Why is the Saudi Government’s new Smart City distant from reality?
NEOM is a planned futuristic smart city which is currently under construction in the Tabuk Province of Saudi Arabia.
NEOM is not an abbreviation of New Electronic and Organic Metropolis but rather a portmanteau of the word “Neo’’ for New and the last letter “M” stands for “Mohammad” for its significance in Islam apart from also being the first letter of the Kingdom’s Crown Prince ‘Mohammed bin Salman’ as well as “Mustaqbal” which means future in Arabic.
Spread over 26,500 km², Neom consists of 8 distinct regions. This includes the prominent mixed-use residential and commercial zone known as “The Line’’. An Industrial region with a deep sea port and artificial Islands in the Red Sea called “Oxagon”, apart from the mountainside resort of “Trojena” and the luxury Island of “Sindalah” being some of the regions, which have been planned till now.
“The Line” have garnered quite some attention since it was announced. This is because of its unconventional urban form: that of a 170 km long continuously built structures covered with gleaming glass panels as seen in their artistic impressions.
The mixed-use residential and commercial zone aka “The Line” is supposed to be 170 km long and 200 metres wide making it the longest linear city and perhaps the only planned linear city in the World. The Line is planned to house 9 million inhabitants in an area of 34 km² making it the most densely populated city in the world with an average population density of 260k people/km².
It is expected to create over 500 million new jobs adding over $50 billion to the economy of Saudi Arabia. The estimated building cost is US$100–200 billion, though critics estimate it to escalate to $1 trillion over the years as construction cost increases and inflation drives up material’s value.
The problem with NEOM begins just there, with its abrupt design of a width-to-length ratio of 1:850. Since it’ll be 170 km long, the city will be divided into spaces longer from each other not utilising all the other sides available to the town but only expanding in one direction towards the east.
Every habitat in the world has emerged from a single unit of dwelling or a focal point which can be a market or a water body. It tries to spread in all directions possible until obstructed by the physical forces of nature.
For instance, New York had a linear design situated on the island of Manhattan until it expanded beyond the Hudson and East Rivers towards the US Mainland and Long Island. The downtown core of the city can still be found on the same island, about 21 km long but only 3.7 km wide at its widest point.
Medellin in Colombia is another example of a linear city, centring the Medellin River and bounded by the Abura Valley of the Andes Mountains.
The urbanised area from San Jose to San Francisco is also of a similar design bounded by the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Additionally, If San Francisco Bay is considered the centre of the Metropolitan Statistical Region, then the whole Bay Area Region combining Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond and Fremont is again shaped in an oval pattern, housing more than 9 million inhabitants (2020).
Linear cities have been planned previously but never executed due to their inefficient design and unclear purpose. Most urban planning models like Burgess CCD Model, Hoyt Sectoral Model or the Multiple Nuclei Model by Harris and Ulman, are of circular or radial design following how settlements have organically evolved.
Linear cities increase travel time, as newer construction projects are executed in one particular direction only. NEOM is aware of this fact and promises to provide us with high-speed rail with an end-to-end transit time of just 20 minutes. Also promised by the city, is a car-free environment based on walkability and public transportation where every public amenity will be within a 5-minute walk.
Just like the Jeddah Tower, the world’s first kilometre-high skyscraper (likely over 3,281 feet tall), which has been under construction since 2013. It claimed to grab the accolade of the world’s tallest man-made structure, surpassing the Burj Khalifa but remains on hold, due to political intrigue and the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic. Similar criticisms have targeted NEOM, for being another political gimmick of the Kingdom for gaining media coverage. Other critics have called it an architectural failure and a poor design choice for its sustainability and the environment.
The construction of The Line is expected to require substantial landscaping alterations and climate modifications which environmentalists and urban planners have called out. It included the forced evacuation of 20k people of the Howeitat Tribes from their ancestral place despite their reluctance to move to newer housing located at a considerable distance away from their original settlements. Leak reports from the ministries of the Saudi Government have found imprisonment and torture of the members of the tribe who have resisted and fought against the construction of The Line.
Although construction has already begun for The Line as the other regions are under planning, scientists are anticipating its suspension soon. Their prediction is that it’ll never be commissioned for commercial operations as construction progresses and new challenges are encountered. In the long term, the project is expected to be abandoned, though not before draining millions of investments and resources.
Today, scientists do encourage car-free, pedestrian-friendly developments. But The Line remains a utopia, unviable with current technology. As a habitat, The Line might fail. Still, it’ll always be there as a reminder of humankind’s architectural and engineering pinnacle: A concept to survive for generations to come and inspire future cities and planning habitats.
