Picture credit neom.com
Would you live in Neom or "the Line"?
Neom is the new urban planning project of the King of Saudi Arabia delivering his vision of the new city of the future, "a civilizational revolution that puts humans first, providing an unprecedented urban living experience while preserving the surrounding nature". (1)
While it is important to question and re-imagine our habitat in the context of adapting to climate change, I cannot help but feel that this pharaonic project, only possible in countries like Saudi Arabia, is the antithesis of what humanity really needs.
I have the impression that it will physically imprison all the excesses of our current society.
The development of megacities and sustainable urban solutions are/will be a challenge in the future. In that sense, this is an interesting exercise, one that is fostering many talks in the political and rel estate realms. You can read more on this project in this very insightful FT article.
Urbanisation is indeed one of the megatrends(2) to be dealt with.
Do you know that, by 2050, 90% of urban expansion will occur in the "Global South", mainly developing countries in Africa and Asia?
The urban areas of the future will be larger, more complex and more interconnected, resulting in a number of positive and negative externalities to address on the economic, environmental, social and health fronts.
Just to illustrate the type of challenges that politicians and urban developers face, consider the case of Lagos.
Today, the capital of Nigeria has a population of 21 million.
By 2050, the city's population is expected to double, and some forecasts predict that it will grow up to nearly 90 million people by 2100! Such a huge population growth comes will many risks related to economic polarisation, overcrowding, slum development, logistics, sustainable infrastructure, crime, pollution, and loss of biodiversity or devastation of ecosystems.
There could also be some benefits such as increased productivity, the emergence of economies of density and economies of scale, positive externalities from improved access to medical and educational services, and diversity.
Although cities occupy only about 3% of the world's total land area, they have a significant impact on our planet, consuming more than 2/3 of the world's energy and accounting for over 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions.(3)
Other megatrends come into play when re-thinking the urban space and what a city of the future should look like. And there is no single answer. It's an exercise that requires creativity, system thinking and an entrepreneurial mindset.
I'll be publishing an article soon with more examples of rethinking urban development.
For now, why don't you share your ideas on on a better fit for urban development?
Any project - even a utopian one..
(1) quoted from the neom.com
(2) A Megatrend is a high-level driver of change that will have a significant impact on our societies in the decades to come.
(3) Source: CIFS Megatrends