Saudi Arabia’s new mirrored city looks like a huge dystopian wall in the desert - The Verge
Saudi Arabia has revealed new design plans for its 170-kilometer-long city, The Line, to be built as part of its $500 billion development-in-the-desert, Neom. And they look bonkers. Like, completely cuckoo-clock crazy. Enjoy!
Often, on the internet, completely deranged CGI infrastructure concepts cooked up by bored design students go mildly viral, like those public transit “discs” that ride above traffic on stilts or that idea for a nuclear-powered “flying hotel.” Very rarely these half-baked renders are backed by one of the wealthiest sovereign wealth funds in the world. Such is the case with Saudi Arabia’s plan to build what looks like a huge mirrored wall in the desert.
If you’ve not been following this saga, let me get you up to speed. Saudi Arabia has a lot of money, and Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), has a lot of ambition. In order to leave his mark on the world, MBS plans to develop a huge city in the desert named Neom, which will incorporate pretty much every futuristic technology you can think of, from the merely ambitious (like vertical farms and cloud seeding) to the sci-fi fantastical (like robot cage fights and a fake moon for some reason???).
The whole thing has been strongly criticized, with reports revealing problems from vast over-spending to oppressive treatment of local tribes (who have been forcibly relocated for the project). But MBS has reportedly declared the project “my pyramids,” and so work forges on. The latest twist is a newly revealed design for The Line: a “vertical city” some 500 meters tall, 170 kilometers in length, and — for some reason — covered in mirrors.
Just look at the promo video below and try to convince me this is not the result of some very excitable marketing execs and a fortnight of all-nighters in Blender:
His Royal Highness announces designs for #THE_LINE, the city of the future in #NEOM.#SPAGOV pic.twitter.com/LDyQrMd0lF
Rating: 5