Photos show concrete works underway at The Line megacity

Recently shared photos show concrete works progressing on The Line megacity, which is being built as part of Neom in northwest Saudi Arabia.

In a LinkedIn post titled Neom is real part 24, The Line’s chief operating office Giles Pendleton shared a series of photos showing progress on the city.

The photos, which appear to be taken from a helicopter, show a long trench that has a concrete base along with low retaining walls. A series of pipes were placed within the concrete structure.

“A good snap shot of progress and a range of Neom infrastructure projects from the water pipeline to new camps completing to massive amount of work in Oxagon harbour,” wrote Pendleton alongside the images.

The other pictures show construction happening on The Line, with a large number of cranes and HGVs working in the desert. 

Photos also show a large camp that has been constructed alongside the Gulf of Aqaba and groundworks progressing on the Oxagon port, which is being designed by Danish studio BIG.

The Line is planned as a 170-kilometre-long city that will consist of a pair of parallel 500-metre-high skyscrapers.

It is understood that US studio Morphosis created the concept for the city, while the first phase is being designed by Austrian studio Delugan Meissl Associated Architects and global studio Gensler.

Named Hidden Marina, the first phase of The Line will be designed to house 200,000 people.

It will also contain 9,000 hotel rooms, shops and community infrastructure such as fire stations and schools.

The city is the most high-profile element of Neom, which is one of the world’s largest and most controversial developments.

It has been criticised widely on human rights and sustainability grounds, and last year, we asked if it was time for architecture studios to walk away from the project in the face of mounting pressure from campaigners.

Neom is one of 14 gigaprojects being developed in Saudi Arabia as part of the Saudi Vision 2030 plan to shift the country’s economy away from a reliance on oil.

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