

eta: Here's a link to the location of the Palaces/main city/industrial quarter:

Neom City Royal Palaces

Neom City Royal Palaces is a neighbourhood in Tabuk Region, Saudi Arabia. Mapcarta, the open map.

mapcarta.com

I see they were amongst the first contracts awarded.

 

[Supine]

Surely nine million people cant all live in a straight line. Logistical nightmare! What happens if everyone fancies travelling to one end, a 170km queue?

 

[pogofish]

Apart from all the other impracticalities, Neom is a really juicy military target. It is only 200 meters wide, s

Neom is a huge project, with multiple areas under development, over an area of approx 26,000 square kilometres - That's roughly half the size of the Scottish Highlands!

The Line is only one part of it and other aspects of the project are being developed along more conventional layouts - and yes, along with the palaces, the military facilities were another of the early developments.

 

[urbanspaceman]

I'm not clear on the point you're making. While I don't really expect that the "Mirror Line" will ever be completed, it does represent the bulk of Neom's US$1T budget and will accommodate most of Neom's 9M inhabitants by 2045. Other, smaller projects do indeed form part of Neom, but would you agree that the "Mirror Line" is a particularly vulnerable target ?

 

[Supine]

Just remembered i kept getting hit on social media to live in this. I like the idea that they think people like me would actually do it

 

[ItStillWontWork]

It’s going to be a nightmare catching the train from one end to the other with all those stops in between

 

[ItStillWontWork]

Right, so I’ve been thinking about this whilst sat on the loo, and have come up with some back of the envelope numbers (yes, I have envelopes ready at hand next to the bog roll).

So it’s 110 miles long with one ‘high speed’ rail, and a target population of 9 million.

Let’s say there’s a stop every mile, and that the average commuter goes 10 stops to work, and that 40% of the population are working full time (because it’s Saudi and at least 50% aren’t allowed, and 10% of them are so rich they don’t have to)

According to my calculations (and I’m no mathmologist) there will be an average of 32,727 people waiting at each stop every morning. And the train itself will have 327,272 on it at any given rush hour.

Seems legit.

 

[8ball]

Right, so I’ve been thinking about this whilst sat on the loo, and have come up with some back of the envelope numbers (yes, I have envelopes ready at hand next to the bog roll).

So it’s 110 miles long with one ‘high speed’ rail, and a target population of 9 million.

Let’s say there’s a stop every mile, and that the average commuter goes 10 stops to work, and that 40% of the population are working full time (because it’s Saudi and at least 50% aren’t allowed, and 10% of them are so rich they don’t have to)

According to my calculations (and I’m no mathmologist) there will be an average of 32,727 people waiting at each stop every morning. And the train itself will have 327,272 on it at any given rush hour.

Seems legit.

I think the idea is people live very close to their work.