The intention is for the megaconstruction to become a technological benchmark, with vertical farming, air taxis, high-speed trains, robotic assistants, or even cloud seeding.
The project to build the world's tallest building, located in the middle of the Saudi Arabian desert, was launched last October. This megastructure will have a capacity for 9 million people, stand 500 meters tall, and stretch 170 kilometers in length.
A company statement last year maintains that, unlike traditional cities, The Line will operate on 100% renewable energy and prioritize health and well-being over transportation and infrastructure. The designs highlight the city's key features: it is 200 meters wide, 170 kilometers long, and rises 500 meters above sea level, covering an area of 34 square kilometers.
The Libe's small footprint will help conserve 95% of the land and support environmental sustainability.
"The Line is a civilizational revolution that puts humans first, providing an unprecedented urban living experience while preserving the surrounding nature. It redefines the concept of urban development and what cities of the future should be like," its promoters state.
The intention is for the megaconstruction to become a technological benchmark, with vertical farming, air taxis, high-speed trains, robotic assistants, or even cloud seeding, reports a publication in the newspaper El Debate.
The design of The Line, its promoters say, is based on a new concept of 'Zero Gravity Urbanism', which is the idea of stratifying the functions of the city vertically while allowing inhabitants to move seamlessly in the city in three directions: up, down and across.
This concept facilitates mobility throughout the city, offering quick access to offices, schools, parks, and residential facilities. The Line's unique modular design ensures that all facilities and services can be reached within a five-minute walk.
This megastructure will consist of a kind of gigantic wall, uniformly covered in mirrors, that will stretch across the desert to the shores of the Red Sea. Inside this wall, isolated in a climate-controlled environment with large wooded areas, lakes, and all kinds of establishments and services, the residents will live.
It's an unprecedented plan, especially when compared to real cities. Its proponents cite walls 500 meters high (the Empire State Building is 381 meters high), a population of 9 million (Madrid has 3 million), and a length of 170 kilometers—greater than the distance between Seville and Malaga. And they promise to cross it in 20 minutes.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who also chairs the board of directors of Neom, envisions this enormous city as a demonstration of the sustainable future his country is committed to. “New and imaginative solutions are needed to address the habitability and environmental crises facing cities around the world,” he stated.
The water will be supplied thanks to the construction of enormous water treatment plants, which will bring the liquid from the Red Sea to the residents.
According to images released by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), nearly 26 million cubic meters of earth and rock have already been excavated. There are 425 excavating machines and 650 vehicles at the construction site, which includes swimming pools and soccer fields.
Sources: Neom Page/El Debate/As.com.
