Long Saudi skyscraper may be undoable
A 120-kilometre long desert skyscraper clad in mirrors and developed at the whim of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince will have its own high-speed railway, a sports stadium and vertical gardens where vegetables are harvested by robots.
Leaked architectural designs claim that Mirror Line, an entire city of five million people on stilts as high as the Empire State Building, will be the largest structure in the world and have to “bend” to the curvature of the Earth.
But the building may not see the light of day as Mohammed bin Salman’s futuristic Neom megacity being built on the Red Sea coast is beset by hitches as officials scramble to keep up with his wildly ambitious visions.
The Mirror Line is just one part of the US$500 billion Neom that the crown prince, who has access to a US$620 billion sovereign wealth fund, hopes will attract foreign investment into the kingdom to diversify its economy away from oil.
But the crown prince, 35, is reported to have ever-changing ideas for his master plan and has cycled through dozens of key staff who complain of toxic work environments and mass overspending with few results. Twenty-five current and former employees told Bloomberg they struggle to implement near-impossible plans for Neom, which is five years into development.
Workers claim there is a culture of fear in telling the crown prince that some elements of his vision are not possible. Dozens have reportedly quit while millions of dollars are spent on architects, futurists and Hollywood production designers, according to Bloomberg.
Two mirrored buildings that form the Mirror Line are supposed to run parallel to each other for 120 kilometres and stand nearly 500 metres tall, housing up to five million people.
The Mirror Line has no set completion date, but experts think it would likely take as long as 50 years.