NEOM
The megalomaniac 170 km “horizontal skyscraper” will not happen. Oil is falling, the deficit has increased, and not even physics cooperates with some of the megalomaniac ideas of the Saudi prince — who goes naked, but no one dares to tell him.
The futuristic megacity, from the Neom project, which Saudi Arabia has been planning for a few years, is been in crisis for some time.
The project demonstrated once again that computer images alonethey do not attract billions in funding nor serve as a guide to constructing a building in real life — much less a megalomaniac “170 km horizontal skyscraper long with a mirrored facade.
Former people responsible for the project assure that The Line project, as it was initially conceived, will never come to fruition, says . Simply, it won’t happen.
The fault, they say, lies with constant changes of opinion of the project’s ideologist, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salmanand its group of advisors, who Don’t you dare tell him that your plans are a delusionin a modern version of the story “The King’s New Fact”.
The Line was thought of as the backbone of , the urban development of 500 billion dollars in a desert from northwestern Saudi Arabia.
Designed as a city without cars and zero emissionswould be enclosed between two parallel walls 170 km long, 500 meters high and 200 meters wide. This structure, which would be seen from space, would be home to 9 millions of people and an example that the oil kings gave to the world of the wonders of technology.
However, recent oil price drops and the increase in the budget deficit forced the Saudi government to rethink all your investments in this and other futuristic utopias that make up Neom, which are valued at more than 1 billion dollars.
O spoke with more than 20 former The Line employees, including architects, engineers and executiveswho did not want to reveal their identity for fear of possible reprisals.
According to their testimonies, the speed and cost of construction “they are no longer sustainable”. The Line is also the most obvious sign of cuts that the project is suffering. In less than five years it was reduced from the original 170 km to a few kilometers in its initial phase, says the FT.
The prince’s futuristic delirium
The Line project comes from the head of Mohammed bin Salman. The initial concept, developed by the Californian architecture firm Morphosisproposed a 2 km wide urban strip connected by a train, but the prince decided to give it a radical turnaround.
“I told the team, ‘and if we drive these two kilometers and turn them into two towers?’”, the Saudi prince himself explained two years ago, in a documentary by .
The idea of creating a structure for 500 meters high and 200 meters wide it was also the prince’s, and did not allow debate.
“That was his decision“, admitted one of the planners. Bin Salman also demanded that it be a glass and steel wall with apartmentsstadiums and even a hidden port capable of receiving the largest cruise ships in the world.
The entrance to this port would be crowned by the Chandeliera 30-story office building built upside downwhich was designed by a Hollywood art director. But even the architects responsible for the project warned that “Physics might not cooperate“.
According to testimonies collected by the Financial Times, there were no dissenting voices in the prince’s circle. Technical doubts rarely reached management and any objection was ignored or punished.
Those responsible confessed that they “found themselves in the position of having to lie about deadlines and costs” because Bin Salman could not be contradicted: “The message seemed to be: now you have to make this work“.
A monster of cement and steel that is impossible to feed
The computer images that were used to sell the projectand please the prince, show futuristic buildings with impossible architecturewhich defies the logic of physics.
Bring these ideas to reality poses technical and logistical challenges outsized that many of the architects and engineers who participated in the project tried to make reality.
To build the first 20 modules of The Line, the contractors estimated they would need every year more cement than France produces in twelve months. Each 800 meter module required approximately 3.5 million tons structural steel and more than 5 million cubic meters of concrete.
It was estimated that would consume up to 60% of annual global steel production for its coating, causing a immediate price rise: “If you want to buy all the cladding in the world, the price will go up”, pointed out an architect on the project.
O work pace required to make The Line a reality from the council of Neom, controlled by the crown prince, was equally insane.
To build just 12 modules before 2030, as planned, it would be necessary for a container of materials arrives every eight seconds24 hours a day.
NEOM
The current construction status of The Line
End of the line
After 50 billion dollars spent and a desert marked by thousands of stakes and ditches that can be seen from space, the core of the project was dramatically reduced.
Of the initial 20 modules it went to 12, then to 7, then to 4and since the end of 2023, only 3 survive in the plans. “When it dropped to three, those 6,000 stakes we had built they were of no use. It’s the classic result of running before knowing how to walk”, summarized one of those responsible.
A financial viability of the project was determined to death when it was not possible seduce foreign investors. “When it dropped to 7 modules it became impossible to sell it as an investment. That’s why I believe it died… It’s just not investable.“, explained another person responsible for construction.
What currently remains of The Line are the ditches for the light train project and some gigantic abandoned foundations. The port, after having excavated the equivalent of forty pyramids of Gizacontinues to stand only on paper.
The plan now is focus on these three residual modules and in some buildings around the port, while trying to “drop the project smoothly” — and let the prince assimilate reality.
“As a thought experiment, it’s genius. But Don’t build thought experiments“, says a Saudi urban planner.
