Saudi NEOM City
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I thought we had discussed this before, but I could not find any reference to it.
Link to videoAlways seemed like an impossible dream, and I think reality is coming through.
Announced in 2017, Neom is a $500bn (£394bn) plan to build 10 futuristic cities in a desert region in the north west of the country.
The most ambitious of them, and the one that has gained all the headlines, is The Line. This will be a linear city consisting of two adjoined, parallel skyscraper walls standing 500m high - taller than the Empire State Building. Yet they will have combined width of just 200m, including the gap between them.
The original plan was that they would extend for 170km (105 miles), and become home to nine million inhabitants.
But according to people familiar with the details – and as already leaked to the press - the project developers will now focus on completing just 2.4km by 2030, as part of the first module.
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@Mik said in Saudi NEOM City:
A luxurious prison where populations are easily controlled.
World's worst HOA.
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Upon reflection, I think we are meant to and need to live in nature, not separated from it. One can argue successfully that we’ve done a piss poor job of it, but we’re learning. Isolating ourselves is not the answer and doesn’t address issues of agriculture, mining, energy, etc. that require the world’s resources.
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Upon reflection, I think we are meant to and need to live in nature, not separated from it. One can argue successfully that we’ve done a piss poor job of it, but we’re learning. Isolating ourselves is not the answer and doesn’t address issues of agriculture, mining, energy, etc. that require the world’s resources.
@Mik said in Saudi NEOM City:
Upon reflection, I think we are meant to and need to live in nature, not separated from it. One can argue successfully that we’ve done a piss poor job of it, but we’re learning. Isolating ourselves is not the answer and doesn’t address issues of agriculture, mining, energy, etc. that require the world’s resources.
I’m gonna agree and disagree with you at the same time.
I agree that we need to be able to live with and nurture the land and nature where we can, but we also need to start learning how to survive in harsher and harsher climates. Ultimately, man will need to branch out off this mud all, even if it’s just to mine and acquire resources from the asteroid belt and various moons. That’s going to require completely enclosed environmental systems and controls. Even on Earth, population sizes will necessitate more and more land in temperate areas to be reserved and dedicated for food production. Population centers will need to be shifted to less temperate areas. Yes, learning to live in those environments will be important, but in some areas. Conquering those areas will also be important. Projects like this will help, not hinder.
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https://www.wsj.com/finance/saudi-arabia-neom-sindalah-15b9f25a
The October event was the lavish opening of the first part of Neom, a planned metropolis defined by cutting-edge technology and psychedelic architecture, a cornerstone of the country’s plan to pivot its economy away from oil.
The truth for the project was less glamorous.
The relatively simple, low-rise development, known as Sindalah, was over three years late and on track to cost nearly $4 billion, three times its initial budget. Hotels were unfinished, high winds disrupted ferries and golf, and much of the site was still under construction.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Neom’s mastermind, was a surprise no-show. Neom board documents say the party cost at least $45 million. Many Neom staff viewed his absence as a sign of disapproval.
Weeks later, Neom’s boss of six years, a former crown prince favorite, left the project and a new crew of executives was installed to turn Neom around.
After spending more than $50 billion, the crown prince’s sci-fi-inspired dreams—an arid-mountain ski resort, a floating business district, and the Line, the 106-mile-long pair of Empire State Building-height skyscrapers that is Neom’s centerpiece—have collided with reality.
Costs have soared, delays are ubiquitous and a decision last year to reduce Neom’s first phase threatens to deprive the desert city of the critical mass of inhabitants needed to make it a modern business hub.
The article goes on to describe all the problems it has.
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Neom, the insane urban development project in Saudi Arabia, appears to be sinking faster than the giant holes they keep digging in the middle of nowhere. Increasing delays and soaring cost overruns have led to project cancellations and a general scaling back of the original vision. Now a Wall Street Journal report has uncovered an internal audit that reveals evidence of deliberate manipulation of finances by management to justify rising cost estimates to investors. The sense of impending disaster is even more shocking when you look at the only crazy structure that is now standing in Neom: an unbelievably giant palace.
New satellite images obtained by Business Insider via US space company Maxar Technologies have revealed the gigantic complex, which appears to feature at least 16 buildings (plus other buildings in the property), four swimming pools, private beaches, extensive gardens, a marina, 10 helipads, and its own golf course. The palace is thought to be owned by Saudi Arabian ruler Mohammed bin Salman, and it’s only one of five palaces that will be built for the royal family in the 10,230-square-mile region known as Neom.
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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had a vision for the perfect city: no streets, no cars, a completely sustainable environment that has everything a person could need. He’s apparently willing to settle on just building some data centers. According to the Financial Times, the much-maligned plans for a megacity project known as Neom are set to be downsized from their original ambitions and may go from being a hub for humans to a hub for AI. Sounds about right.
The Line, the most famous high-profile facet of Neom, was initially imagined as a fully contained city that would primarily exist in a linear design, stretching 110 miles long with walls that climbed up 1,600 feet, though the whole thing would be just 660 feet wide. It’d be able to house up to nine million people, and anyone would be able to cross from one end of the city to the other in just 20 minutes via subway.
Shockingly, realizing that dream has proved difficult. While Saudi Arabia broke ground on the project in 2022, it has been plagued with delays, setbacks, and sizable budget overruns. It didn’t take long for developers to start pushing back on some of the more outlandish ideas in the project, like an upside-down building that would hang from a bridge. Last year, the CEO overseeing Neom abruptly quit, and there were rumblings that the project would go from a full-fledged futuristic city to something more like a small proof of concept for what could be done down the road.
Now it seems like even that level of ambition feels out of reach. Per the Financial Times, the latest on the project is that it’ll be “far smaller” than initially planned, and may even cease to be a city at all. The report suggests that Neom could pivot to become a hub for data centers, in line with Prince Mohammed’s design to make Saudi Arabia a major player in the AI space.
