This futuristic city, “Neom,” seems like a science fiction film. It has a line that is 170 km long, it is 500 m tall (taller in size than the Eiffel Tower), and its wideness is 200 m with a mirror glass façade on the outside. Neom is a combination of the Greek word ‘Neo’, which means new, and M stands for an Arabic word ‘Mustakhbal’, which means ‘future,’ and also M stands for ‘Muhammad Bin Salman,’ who is the brainchild of futuristic cities. Neom is located in the northwest part of Saudi Arabia, in the north of the Red Sea. This megacity project covers 26,500 sq. km. on the Red Sea coast and it has an area larger than Israel or Kuwait. This area was chosen for this project because of the geographical reason, as it has a moderate climate here as compared to the rest of the places in Saudi Arabia.
According to estimates, around $500 billion will be spent on this project and this cost might exceed it depending upon the conditions. This project falls under Saudi Vision 2030, in which it aims to divert the dependence of Saudi Arabia’s economy on natural resources by promoting health, education, and tourism. Saudi Arabia is the largest economy in the Middle East and the largest exporter of petroleum and its economy mainly depends upon resources and deserts. For this reason, the mastermind behind this project, MBS, came up with a plan that would take Saudi Arabia to the next level in terms of advanced cities and technologies.
Saudi Arabia wants to diversify its economy by spending on other sectors. MBS wants to make an ideal city that shows us a new future. Neom is not a single city; it is split into ten regions with ten futuristic cities and ten different projects under its way:
- Oxagon, an octagon-shaped floating port, which will be the industrial sector of Neom.
- Trojena, an outdoor skiing destination of the Arabian Peninsula and also Saudi Arabia won the bid to host 2029 Asian winter games at the desert megacity.
- The line by Morphosis is planned to be the home for approximately nine million people.
- Sindalah is the luxury island resort near the Red Sea for promoting tourism.
- Leyja will contain a trio of “luxury high-end boutique hotels.
- Epicon will be a tourist spot that features two jagged, interconnected skyscrapers designed by 10D design.
- Siranna, another hotel that will be hexagonal-pillar-shaped.
- Utamo, an immersive events space that Neom describes as the theater of the future.
- Norlana, planned for 3,000 residents, is a coastal yachting town.
- Aquellum is an ultra-luxury upside-down skyscraper; things will be focused inside-out rather than focusing on the outside architecture.
These projects will open several job opportunities for people, especially in high-tech industries.
This idea is driven by Paolo Soleri’s arcology concept, 1969; arcology is the combination of architecture and ecology. In this concept, efforts are made to create a space for living with dense populations that could have the least impact on human habitats ecologically. The line also works on a similar method to cause the least damage to the surrounding landscape. In this city, multiple layers have been planned so people can move in three dimensions (up, down, and side), and this is referred to as ‘Zero Gravity Urbanism.’ Moreover, MBS claims this city will be powered with 100% renewable energy, including solar, wind, hydrogen-based power generation, etc.
Neom will be designed in such a way that it will have no roads and cars; rather, people will walk within green spaces and parks because everything will be available within 5-minute walking distance. There will be a high-speed transportation network that will reach from one end of the Red Sea to another end in 20 minutes, which means it will have a speed of at least 500 km/hr. Climate will be controlled inside the city to a moderate temperature regardless of outside climate conditions. 13% of trade occurs through the Suez Canal; in this way, this city will have great potential for trading because it connects from one point of the Red Sea to another. As Saudi Arabia lies between the central points of Europe, Asia, and Africa, a ‘Neom Bay Airport’ will be constructed, and 40% of world services will be available within 6 hours distance from here. Artificial intelligence will be integrated in the city for both personal and commercial use. Such systems will be available that will gather data, analyze it, and cater to everyone’s personal needs. There would be a tracking system in which the government would keep an eye on every citizen and their activities.
Besides all the perks of Neom City, there are many dark sides to this ideal project: Firstly, this city requires so much money to be completed. The money that is being spent here comes from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth private investment fund, which is a public investment fund. The economy of Saudi Arabia mainly depends upon oil resources and fluctuations in oil prices in the international market could disrupt the smooth flow of the project as it is a volatile currency. Moreover, Saudi Arabia didn’t receive much of the economic support from the foreign countries after the 7th October ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict, as the focus of the West has shifted now. Secondly, technology could be a loophole in this project, as the advancements that are planned to make here require such technology, which is not practically available. It is theoretically possible but practically cannot be imagined. Thirdly, this would have a devastating impact on the wild life, as mirrors on the outside would hinder the animal movement, migratory birds would face problems, and there would be interreference in land animals due to Line. Fourthly, architectural problems, as the whole city and its population would depend on one route and if there is a hurdle in that, the whole public would suffer as they would have no other means of transportation. Last but not least, ‘people, do people consider to live here under the 24 hours surveillance of government and they would be totally cut off from the outside world and living in the artificial buildings.
While concluding this, it is to be mentioned that an ideal city like Neom might appear very fancy and beautiful in imaginations, but in real life it is almost impossible to achieve it, as Saudi Arabia has now cut down this project to 2% from 100%; only 2.5 km could be managed to achieve, and that is more like face-saving. In the past, Saudi Arabia also aimed to build the largest building in the world and 1/3 of the building was constructed but later abandoned. Critics refer to this project as naive and impossible.
The Author, Aina Tahir is a International Relations student at Air University, Passionate about delving into geopolitical complexities and global affairs.
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