The Line in Saudi Arabia is such a cool idea... and the western arrogance that i read so often is quite worrying for me. I guess it is yet again a future leading project that is laughed on by ppl that laugh at anything that is exploring the future... but let me explain:
The Line is a extendable project that could house half of Saudi Arabia's citizens while providing an almost complete solution to the urban problems and those that will arise with climate change.
Saudi Arabia will become inhospitable quite fast due to climate change, they already reach temps of 52.0 °C.
As a result The Line is planed to be build in such a way that one does not need to leave the building. This thing is self contained as much as feasible possible.
There are no cars, only a central moving system. And in the bigger neom project 100% of the water will be recycled.
Saudi Arabia does not care if it is feasible to build it, because it is a experimental test balloon how to build a climate doomsday bunker that will inevitable be needed there since the current car centric urban environment is not maintainable and many skyscrapers are hard to connect in a climate change resistant way that is efficient. I guess something like the Line is just so much cheaper to build since you just have to build the same modules over and over again and put them in a straight line.
But hay go ahead and laugh about the "crazy and decadent" project that has "no reason to exist"... 🤷♀️
Also there seem to die a lot of humans for this and Saudi Arabia just does not seem care about it... [0] (This article speaks of "laborers"... they are not... they are slaves [1])
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Line…
[0] archpaper.com/2024/10/document…
21,000 laborers killed working on Saudi Vision 2030, documentary shows
According to the expose by ITV, more than 21,000 workers have died since 2017 while working on Saudi Vision 2030 and NEOM.Daniel Jonas Roche (The Architect’s Newspaper)
chris@strafpla.net
in reply to 🌸🇪🇺 Dreamy Mia 🏳️⚧️🌸 • • •Beginning with the form: There are reasons why cities are not growing in lines and traditional architecture in hot climate does not look like large solar water heaters.
And ending with the hand wavy hogwash of magic sustainability tec: It’s based on “trust us”.
If #theLine / #neom is the solution for #SaudiArabia’s future, they are doomed.
It’s a depressingly clueless and bland marketing ruin.
chris@strafpla.net
Unknown parent • • •I agree, it definitely is worrying in many ways.
(That does not imply that “western” societies are progressing much better on their way of adapting to the challenges ahead, whether it is climate change, resources or demographic change. Despair never helps though.)