Insane CGI infrastructure ideas, created by bored design students, frequently become slightly popular on social media. Examples include the concept of public transportation “discs” that hover above traffic or the notion of a nuclear-powered “flying hotel.” However, it’s rare that one of the richest sovereign wealth funds in the world supports these half-baked ideas. However, this is the case with Saudi Arabia’s proposal to erect what will appear to be a massive mirror wall in the desert.
Can They Pull it Off?
Saudi Arabia is rich and Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the country’s crown prince, is very ambitious. MBS intends to make his mark on the world by building the enormous Neom city in the desert, which will feature just about every futuristic technology you can imagine. From the merely ambitious, like cloud seeding and vertical farms, to the sci-fi fantastical, like robot cage fights and a fake moon… for some reason.
The entire enterprise has come under fire, with reports detailing issues ranging from massive overspending to the repressive treatment of indigenous tribes (who have been forcibly relocated for the project). However, development continues after MBS allegedly referred to the project as “my pyramids.” The most recent twist is a recently unveiled concept for The Line: a “vertical city” that’s 1640 miles high, 105 miles long, and, strangely enough, coated with mirrors.
Saudi Arabia’s The Line, which resembles a wall, is intended to be made up of two enormous parallel structures connected by walkways and separated into communities that are designed to provide access to all of the city’s facilities within a five-minute walk.
Saudi Arabia’s Futuristic Ambitions
A high-speed railway would run below the mirrored buildings, vegetables will be “autonomously gathered and wrapped” from neighborhood farms, The Line will have a stadium “up to 1,000 feet above the earth,” and there will be a marina for boats beneath an arch connecting the towers.
MBS is allegedly planning to spend the entire $500 billion authorized for the project. But comparable large-scale initiatives have come and gone before, such as the adjacent Dubai construction of The World Island. In such a situation, islands were built, but only a small number of them are still inhabited, and most are sinking back into the sea. People will have to wait and see how long it takes for the mirrors on The Line to lose their luster.