The city as we know it is a deliverance of many successive ages, but essentially a mix of a complex, organic, medieval cluster and the more recent evolution of the motor car, which allowed cities to sprawl along road networks. This created the so-called linear city, whose expansion followed the main routes, but the result is traffic chaos, pollution and the breaking up of erstwhile communities in urban spaces that have become so dependent upon transport that it takes a car to buy a loaf of bread. Good examples are New York and Dubai, but in reality this applies to most of the world’s major metropolises.

With the exception of some of the grand planned capitals of past and present, such as Baron Hausmann’s Paris, Washington DC, Canberra, and Brasilia, most of the cities we live in are therefore a bit of a higgledy-piggledy, cobbled together organic confusion where layers of successive development have created transport chokepoints, concentrations of pollution, and suburbs without a sense of community. In his vision to diversify and modernise the Saudi Arabian economy, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is actively seeking an alternative to this situation with the creation of The Line, a sci-fi-like city that is the mother of all planned metropolises.

Neom = The 22nd Century Today

Imagine a city that touches the waters of the Red Sea – complete with harbour, beaches and marinas – and then stretches for almost 200 kilometres into the desert, crossing planes and hill territory before it reaches its eastern extension at the base of a mountain range. Imagine that city to be just 200 metres wide, encased within glass walls for its entire length – within which nine million people live and work amid towering high-rises that stretches 500 metres into the sky. Below these glass edifices that look like something straight out of a Star Wars epic, is an oasis of gardens, lakes and recreational spaces. If you can imagine this, you’re envisioning The Line.

This titanic endeavour forms part of the overall NEOM Development Project, an ambitious economic stimulus plan whose aim is to transition Saudi Arabia’s economy away from the oil that has driven GDP growth and created its wealth thus far. The formula is embracing technological development, and renewable energy, but also utilising the opportunities created by both to rethink production, transport and urban living in a post-automobile world. The sectors that are planned to create 380,000 jobs by 2030 are manufacturing, water and energy supply, food production, healthcare, education, culture, leisure and tourism, media, financial services, transport, technology, and of course construction.

The principal beneficiary of the latter will be The Line, the main driver of NEOM. Besides sci-fi buildings soaring into the sky, the out-of-the-box thinking involved here also envisages a complete lack of cars and roads, which will become obsolete thanks to two main elements: a high-speed rail system that will cover the entire length of the city in 20 minutes, and a honeycomb of community facilities that will break the city down into small local areas where you are never more than five minutes to shops and other amenities. The idea is also to foster/rekindle the sense of community that has been lost in most 20th-21st century metropolitan areas.

However, instead of the horizontal communities of the past, the project conceives of layered vertical ones, not unlike the vision of Le Corbusier, whose post-slum high-rise suburbs actually killed most communities. In fact, it was really high-rise that broke up our way of living and isolated us, so living in 500-metre-high towers will have to be very special for it not to do the same. The Crown Prince is adamant that this concept will provide “enhanced human liveability” while also promoting natural preservation. While some herald it as the solution of the future, many are yet to be convinced, comparing it to living on Mars.

In true fashion, though, Crown Prince bin Salman has thrust ahead with his vision, wanting to ensure that this project does not remain a drawing board fantasy, as construction has already started and the plan is for 1.5 million people to be living in The Line by the end of this decade.

The future is closer than we think, but is it utopian or dystopian?