Saudi Arabia announces vision for the city of the future

The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, this week unveiled ambitious plans for The Line, set to become the world’s first completely carbon emission-free city, with no roads, no cars and no traffic.

The pedestrianised city, located within the $500 billion Neom giga project, will create approximately 380,000 new jobs according to the Crown Prince, and will become home to a million residents once complete.

Describing the project as a “blueprint for how people and planet can co-exist in harmony”, The Line will depend solely upon ultra-high-speed transit and autonomous vehicles for transportation, with the target of ensuring that no journey within the city takes longer than 20 minutes.

In a statement, the Crown Prince said: “Throughout history, cities were built to protect their citizens. After the Industrial Revolution, cities prioritised machines, cars and factories over people. In cities that are viewed as the world’s most advanced, people spend years of their lives commuting.

“By 2050, commute durations will double. By 2050, one billion people will have to relocate due to rising CO2 emissions and sea levels. 90 percent of people breathe polluted air.

“Why should we sacrifice nature for the sake of development? Why should seven million people die every year because of pollution? Why should we lose one million people every year due to traffic accidents? And why should we accept wasting years of our lives commuting?

“Therefore, we need to transform the concept of a conventional city into that of a futuristic one.”
 

Once complete the carbon positive urban development is predicted to contribute approximately $48 billion to the Saudi economy. The target for completion is earmarked for 2030.

The Line is the latest ambitious sustainable initiative from a nation within the Middle East. The UAE's own sustainable city masterplan is Masdar City, which at the time of its introduction was seen as one of the most progressive environmentally conscientious projects anywhere in the modern world. BSBG played an integral role alongside long-term sustainability partners AESG in delivering two of the key developments within Masdar City; both the residential Masdar N1R and the IRENA Headquarters building are widely regarded as respective barometers for sophisticated sustainable commercial/residential buildings in the Middle East.
 

A view from the experts

AESG CEO Saeed Al Abbar explained that this announcement could bring about huge change for the future design of cities around the world. “Such transformational shifts in the building of sustainable, futuristic, urban cities that are carbon positive and co-exist in harmony with the environment and the planet at large will positively impact the health and well-being and quality of life of future residents,” he explained. “It is great to see the leadership in Saudi Arabia reimagine and redefine what these future cities would look like with these ambitious plans, that form a part of Saudi’s vision 2030.”

Bringing the vision of such carbon-free city projects to life requires meticulous planning and seamless interplay between disciplines such as architectural form, facade design and building systems, Saeed says, explaining that with “collaboration between, architects, engineers and specialists and with the utilisation of advanced modelling, simulation and parametric design tools, we each play a role in achieving the optimisation and efficiency goals of such sustainable urban cities. Having a strong working dynamic is crucial for such aspirational developments.”
 

BSBG Partner Andrew Bereza foresees a need for the kind of expertise AESG and BSBG have demonstrated in the implementation of creative sustainable initiatives, the kind of which has seen recently delivered projects receive prestigious LEED Platinum and Gold certification, and Estidama 4 Pearl ratings. “It’s a significant step from Saudi Arabia,” he said. “It shows a huge level of commitment, both financially and environmentally, to announce such an ambitious and important project. The aspirations Saudi Arabia has are clear: they want to lead the way in developing inspiring and ground-breaking projects that have never been done before - that set new benchmarks. The Line will accomplish that, and will likely act as a catalyst for projects of a similar nature to be introduced in the Kingdom and further afield.

“For BSBG, it’s very exciting to see the Kingdom embrace the concept of a carbon-free sustainable city, and to read the words of the Crown Prince that suggest a refreshing commitment to making use of all the resources at his disposal and ensuring that architecture, people and nature can exist together, with no detriment to one another. BSBG stands ready to offer our expertise to contribute to this position in whichever way we can.”

BSBG announced its intention to establish a significant presence in Saudi Arabia in the second half of 2020. More news will follow on the establishment of the Saudi Arabia office shortly.