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The Line: What is it?

Saudi Arabia, a country known for its vast expanses of desert landscape, has announced an ambitious urban development project which they are calling “The Line.” This project depicts a city in which all of its inhabitants live on a single line of road that stretches across 170 kilometers (105 miles) across the northwestern region of Saudi Arabia. The Line is envisioned as a so-called “smart city” that will run entirely on “100% renewable energy,” and claims that “95% of land will be preserved for nature,” according to the official NEOM website (the region that announced the plans for this project). With such bold declarations and futuristic style, The Line could serve as a blueprint for cities of the future. Or, maybe not so much.

Skepticism

While The Line’s vision is undoubtedly ambitious, many experts question whether such a project can be successfully completed. The estimated cost is over $500 billion, and the construction challenges of building a city of this scale in a harsh desert environment are immense. According to Marshall Brown, director of the Princeton Urban Imagination Center and an associate professor of architecture at Princeton University, in an interview with Nat Barker of Dezeen magazine: “I think there would be so many physical and environmental phenomena that would have to be dealt with to achieve the incredibly minimal and singular character that the renderings propose." To look at things in a more pessimistic light, another expert named Philip Oldfield, head of the Built Environment School at UNSW, states plainly, “You cannot build a 500-metre-tall building out of low-carbon materials,” followed up with, “This would require a phenomenal quantity of steel, glass and concrete.”

Other articles written by journalists from varying fields carry a similar sense of skepticism. Take for example Stephanie Pappas, a writer with a degree in science communications, who, after interviewing various experts, determines that “those goals are unfeasible." However, this is not to say that the idea is dead in the water. According to an article written by Natalia E. Paszkowska-Kaczmarek, cities with similar concepts have been designed throughout the ages, such as The Ciudad Lineal by Arturo Soria y Mata, the blueprints of which are shown below:

Conclusion

Despite skepticism, The Line represents an innovative approach to urban planning that could inspire future cities worldwide. As populations continue to grow and climate change threatens traditional ways of living, rethinking how we build and organize urban spaces is crucial. Whether The Line succeeds or not, it is certainly pushing the boundaries of what we see in modern city design and development, and if nothing else, the mere idea of such a city is a sight to behold.