Delugan Meissl Associated Architects and Gensler will assume urban planning of the futuristic megacity The Line.

The Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s developer of the Neom Project, has chosen Austrian studio Delugan Meissl Associated Architects and Californian studio Gensler to assume the urban planning during phase one of futurist megacity The Line, which is being built as part of Neom in the northwestern part of the country (pictured below).

Neom announced that Delugan Meissl would act as the urban planner and Gensler would act as the city planning consultant, while Mott MacDonald, an engineering studio in the United Kingdom, would assume the infrastructure engineering job.

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Smaller studios will be responsible for designing 700-meter-long sections of the megastructure, with phase one consisting of three of these sections starting at the Red Sea.

Out-of-this-world designs for The Line betray a grand Saudi ambition. 

The official confirmation of the lead architecture team designing The Line contradicts earlier reports that Western firms were reluctant to work on a project widely criticized for human rights violations and credible fears over its sustainability.

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Launched in January 2021, The Line is a conceptual linear smart city in Neom, Tabuk Province of Saudi Arabia, housed in a single building, that is designed to have no cars, streets or carbon emissions. The original plans called for the city to span 170 kilometers at a height of 500 meters and a width of 200 meters, sized to accommodate a population of 9 million (25% of Saudi Arabia's 2022 population of 35.5 million).

The Neom Project in 2023. Credit: Neom

The Public Investment Fund aims to complete a 5-kilometer central segment by 2030, while completion of the entire project is expected by 2045. Neom is one of 14 giga projects being developed in Saudi Arabia as part of Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s Saudi Vision 2030 plan to shift the country's economy from a reliance on oil.

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