The Line + Nine

John Hill

16. January 2024

Trojena, one of NEOM's ten “regions” (Photo: Screenshot from “NEOM in Progress - October 2023”)

The ten “regions” of NEOM, the new urban plan in northwestern Saudi Arabia, were unveiled over the course of the last three years, from The Line in January 2021 until Aquellum just this month. Ten short films reveal the preliminary imagery and themes for each region.

If NEOM is anything, it is contradictory and excessive. The flagship component of the project being carried out by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is a linear “skyscraper” eight times longer than the length of the island of Manhattan. Another region in NEOM will, in five years time, host the Asian Winter Games — in a country known more for sand than snow! Most of the ten projects feature “ultra-luxury” components geared toward the global rich. Regardless, the oil-rich, authoritarian Saudi Arabian government is touting that the project — projected to cost more than $500 billion — will “embed long-term sustainable values and practices within its communities” and “become the leading light with how organizations support its people, wider communities and entire economies.” And regardless of the project's questionable motives, architects are gravitating to NEOM, designing one audacious project after another. From a linear city in the desert to an upside-down skyscraper carved into a mountain, ten short films on the ten regional projects follow, in order of their unveiling.

The Line

Unveiled January 2021
Theme: A 170-kilometer-long city for 9 million people
Architects involved: Morphosis (masterplan and Hidden Marina), with Adjaye Associates, Sir Peter Cook & CHAP, Coop Himmelb(l)au, DMAA, Fuksas, Oyler Wu Collaborative, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, and UNStudio (per NEOM exhibition)

Oxagon

Unveiled November 2021
Theme: A fully automated next-generation port
Architects involved: BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group

Trojena

Unveiled March 2022
Theme: A mountain destination with ski village and wellness resorts that will host the 2029 Asian Winter Games
Architects involved: LAVA (masterplan), with Aedas, bureau^proberts, Zaha Hadid Architects (Discovery Tower), Mecanoo, and UNStudio (per Dezeen)

Sindalah

Unveiled December 2022
Theme: A high-end island resort and “superyacht destination” in the Red Sea
Architects involved: Luca Dini Design and Architecture

Leyja

Unveiled October 2023
Theme: Three hotels in the rocky coastal landscape of the Gulf of Aqaba
Architects involved: Killa Design (Wellness Hotel), Mario Cucinella Architects (Oasis Hotel), OMA (Adventure Hotel)

Epicon

Unveiled November 2023
Theme: Two jagged desert towers with an ultra-premium hotel and luxury residences, plus a beach resort and villas
Architects involved: 10 Design

Siranna

Unveiled November 2023|
Theme: A luxury hotel and residences situated in a cove and appearing to blend into the adjoining mountain, like an ancient relic
Architects involved: Woods Bagot

Utamo

Unveiled December 2023
Theme: An immersive arena in a large cave-like space accessed by a monumental door facing the sea
Architects involved: Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura

Norlana

Unveiled December 2023
Theme: A coastal community with marina and sports facilities catering to 3,000 residents
Architects involved: 10 Design

Aquellum

Unveiled January 2024
Theme: An “ultra-luxury upside-down” skyscraper with hotel and residences built inside a coastal mountain, complete with a sunken marina
Architects involved: LAVA and NAME architecture