As part of a $500 billion development project named Neom, Saudi Arabia is planning the world’s largest skyscrapers in a relatively unpopulated portion of the country. Neom, the vision of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, intends to construct twin buildings that would reach a height of 500 metres (1,640 feet) and spread horizontally for dozens of miles.
The buildings would span from the Red Sea shoreline into the desert, housing a mix of residential, retail, and commercial space. The design is a refinement of last year’s proposal to link a series of projects through a subterranean hyper-speed railway into a long continuous structure.
Designers were given a half-mile-long prototype to work on. If built in its entirety, each tower would be larger than the world’s current tallest structures, the majority of which are plants or shopping malls instead of residential neighbourhoods.
Neom is Prince Mohammed’s idea to transform a rural section of the country into a high-tech semi-autonomous state that reinterprets urban life. It was disclosed in 2017. It’s part of his strategy to entice foreign investment and aid in diversifying Saudi Arabia’s economy away from oil sales. According to the prince, the construction of The Line, a car-free linear city that will form the core of Neom, might cost up to $200 billion.
According to Al-Nasr, Neom’s chief executive officer, the structures would be of varying heights as they proceeded, adjusting to the terrain, with their final size determined by engineering concerns and the topography.
