Saudi Arabia‘s $500 billion Neom giga-project has announced the Hidden Marina as the first phase of The Line.
The Line is a zero-carbon city with “vertically layered” buildings for work, living and leisure.
The Hidden Marina plans were revealed by Denis Hickey, chief development officer of Neom, during the PIF Private Sector Forum in Riyadh last week, the Saudi Gazette reports.
Hidden Marina will stretch 2.5 kilometres in length and rise 500 metres high, Hickey said. It will have three “interconnected modules” and is expected to accommodate more than 200,000 residents.
The development will offer a built-up area of more than 21 million square metres, making its scale “unprecedented” and “dwarfing global benchmarks such as the Burj Khalifa [in Dubai], which has a built-up area of just 350,000 square meters”, Hickey said.
Hidden Marina will house over 80,000 residential units, 9,000 hotel rooms, commercial and retail spaces, schools, police and fire services, and “all the necessary infrastructure to support a self-sustaining city”, he said.
Neom: construction on track
In addition to The Line, Neom includes sites such as Trojena, a mountain resort with a ski village, ski slope, wellness resorts and a nature reserve; and Oxagon, an octagonal floating port city.
Neom’s first destination, a luxury resort named Sindalah, opened in October.
“Neom is not just a city but an urban revolution designed to push boundaries, redefine economies, and establish a new standard for future urban development,” said Hickey.
“With construction on track, Neom’s vision of a fully integrated, futuristic metropolis is rapidly becoming a reality.”
Late last year, Neom appointed a design team to lead the architecture and engineering for the first phase of The Line.
Austrian studio Delugan Meissl Associated Architects (DMAA) is the urban designer for the project’s first phase, while global studio Gensler will serve as city planning consultant. UK engineering studio Mott MacDonald is the infrastructure engineer.
Images courtesy of Neom
