Dreaming big is good. It gives us something to strive for. But calling failed projects sustainable from the outset is pitfall that architects should avoid. For years, Saudi Arabia’s vision for The Line — a 120-mile mirrored city slicing through the desert — was marketed as the future of sustainable urban living. No cars. No emissions. Everything within five minutes. A climate-friendly city built from scratch.

But as a sweeping investigation by the Financial Times now documents, The Line has collided head-on with something no amount of ambition can override: physics, finance, and ecological reality.

According to the FT’s reporting, based on interviews with more than 20 former architects, engineers, and executives, the project unravelled under the weight of its own contradictions. They spoke anonymously for fears of lawsuits. A quick digging into PR and you can find which ones readily took the money and tried to make the idiotic project come to life. Costs for the “eco” city ballooned into the trillions, engineering assumptions failed the most basic stress tests, and foreign investment never arrived at the scale Saudi planners expected.

One former architect recalled warning leadership that suspending a 30-storey structure upside-down above a marina could turn it into a “pendulum” — swaying, accelerating, and eventually failing by dropping into the marina. Another described sewage systems that required hundreds of shuttle cars to move waste uphill because gravity no longer worked in a vertical fantasy city. Even flushing a toilet became a design problem. That’s what happens at Burj in the UAE where poop trucks need to unload the sewage daily.

At the center of The Line and the Neom project stood Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose vision for Neom was intended to catapult the kingdom beyond oil and into a post-carbon future. Yet the investigation shows how dissent was discouraged, timelines were politically fixed, and feasibility studies were often replaced by renderings.

Green on the Surface, Fragile Underneath

From a climate perspective, the cracks run deeper. The FT reports that building just the first 20 modules of The Line would have required more cement annually than France produces, and up to 60% of global green steel capacity — a sobering reminder that “green” materials are not infinite. Cement is definitely not a sustainable building material. When a single project distorts global supply chains, sustainability claims begin to ring hollow.

Urban planners have long warned that megaprojects often fail not because of lack of technology, but because they ignore human behavior and ecological limits. The late urbanist Jane Jacobs famously argued that cities thrive through incremental complexity, not total control. The Line attempted the opposite: a sealed, pre-engineered world with no room for organic growth.

Ecologists raised additional alarms. Bird migration experts cited by BirdLife International flagged the mirrored wall as a potential mass-collision hazard for millions of birds moving along the East Africa–West Asia flyway — an issue that design tweaks like dotted glass could not realistically solve.

A Pattern We’ve Seen Before

This is not the first time a futuristic desert city promised sustainability and delivered disruption instead. From Egypt’s stalled administrative capital to past “eco-cities” in China that never filled with people, the lesson repeats: cities are living systems, not machines.

It’s a useful contrast to projects like Masdar’s eco-city experiment in Abu Dhabi, which has evolved in fits and starts over time—more incremental, less totalizing than a single, 120 mile gesture. Green Prophet covered Masdar early on, including its first 500 homes. We’ve been there, we’ve seen the spectacle.

The world needs more sustainable architects like Ronak Roshan who sees the location, the land, and the people.

The FT notes that Saudi Arabia has already spent over $50 billion, with much of the construction now slowed or paused. People already living in villages nearby have been killed, arrested for life, with a few on death row. What remains are colossal foundations, excavated deserts, displaced communities, and a scaled-down ambition that bears little resemblance to the original vision.

The failure of The Line is not a failure of imagination. It is a failure of restraint by western architects and planners who go along with the charade. Who is holding these firms accountable? This is actually a reasonable kind of project for the UN to take on and challenge.

Climate-resilient futures will not be built by single, monumental gestures, but by repairing existing cities, restoring ecosystems, and working with land rather than against it. The most sustainable city is rarely the one that looks most radical in a rendering.

As one urban expert quoted by the FT put it bluntly: “As a thought experiment, great. But don’t build thought experiments.

Related reading on Green Prophet:
• Saudi Arabia’s energy-water nexus meets Vision 2030 (NEOM and giga-project context)
• NEOM’s Aquellum and the weekly “fantasy” cycle of desert futurism
• A Middle East biodiversity corridor: birds helping Israel, Jordan, and Palestine cooperate

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Elon Musk has never been shy about grand declarations and funding Iranian dissidents, but his latest announcement landed with particular force in Washington last week. Standing beside Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Saudi Arabia’s communications minister Abdullah Alswaha, Musk revealed plans for a 500-megawatt xAI data center to be built in the Kingdom — a facility nearly twice the size of xAI’s Colossus 1 in Memphis.

Saudi Arabia is investing a trillion USD in the US economy and pulling companies over to Riyadh is part of the plan. This rivals Dubai which for the last 15 years has been the Middle East investment capital. Saudi Arabia normalizing with Israel and the New Middle East is taking the UAE example to diversify its economy when oil is no longer a viable business. It’s not a question if, it’s a question of when.

“It’s going to be one of the most powerful clusters ever built,” Musk said, adding that the project, developed with HUMAIN AI, represents “a massive leap forward for global computation.” HUMAIN AI, a newcomer created with backing from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, fueled by ARAMCO, Saudi’s oil company will anchor the joint venture.

As with most of the world’s current AI arms race, the beating heart of the center will be Nvidia chips, which have become the gold standard for training frontier models.

Huang, who has spent the year bouncing between Silicon Valley, Singapore, and the Gulf, announced a separate 100-megawatt data center for Amazon Web Services powered by Nvidia hardware. “This is just the beginning,” he said. “We’re aiming for gigawatt scale. The demand for accelerated computing is rising faster than any of us predicted.”

These kinds of deals can be run on solar power and possibly green hydrogen which Saudi Arabia is pioneering.

“Humanoid robots will be the biggest product ever,” Musk said: “Perhaps in the four or five-year time frame, the lowest-cost way to do AI compute will be with solar-powered AI satellites.”

All this unfolded one day after the U.S. and Saudi Arabia unveiled a Memorandum of Understanding on AI, designed to give the Kingdom access to advanced American systems while “protecting U.S. technology from foreign influence,” according to the White House. In diplomatic speak, that means Washington wants to ensure Riyadh remains on the Western tech grid rather than drifting toward Beijing’s orbit.

Related: Is your company investing in Riyadh or Dubai? 

Yet behind the spectacle lies a more grounded story: Saudi Arabia is betting its post-oil future on computation. The Kingdom has land, capital and political will — and it wants to become indispensable to the world’s AI supply chain.

Environmental analysts, however, are asking harder questions. A 500-megawatt data center is effectively a new industrial city. “Where is the clean power coming from?” “If this is fueled by oil or gas, it simply shifts the carbon problem upstream.”

Saudi officials insist renewable capacity is accelerating. The Kingdom has sunlight in abundance, and giga-scale construction and solar projects are rising across the desert and into the sea.

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Saudi Arabia is pouring billions of its oil profits from its family-owned oil business Saudi Aramco to make Saudi Arabia an attractive destination for Westerners. Saudi Arabia wants to rival the United Arab Emirates in its openness to Western values and business. It was not long ago (6 years) that Saudi Arabian women were allowed to drive. But now with the investment into Saudi Arabia’s mega-developments called Neom, the country has started inviting and paying American influencers to live in the15-minute city being created at the Red Sea, called The Line.

South Africa influencer Jessica Ashley Herman has moved into a Neom complex in Saudi Arabia with her family, and commenters on social media, X are not kind. “Low security prison vibes,” writes one user.

“Is this supposed to convince people to work out in the desert for a penal colony?”

Below is the video she posted on TikTok.

“Looks like nothing any sane person would want to live the rest of one’s life.”

“Dude this is the stuff of nightmares.”

“Oil pipeline camp vibes.”

“We were promised stuff from an 80s sci-fi film and we got an 80s office park.”

Planned cities are difficult to build. When the United Arab Emirates built Masdar as the world’s first zero-carbon city, good thing they kept the flop of a city small. It never became a thing, and when engineering students moved into it they weren’t even allowed to write about it and its problems. We did have a secret submission years ago. It’s posted here.

So what about you? Think you will relocate to Saudi Arabia?

Saudi Arabia is investing billions to make the desert and Red Sea area the playground for the rich and famous hoping it can become the new Cannes. We believe that a city without a purpose and a heart will flop.

Also worth noting, the Houthis had been firing rockets at Saudi Arabia before they took up the cause to support the Hamas and fire rockets at Israel. If Saudi Arabia can’t join some peacekeeping force ASAP no westerner will want to set foot anywhere close to the Red Sea.

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It’s 10 years away and hopefully the Houthi conflict in the Red Sea far behind them: Saudi Arabia has already revealed plans for 15 of its 2034 World Cup stadiums. This will be the second FIFA World Cup to be help in the Middle East after Qatar hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The stadiums will host the World Cup and includes a venue built at the 15-minute city, The Line. Another is based on the surface of the bark of a tree.

Revealed as part of its official bid submission to FIFA, the 15 stadiums will be based in the cities of Riyadh, Jeddah, Al Khobar and Abha, as well as part of The Line, the controversial city which has seen Bedouins murdered and sent to jail.

A total of 11 new stadiums will need to be built, with 3 under construction. Two of Saudi Arabia’s largest stadiums will be renovated for the event and 2 others expanded. How can we ensure that worker’s rights in Saudi Arabia are upheld?

A Guardian report issued in February 2021 found that more than 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had died in Qatar since the award of the tournament. The death records were not categorised by occupation or place of work but it is assumed they were accidents that took place during construction of the stadium, pointing to modern-day slavery conditions in Qatar that still has not seen much media attention.

We wrote about this in 2012, but Qatar nor the international FIFA body paid no heed.

“Trade unionists have used the COP18 discussions in Qatar to bring the silent but disturbing plight of migrant workers to light. While the emirate boasts about its plans to build a bevy of solar-powered stadiums in advance of the 2022 World Cup in addition to a host of other eco-boosting projects, very little has been said about who is going to do the work. Like Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Saudi Arabia, Qatar relies very heavily on migrant workers, who do all the dirty work but receive few of the benefits of their hard, miserable labor.”

FIFA is set to confirm Saudi Arabia as the host for the 2034 event in December, with the country the only bidder for the event. Who is going to hold FIFA and Saudi Arabia accountable for worker’s rights when basic media is not allowed to report from Saudi Arabia?

Read on for details of the 15 stadiums set to host games at the 2034 World Cup:

New Murabba Stadium, Riyadh, unknown architect

The New Murabba Stadium will be surrounded by rock-like forms divided by canyons: “Its design replicates the layered overlapping planes and peeling planar texture of the bark of the native acacia tree,” according to the bid placed.

The 45,000-seat stadium will form part of the Murabba downtown development, and will include the square skyscraper called Mukaab featured here. No elements of sustainability in materials or LEED certification supplied.

King Salman International Stadium, Riyadh, by Populous

This venue will host the World Cup 2034 final and will be the country’s largest stadium when complete. It is designed by the architecture studio Populous, and will have a capacity of 92,000.

“The stadium will blend into its surrounding topography, with terrain and natural habitat forming part of the stadium’s roof,” said the official submission.

“Aside from its aesthetic appeal, this design will provide effective shading and ventilation tailored to the desert climate.”

Roshn Stadium, Riyadh, ROSHYN Gruop

“The stadium is designed as a dynamic part of the urban fabric, encouraging the community to walk around and through the facility,” announced the bid.

King Fahd Sports City Stadium, Riyadh, by Ian Fraser, John Roberts, Michael KC Cheah

First opened in 1987, the King Fahd Sports City Stadium is covered with a distinctive fabric roof supported on a series of masts. Set in east of Riyadh, it is being refurbished by Populous to increase seating from 58,000 to 70,000.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman Stadium, Riyadh, by Populous

Named after Mohammed bin Salman, the stadium is planned about 20 miles from Riyadh and the cliffside stadium will include attendee stands on three sides with a large, retractable LED wall occupying the other side. There are no sustainability elements supplied.

“The bowl has been designed to optimise the spectator experience, featuring a unique three-sided arrangement to allow for spectacular views out towards the Tuwaiq cliffs,” wrote the official bidders.

Prince Faisal bin Fahd Sports City Stadium, Riyadh, Populous 

“The stadium design draws inspiration from the ‘culturally contextualized modernism’ principles of Salmani architecture,” said the bid.

The stadium will include solar panels and locally sourced materials.

South Riyadh Stadium, Riyadh, Populous

Influenced by “Salmani architecture”, the South Riyadh Stadium will be located in the south Riyadh. “The facade blends modernity with the rich architectural language and material palette of the area,” according to the bid.

King Saud University Stadium, Riyadh, by Michael KC Cheah, renovation by Populous

This is one of the two existing stadiums that will be expanded for the World Cup so it can seat 46,000 during the tournament instead of 33,000 currently.

Neom Stadium, Neom, unknown architect

The aim here is to be the most unique stadium in the world the Neom stadium will be part of The Line, a 15-minute linear city being built on the coast of the Red Sea. “With a pitch situated more than 350 meters above ground, stunning vistas, and a roof created from the city itself, the stadium will be an experience like no other.”

King Abdullah Sports City Stadium, Jeddah, by Arup

This venue was opened in 2014 by Arup and can hold 62,000 people. It will be refurbished for the World Cup: “Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Sports City Stadium is an elegant, respectful and versatile complex that combines traditional Islamic architecture with innovative design to form a highly functional, sustainable and flexible building,” said Arup.

Qiddiya Coast Stadium, Jeddah, Populous

This colorful stadium will be built aboutu 30 miles outside Jeddah.

“It is designed as a physical representation of the vibrant relationship between people and water, energy and matter, with its design also evoking the ripple effect of a Mexican wave,” said the bidder.

“Its form undulates; its vibrant color palette is rich and joyful.”

Jeddah Central Development Stadium, Jeddah, by GMP Architecten

This is being built as one of the anchor buildings of the Jeddah Central giga project and will include a 45,000 seat stadium designed by German studio GMP Architecten. The idea is to look like historic structures, though Saudi Arabian historic buildings were essentially palaces and buildings made from mud. See the House of Saud.

“It echoes the traditional architecture of Jeddah’s historic Al Balad district, while embracing technological advancements and innovative building design,” said the bidder.

“It features three tiers, with an outer concourse connected to four surrounding ‘villages’. The stadium bowl is fully covered by a semi-translucent roof, with a retractable inner roof and a 360-degree LED screen.”

King Abdullah Economic City Stadium, Jeddah, unknown architect

Located 60 miles from Jeddah, the King Abdullah Economic City Stadium will form part of a planned new city on the Red Sea Coast. The drum-shaped stadium will have a capacity of 45,000.

Aramco Stadium, Al Khobar, by Foster + Partners and Populous

With a concept by UK studio Foster + Partners and now being designed by Populous, the Aramco Stadium is under construction in Al Khobar.

“The stadium’s architecture celebrates the sea’s dynamic nature and its profound influence on the local community,” said the bid: “Its whirlpool-shaped design mimics overlapping sails and draws on graceful, natural wave motifs, to blend seamlessly with the coastal landscape.”

King Khalid University Stadium, Abha, a renovation by Populous

Located in Abha, the King Khalid University Stadium is stadium number 2 that will be expanded and retrofitted to accommodate a larger crowd.

The stadium can hold 12,000 and it will be increased to 45,000 during the World Cup.

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Steeped in history and mythology (will there be jinns?), Leyja is a string of hotels starts from the Gulf of Aqaba coast and its alluring waters in the west, then winds inland to form a magnificent natural valley carved between 400m-high mountains that have been crafted over long centuries by the power of nature and water.

Aligned with NEOM’s strategy to designate the majority of its land across its destinations and cities as a nature reserve, 95% of Leyja will be preserved for nature and will combine innovative, ecological design and construction techniques to ensure the development seamlessly blends into the landscape.

Leyja’s three hotels have been intelligently and sensitively designed by world-leading architects to complement the surrounding nature, operate sustainably, and provide distinct experiences. The three properties will offer 120 elegant boutique rooms and suites, split equally with 40 keys at each.

The first property is tailor-made for active adventure. The deconstructed design ascends the walls of the wadi like a staircase, its structure effortlessly tracing the topography with minimal disturbance of the terrain’s natural lines. Its unique location, folded into the cliff top and valley sides, lends itself to those seeking rock climbing and other high-octane experiences in the surrounding area.

The second property rises from the rock to sit prominently at the heart of the wadi’s largest oasis, functioning as an enchanting gateway to discovery and exploration of the valley that continues beyond. The impressive staircase ascending from the canyon to the entrance of the property is a journey of discovery, offering unrivalled views of the valley in all its beauty.

The third property is an immersive wellness retreat that promotes longevity, with a high-tech, reflective façade mirroring the surrounding beauty and valley walls. This allows the wadi’s natural passage through the property’s center, providing visitors with a unique and interactive experience.

Once developed, Leyja will offer an extensive selection of refined experiences and activities, including fine dining and contemporary restaurants presented by world-renowned chefs. Wellness facilities and rooftop infinity-style pools across the three properties are also key features. Extensive guided wadi walks, and enthralling hiking trails set in the valley’s dramatic mountain landscapes await guests, with mountain biking and climbing on offer for those looking for adventure.

Leyja is NEOM’s latest development and follows the announcement of the project’s flagship regions, including Sindalah, its luxury island; THE LINE, a linear 15-minute city that represents the future of urban living; Trojena, its year-round mountain destination and the first outdoor ski experience in the GCC region; and Oxagon, a floating port city.

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The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has chosen Saudi Arabia to host World Environment Day 2024 which will center on the theme of “land restoration.” Saudi Arabia has an incredible vision for mangrove reforestation and it is starting to open up archeology from the past to foreigners and international research institutions, but as it looks to tourism from the West Saudi Arabia is very misguided about new community building seen with Neom projects which are completely out of line with sustainable development goals. It’s like they took some great sales teams from Europe on the most “eco” ideas they could find on paper and multiplied everything by a trillion.

But putting Saudi Arabia in the center of the discussion, if only for an event like World Environment Day, will open the nation to criticism and balance from environmentalists around the world. It may be Saudi territory, but nature and the world should belong to every human/

According to UNEP, the event will “accelerate action on the restoration of landscapes and ecosystems.”

World Environment Day, established by UNEP in 1972 is celebrated annually on June 5, and encourages awareness and action for the protection of the environment. It is supported by many non-governmental organizations, businesses, government entities, and represents the primary United Nations outreach day supporting the environment. It is also called Eco Day, Environment Day, WED (world environment day).

Over the past five decades, the Day has grown to be one of the largest global platforms for environmental outreach. Tens of millions of people participate online and through in-person activities, events and actions around the world. 2024 will mark the 30^th anniversary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. The sixteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 16) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) will be held in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, from 2 to 13 December 2024.

According to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, up to 40 per cent of the planet’s land is degraded, directly affecting half of the world’s population and threatening roughly half of global GDP, $44 trillionUSD. The number and duration of droughts has increased by 29 per cent since 2000 – without urgent action, droughts may affect over three-quarters of the world’s population by 2050.

Land restoration is a key pillar of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), a rallying call for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world, which is critical to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

If I look at the track record of Saudi Arabia with its production and manipulation of cost of fossil fuels by Saudi Aramco and its apparent lack of awareness for sustainable development at all of Neom‘s projects like The Line and a desert ski-hill for a planet on fire, it would make more sense to choose a country like Israel to show the world how to combat desertification: not by buying the latest in desalination technologies, but by inventing and implementing new technologies.

Israel also has an efficient mode of watering crops, using drip irrigation, a process the country invented decades ago. These facts matched with advances in agriculture and reforestation would make Israel an obvious choice. But the world is still kowtowing to the highest bidder. So big oil money wins the game, again.

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