Saudi Arabia unveils imaginative and prescient for ‘ultra-luxury upside-down skyscraper’

Saudi Arabia has introduced plans to assemble a mind-bending ‘the other way up skyscraper’ as a part of its fast improvement of NEOM – a burgeoning development website that the Kingdom goals to show right into a next-generation megacity on the Red Sea.

The new website, dubbed ‘Aquellum’ and billed as a ‘luxurious and experiential area providing visitors a style of futuristic residing’, seems to be like one thing out of a sci-fi online game and sparks each curiosity and skepticism upon first viewing.

Digital mockups of the deliberate improvement, set to be embedded inside a 1,500ft-high mountain vary alongside the Gulf of Aqaba shoreline in northwestern Saudi Arabia, present a 330ft-high megastructure bustling with facilities, to not point out gorgeous views.

Its proposed hid location means guests must entry the proposed improvement on a specifically designed vessel by way of an underground canal.

Upon arrival, guests would emerge right into a cavernous area constructed throughout the mountain, surrounded by all method of services, together with decadent motels and residences, retail areas, and ‘leisure and leisure zones’.

The higher flooring of the development shall be replete with lush gardens and viewing platforms from which guests can benefit from the breathtaking landscapes.

But Aquellum is not only designed to be a luxurious fantasy playground reserved just for the richest amongst us.

It may even play host to ‘The Generator’, a devoted area comprised of assorted laboratories the place scientists will flock to design cutting-edge expertise.

The proposal of Aquellum follows NEOM’s latest bulletins of Leyja, Epicon, Siranna, Utamo, and Norlana, all touted as sustainable tourism locations within the Gulf of Aqaba. 

All the developments fall underneath plans drawn up by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the Kingdom’s finest and brightest to diversify the Gulf state’s oil-dependent financial system.

These megacities will present tens of hundreds of jobs and enhance Saudi Arabia’s tourism business, with its builders hoping the futuristic, high-tech initiatives will appeal to billions in international funding.

They are additionally deliberate to be sustainable cities, absorbing inhabitants progress from Riyadh and Jeddah whereas remaining carbon impartial. 

NEOM’s the other way up subterranean improvement is undoubtedly bold – however maybe an much more audacious enterprise of engineering comes within the type of one other NEOM megastructure named ‘The Line.’

This mammoth development will see two parallel skyscrapers measuring 1,500ft excessive and stretching for 100 miles by northwestern Saudi Arabia constructed parallel to one another, successfully creating an elongated metropolis inside mirrored partitions. 

Concept artwork for the proposed construction is really otherworldly, displaying an unlimited glass and metallic development sprawling throughout the desert to the shores of the Red Sea.

The Kingdom says The Line, which can price $1trillion to construct, shall be an ‘unprecedented residing expertise’ that preserves ‘surrounding nature’. 

However, conservationists have sounded the alarm over the huge mission, saying it is going to be a lethal barrier for birds migrating between Europe and Africa every year.

The mirrored facades, metropolis orientation, and proposed wind generators in The Line all pose harmful for the handfuls of migratory animals navigating the area, whereas a examine led by Professor William Sutherland of Cambridge University identifies The Line as one of many 15 most urgent conservation points in 2024. 

‘Birds flying into tall home windows is a major problem, and it is a constructing that’s 500m excessive going throughout Saudi Arabia, with windmills on high,’ Professor William Sutherland, director of analysis in Cambridge University’s zoology division, instructed The Times.

‘It’s additionally form of like a mirror so you do not actually see it,’ Sutherland, who led the examine, added. ‘So except they do one thing about it, there is a critical danger that there may very well be plenty of harm to migratory birds.’

Nightingales, wheatears, larks, sandgrouse and turtle doves are all species of fowl that use the migratory route which may very well be affected.

Other species identified to journey that method embody the Egyptian vulture and saker falcon, each of that are endangered globally, The Times studies.

A spokesperson for NEOM instructed The Times that research are ‘underneath method with worldwide companions to know animal and fowl migration patterns and to evaluate how these could be mitigated,’ the British newspaper stated.

They added that measures being thought of embody how the linear metropolis can incorporate animal crossing factors, equivalent to tunnels, to permit them to cross by.

NEOM was first introduced in 2017, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman delivering a presentation on The Line in July 2022.

It has constantly raised eyebrows for proposed thrives like flying taxis and robotic maids, at the same time as architects and economists have questioned its feasibility.

At simply 200 yards extensive, The Line is meant to be Saudi Arabia’s reply to unchecked and wasteful city sprawl, layering properties, faculties and parks on high of one another in what planners time period ‘Zero Gravity Urbanism’.

Promotional materials says residents may have ‘all every day wants’ reachable inside a five-minute stroll, whereas additionally getting access to different perks like out of doors snowboarding services and ‘a high-speed rail with an end-to-end transit of 20 minutes.’