Car-free, supported by robotics and with zero emissions – welcome to Saudi Arabia’s new sustainable city Neom

The world’s first zero-carbon city is being built in the Saudi Arabia desert - and planners say residents could move in by 2024. Katie Strick reports

Oxagon will be the world’s largest floating structure

Neom.com

Katie Strick @katie_strick

3 December 2021

A gathering of stars, businesspeople and dignitaries from Baroness Helena Morrissey to adventurer Bear Grylls celebrated the creation of a $500 billion “smart city” called Neom on Tuesday night.

The city, which will be run using robots and free of cars, might read like something from a utopian sci-fi novel but according to executives at this week’s ‘Discover Neom’ event at Spencer House in central London, it’s about to become a reality in Saudi Arabia, where the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has already designated an area in the country’s northwest region close to the Suez Canal, near its borders with Jordan and Egypt.

According to official plans, the new net-zero mega-city will be 33 times the size of New York with an octagonal industrial zone that juts out into the Red Sea, becoming the world’s biggest floating structure.

“Neom is a new vision of what the future can be,” creators say on neom.com which sets out the proposed plans.

“It’s an attempt to do something that’s never been done before and it’s coming at a time when the world needs fresh thinking and new solutions. Put simply, Neom will not only be a destination, but a home for people who dream big and who want to be part of building a new model for sustainable living.”

The project is estimated to cost $500 billion and is being funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund,the Public Investment Fund, of which the crown prince is chairman.

So what will the city look like and how soon will it be open for visitors? This is everything we know so far.

Baroness Helena Morrissey and Neom CEO Nadhmi Al-Nasr

Discover Neom

Project 2030

The proposals for Neom might sound like science fiction, but its Saudi creators insist it will just be a taste of the future of urban living (the name, Neom, is a combination of the Greek word neos (”new”) and Arabic word mustaqbal (”future”).

The smart city is being hailed as the flagship of the country’s Vision 2030 program but insiders suggest that potential visitors might not even have to wait that long.

According to the Saudi government, Neom hopes to have its first residents in place in 2024.

So will we be able to visit in less than three years? Construction is well underway in the country’s Tabuk province. Neom CEO Nadhmi Al-Nasr recently told Bloomberg that the project is a “huge undertaking”but confirmed that 1,500 Neom employees are already working and living on site, adding: “Today if you go to Neom you will see construction all over, you will see earthworks going on all over, you will see regions that are being developed.”

Still, the city is likely to present major opportunities for London when it is complete. This week’s inaugural ‘Discover Neom’ event saw its 250 guests including Baroness Morrissey, Lord Vaizey and Bear Grylls hear about how the city will redefine livability, business and conservation. Discussions also centered on the many doors Neom will open for UK investors, partners and contractors.

A tale of two cities

What is Saudia Arabia’s new city actually going to look like?

First, it’s not just one city. Neom is actually being planned as a 10,000 square-mile city-state, tech hub and 16-borough metropolis, and will contain two separate cities: Oxagon, and The Line.

According to planners, Oxagon is the proposed industrial district, port and the world’s largest floating structure, while The Line is a 105-mile linear city that will preserve 95 per cent of the nature in the area and is planned to have 1 million residents.

More detailed proposals for each city are still emerging, but wider plans for Neom reportedly include no cars, artificial light sources, futuristic entertainment and a high density of eateries.

The region’s stark landscape might also be transformed by cloud-seeding machines creating artificial rain, the world’s largest coral garden and glow-in-the-dark sand.

As part of its net-zero strategy, it will rely solely on clean energy including wind farms, solar power and cutting-edge technology that turns water into oxygen and hydrogen to use for fuel.

Oxagon

As the name suggests, Oxagon will be an eight-sided city, with planners aiming for it to be a “comprehensive cognitive city” and “the industrial city reimagined”.

It is proposed as an industrial district and port hub, “home to the world’s first fully automated port and integrated logistics hub” that will run using robots and AI.

Oxagon will be powered entirely by clean energy

Neom

Half of Oxagon will float on the Red Sea, which is an average of 500 metres deep, and the fact that it has been chosen as a port is deliberate – for it’s global connectivity and the fact that 13 per cent of world trade passes through the nearby Suez Canal.

Officials say it will be a net-zero city powered entirely by clean energy - part of ambitious plans to wean the country off oil dependency.

It will use the Internet of Things, artificial and predictive intelligence and robotics to create “a seamless integrated, intelligent and efficient supply chain”.

Planners say they want it to be a new tech hub rivalling Silicon Valley, but also featuring towns, educational institutions, research centres and tourist attractions.

The Line

Meanwhile The Line, Neom’s second city, aspires to be a pollution-free, pedestrianised, “hyper-connected” city built in a 105 mile straight line.

According to its site, The Line will create 380,000 new jobs, spur economic diversification and contribute SAR 10 billion to domestic GDP by 2030.

Although the city will be car-free, residents will be within five minutes walking distance of everything they need and commutes will be a maximum of 20 minutes via high-speed, eco-friendly hyperloop-style transport.

CEO Al-Nasr says workers are already “moving sand, moving mountains” to build the underground systems needed to transport people and goods in the city.

We’ll have to wait a bit longer to see Saudi Arabia’s desert dream turn into reality. But after this week’s event, investors, tourists and city planners are now looking to Neom for a glimpse of the future of cities.