Photo: Courtesy NEOM
The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, announced the designs and plans for Saudi Arabia’s proposed smart linear city, The Line by NEOM, on Monday. The Line, which is currently under construction, is envisioning a future free of cars and roads, making for zero carbon emissions while promising an unprecedented urban lifestyle in its midst. This city has been part of Saudi Arabia’s 2030 Vision project for quite some time now, and finally, with the Crown Prince’s final word on the designs of this defining district, the project is taking off.
From the designs revealed in the Prince’s announcement, the most notable highlights are that The Line will be only 200 meters wide, 170 kilometers long, and 500 meters above sea level. Upon completion, the city is set to accommodate 9 million residents in its quarters, all built on a footprint of 34 square kilometers, reducing infrastructure footprints and creating efficiencies that have never been seen before. What’s more, the exterior of The Line will be entirely reflective, allowing it to blend in with its surrounding nature. Within its mirror-like facade will be “extraordinary experiences and magical moments,” the Prince shared.
What if we could start again?
THE LINE rethinks everything we know about how people live, work and play. A 170 km-long vertical city, designed around people, rather than cars. A revolution in urban living. A city that delivers new wonders for the world.#TheLINE #NEOM pic.twitter.com/Op6HyO5gEi— NEOM (@NEOM) July 25, 2022
“The Line will be created by a team of world-renowned architects and engineers, led by NEOM, to develop this revolutionary concept for the city of the future,” Prince Mohammed Bin Salman shared recently. The royal also explained that the design will clarify the internal structure of the smart city while addressing the issues of conventional cities. As per the Prince’s statement to the Saudi Press Agency, he is aiming at finding a satisfactory middle ground between urban living and preserving our endangered nature through this visionary project.
This project was initially launched by the Prince in January 2021, where he laid out his visions and ideas of the smart city headed on its way to redefine urban living and development for what it is today. With The Line, His Highness dreams of revolutionize what cities of the future will look like. The vertically layered designs for will put the traditional style of horizontal flats up for a challenge. As per the plans, the city is set to run entirely on renewable energy, prioritizing people’s well-being over fascinating infrastructures – a norm that is currently not being followed by most conventional cities. If everything goes as planned, The Line will be preserving 95% of NEOM’s land with its extraordinary design.
Below, take a look at what the proposed model of The Line by Neom is likely to look like by 2030.
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