How Could Saudi Arabia's Futuristic City 'The Line' Work?

Would you live in a city 100 miles long but only 650 feet wide? Learn about Saudi Arabia's ambitious Neom Project in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/civil/the-line-saudi-arabia-news.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
brain Stuff. Lauren Bolga bam here. The Saudi Arabia is
home to some of the world's most interesting and ambitious architecture,
but the country's newest urban project may just top them all.
The Government of Saudi Arabia unveiled plans in one for

(00:24):
the city of Neom, including a megastructure called The Line.
The Line is designed to be an entire city composed
of two parallel skyscrapers stretching across the northwest part of
Saudi Arabia near the Red Sea. Each building is planned
to be a hundred and seventy kilometers long, just over
a hundred miles and five hundred meters high. That's about

(00:46):
six feet taller than most of the world's tallest skyscrapers.
But both buildings together, along with an outdoor space in
between them, will be just two hundred meters wide. That's
about six hundred and fifty feet. If you think this
sounds like the setting for some kind of futuristic dystopian novel,

(01:07):
you're not wrong. The Line is being described as a
vertical city outfitted with exterior mirrors big enough to house
nine million people, along with everything they need, from parks
and waterfalls to high speed rail and robot maids. There
are even plans to include an artificial moon for residents
to gaze upon. With its proposed width of only six

(01:31):
hundred and fifty feet, the line plans to rely primarily
on its height to encompass its residents in vertically layered homes, offices,
public parks, and public schools laid out in neighborhoods so
that all amenities are within a five minute walk for
all residents. It's also proposing a host of modern trappings,
including year round climate control of all indoor and outdoor spaces,

(01:55):
and accessibility to parks and natural elements within a two
minute walk. A plus that high speed rail is being
planned to put everything in the one hundred mile long
city within a twenty minute ride, and Saudi Arabian officials
claim the line will otherwise be devoid of roads, cars,
or emissions, and will be powered strictly by clean energy,

(02:16):
although details for that haven't been released yet. When complete,
the line will span thirteen square miles or thirty four
square kilometers across the desert to become a literal oasis.
Architectural renderings show the two buildings operating as one, incorporating
a verdant space in the middle filled with water features

(02:36):
and plants. Although a timeline was not part of the
line's announcement, initial earthwork began in October one, and it's
expected that residents will begin moving in by the year.
This deadline was shared as part of a larger countrywide
improvement plan dubbed Vision twenty that's intended to draw a

(02:56):
hundred million annual visitors and keep Saudi Arabia in the
renting against travel hotspots like its Gulf neighbors Dubai and
Abu Dhabi. The line is just one part of the
one trillion dollar Neon Project, an initiative announced in and
focused on the northwest part of Saudi Arabia. Along with

(03:17):
the line, there are plans to build a network of
airports as well as the world's largest green energy plant.
The area is intended to become so self sufficient that
it's being referred to as a country within a country
where residents might be called Namians rather than Saudia's. In
a press release from July, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin

(03:37):
Salman is quoted as saying Neon will be a place
for all people from across the globe to make their
mark on the world in creative and innovative ways. The
Line is a futuristic and ambitious project. Critics of Saudi
Arabia's vision initiatives say that the attempt to transition from
a crude oil economy to one powered by tourism over

(04:00):
books the country's most available resources, namely its competitive advantages
in higher education and research. There are also concerns about
the structures interrupting natural habitats and weather patterns. We'll have
to see how the project actually develops. Today's episode is

(04:22):
based on the article Meet the Line, Saudi Arabia's future
hundred and six mile one building city on housetof Works
dot com, written by laure L Dove. Brain Stuff is
production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff
works dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Before
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