Saudi Arabia Reveals a Hundred-Mile-Long Linear City, but Critics Are Skeptical

1/18/2021 Saudi Arabia reveals a hundred-mile-long linear city, but critics are skeptical

Saudi Arabia reveals a hundred-mile-long linear city, but critics are skeptical

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I Walk THE LINE Saudi Arabia reveals a hundred-mile-long linear city, but critics are skeptical By Jonathan Hilburg • January 13, 2021 • International, News, Technology, Urbanism

A screenshot of THE LINE reveal video showing how the city will stretch from sea-to-valley. (Courtesy NEOM)

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Is it an innovative linear smart city or another exercise in PR- chitecture from a kingdom that promised to light its urban centers with an articial moon? Saudi Arabia unveiled THE LINE on January 10 in a ashy keynote headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a 106-mile-long (170 kilometer) city devoid of cars that will (allegedly) cut across the 10,000-square- mile city-state of NEOM.

https://www.archpaper.com/2021/01/saudi-arabia-reveals-the-line-but-critics-are-skeptical 1/5 1/18/2021 Saudi Arabia reveals a hundred-mile-long linear city, but critics are skeptical

Saudi Arabia reveals a hundred-mile-long linear city, but critics are skeptical

As a refresher, NEOM was rst announced in 2017 as a “free zone” along the Red Sea, a futuristic $500-billion, clean-energy powered “living laboratory” backed by big-name investors and design names. Then, in 2018 aer the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudi government, Sir Norman Foster, Carlo Ratti, and a host of others jumped ship from the project’s advisory board. There hasn’t been much news since, apart from controversy over the kingdom’s attempts to evict up to 20,000 native Bedouin tribe members from the site.

“Why should we sacrice nature for the sake of development? Why should seven million people die every year because of pollution […] one million people every year due to traﬃc accidents?” HRH the Crown Prince questions as he introduces @NEOM’s THE LINE. #whatisTHELINE pic.twitter.com/9GJfsr67

— CIC Saudi Arabia (@CICSaudi) January 10, 2021

That all changed earlier this week when bin Salman unveiled THE LINE in a TED Talk-styled speech showing oﬀ a speculative linear city slated to supposedly break ground in the rst quarter of this year.

THE LINE, according to the reveal video, will stretch from the Red Trending Now Sea to the mountains of northwest Saudi Arabia and condense 1 Howard University eyes development urban centers into a band to preserve “95 percent” of NEOM’s plans while staying true to its roots

natural wilderness. The Crown Prince also touted a host of 2 Frank Gehry previews an updated vision futuristic benets, saying that THE LINE had been designed for the L.A. River as new master plan is unveiled around walkability rst and foremost and that cars and roads 3 What are the consequences when would be wholly banned, with transportation needs met by an privately-funded public art goes big?

underground train system. An end-to-end trip will reportedly only 4 Why everybody's mad at Anish Kapoor take 20 minutes. (hint: it involves the blackest black) 5 Cyberpunk 2077 is an architecture You might be asking if a “walkable city” arranged in a straight line critique with nothing to say

is an oxymoron, but from the launch video, it looks like THE LINE 6 Saudi Arabia reveals a hundred-mile- will actually be made up of clusters of aggregated urban areas long linear city, but critics are skeptical arranged around a central “spine” rather than a single large strip 7 Governor Cuomo details dramatic $51 billion Midtown West redevelopment plan with functions distributed across it. NEOM’s developers have 8 Elon Musk’s underground transit loop promised that everything will be accessible in a “5-minute walk,” gets the go ahead in San Bernardino and bin Salman touted that the entire development will be net- 9 In Architecture and Labor, Peggy Deamer zero, powered by entirely renewable energy, and pollution-free. recognizes architects are workers 10 Skanska USA reveals a staggered Houston office tower from BIG https://www.archpaper.com/2021/01/saudi-arabia-reveals-the-line-but-critics-are-skeptical 2/5 1/18/2021 Saudi Arabia reveals a hundred-mile-long linear city, but critics are skeptical

Saudi Arabia reveals a hundred-mile-long linear city, but critics are skeptical