In a new initiative, Saudi Arabia has revealed its plan to build the world’s largest buildings in a mostly unpopulated part of the country as part of an entirely new $500 billion development called NEOM.
According to a report by Bloomberg, NEOM is the brainchild of Saudi Crown Prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman who is aiming to build twin skyscrapers about 500 meters (1,640 feet) tall that stretch horizontally for dozens of miles, said people close to the project.
The report adds that skyscrapers would house a mix of residential, retail and office space running from the Red Sea coast into the desert.
The plan is a shift from the concept announced last year of building a string of developments linked by underground hyper-speed rail, into a long continuous structure, the people said.
If it goes forward in full, each structure would be larger than the world’s current biggest buildings, most of which are factories or malls rather than residential communities.
Announced in 2017, NEOM is Prince Mohammed’s plan to turn a remote region of the country into a high-tech semi-autonomous state that re-imagines urban life.
It’s part of his plans to attract foreign investment and help diversify the Saudi economy away from a reliance on oil sales. The Line, as the car-free linear city that will form the backbone of NEOM is known, could cost up to $200 billion to build, the prince said last year, though that was before the plan changed to include gigantic horizontal buildings.
“The Line is an out of the box idea,” NEOM chief executive office Nadhmi Al-Nasr said in an interview, declining to comment on the specifics of the plan. “What we will present when we are ready to will be very well received, and will be viewed as revolutionary.”
According to current and former employees at the Saudi project, to plan The Line, NEOM worked with a California-based architecture firm called Morphosis.
Morphosis — founded by Thom Mayne, once dubbed “the bad boy” of American architecture — didn’t respond to requests for comment, said the report.
The buildings would be “different heights as you go,” adapting to the landscape, with their final size determined by engineering considerations and the terrain, Al-Nasr said.
The Middle East is already home to the world’s tallest building, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. Before the rise of Prince Mohammed, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal had announced plans to build the world’s tallest building near Jeddah. The skyscraper remains only partially completed.