Saudi Arabia’s “The Line”: Urban Marvel or Nightmare?

Saudi Arabia’s “The Line”: Urban Marvel or Nightmare?

In October, the excavation work for the superlative construction project began. While some view it as a perfect example of an eco-friendly urban area, others dismiss it as a mere publicity stunt. Now, scientists from the Complexity Science Hub demonstrate the reasons why The Line should not serve as a model for the cities of tomorrow.

“It’s the embodiment of the dream to start from scratch and completely rethink a city,” says Rafael Prieto-Curiel, who researches cities at the Complexity Science Hub. The Line is planned to be a city built from nothing in the desert. It is to consist of two gigantic, unbroken rows of skyscrapers, with living space in between. 170 kilometres long. 200 meters wide. 500 meters high, higher than any building in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. String straight ahead from the Red Sea to the east.

Ten Times Denser Than Manhattan

Nine million people are expected to live in it – more than in any other city in Saudi Arabia. This translates into a population density of 265,000 people per square kilometre – ten times denser than Manhattan and four times denser than the inner districts of Manila, currently estimated to be the densest urban neighbourhoods on Earth.