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Neom’s Line is a 170km long city that is no wider than a city block. It’s extreme shape runs along transportation networks and promises an efficient and futuristic urban design and lifestyle. However, Linear cities have been around for more than a hundred years, yet they are rarely built. Why not? Why are lines not considered great shapes for cities? From poor access to public transportation to a lack of social cohesion, linear cities can suffer from a number of issues that make them less livable than more traditional, compact urban forms. This video breaks down the top reasons linear cities have either failed or not been built, despite dozens of proposals since their invention in the late 1800s.
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Architecture with Stewart is a YouTube journey exploring architecture’s deep and enduring stories in all their bewildering glory. Weekly videos and occasional live events breakdown a wide range of topics related to the built environment in order to increase their general understanding and advocate their importance in shaping the world we inhabit.
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Stewart Hicks is an architectural design educator that leads studios and lecture courses as an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also serves as an Associate Dean in the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts and is the co-founder of the practice Design With Company. His work has earned awards such as the Architecture Record Design Vanguard Award or the Young Architect’s Forum Award and has been featured in exhibitions such as the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Design Miami, as well as at the V&A Museum and Tate Modern in London. His writings can be found in the co-authored book Misguided Tactics for Propriety Calibration, published with the Graham Foundation, as well as essays in MONU magazine, the AIA Journal Manifest, Log, bracket, and the guest-edited issue of MAS Context on the topic of character architecture.
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Very simple. You are born on one end and there is an ever expanding cemetary into the desert on the other.
The Ragg's are good for such foolery, blowin there money on such ridiculous ideaa. Trying so hard to be recognized omm.
The Line is for sure one of the dumbest ideas of the decade but wooooow it looks cool
On the subject of designed cities we have Brasilia that was envisioned to function as a capital for Brazil and had a plan that looked like an airplane (main body for political structures, wings for residential). In a way its like 2 linear cities crossing each other. What happened is that people who wanted to work there had no real planned space for them so sattelite cities formed around Brasilia and now the greater metropolitan area is an aglomeration of these improvised urban designs around the planned project. A great methaphor for how reality reacts to idealised concepts made phisical.
Great overview. Makes one think of the Nile, an original linear(ish) city / society. Then of course there is the sci-fi "Riverworld".
Hi Stewart, I love your video, have subscribed and am 100% with you.
Especially the travelling and expansion limitations are very good arguments.
You have put a lot of effort into this video. Thank you for the good argumentation and well chosen examples. Some of the projects were new to me. That said I still think this project should be built. It could add something new we can´t foresee atm, because something this radical has never been built before. As long as it is treated as a singularity like let´s say a modern Chinese wall it might even work somehow and if it doesn’t, well then hopefully we learned something.
There are much worse things mankind has done to the planet. 😉
You're looking at why this won't work from an ethnocentric western perspective. Saudi Arabia is not limited by the same bureaucratic and political obstacles that would cause a city like this to fail in the west. When the crown prince says to get something done, the people get it done.
The linear city design can only succeed in a totalitarian society, if you want people to live there. The reason previous linear cites have not worked is because of human freedom. When a person gets tired of smelling his neighbor's farts, he can decide to move to an area of less proximity to the flatulence. I wonder, if in the linear city a person decides to move right outside its walls, would that be allowed? I doubt it. This is a prison they are calling a city.
The line ain't gone fail, yall are just haters
Considering who's sponsoring it I'm guessing it would be best to compare it to a correctional facility. Looks to me like he intends to put his entire population into a prison.
You can design a linear city that is, if it doesn’t feels linear by having enough width and necessary space treatment. Sadly the Arabian city proposal RELYS on feeling linear which is lunacy.
The giant, uncrossable mirror wall will be an environmental disaster. The temperatures just south of the wall will be like Venus. The nature just outside the city will be charred.
Thank you for including drone footage of Doroshenko street in Lviv, Ukraine!! BUT it's not the longest street in Lviv, by the way, there is also Horodots'ka street, you can check it 😉
The biggest downfall of ideas like this, and any centralized planning of ANY KIND, is that, by nature, humans hate forced order. We refuse to follow rules as a character trait, which is why organic growth is always the most long lived growth.
I see. Non of you have yet grasped the true intent of this city.
It's supposed to be a money-dump for stupid rich people. And in order to be that, it has to be maximally pog-face-induceing. And in order to be THAT, it has to waste the absolute most ammount of resources, money and labor whilest MAYBE granting nothing but the beare minimum of utility. Like a 1000-PS sports-car with no clearance, no rear-view, no load capacity, only 2 seats, gas-consumption of two miles per gallon and a top-speed waaaaay beyond what is legally allowed or save on every street in the world.
One thing I find is that they are claiming it will have things that don't even exist today, and they claim this will be complete by 2030? Plus it will only cost 500 billion to one trillion? They like to dream big I'll give them that.
This project is pretty much a moot point, as it will never be built. Even if construction is started, it will soon be abandoned like many of these other mega projects!
Great video your voice sounds like Jack McBrair without the accent.
You have the same voice as Kenneth in 30 Rock
Dear Saudi Arabia, y'all got too much money
I hope the exterior is covered with solar panels for the air conditioning.
Think I'll stay in my house in the woods with the wildlife, trees, flowers, fresh air and walks in nature
sounds like a total circulation nightmare
We suck at designing new neighborhoods, towns, cities and states. Too many big corporations have influenced the "designs" of those things and they don't have our best interest or the planet's best interest in mind when they do it. They need us to drive cars and take trips on planes and have children so you'll need to buy more shit. The "tiny" movement was just the beginning of people thinking of new and better ways to live and be environmentally friendly while doing it. I'm all for getting rid of everything you own that doesn't fit in a backpack and living without concern for what anyone thinks because I wear the same two sets of clothes and I don't care about what brand shoes I'm wearing. Greed is destroying the country and most of the world really but it's killing America. It's not just the billionaires, it's creeping into every level of society.
I wonder how it would look abandoned. Probably won’t take long
My buddy Eric built this city in ‘08 it didn’t go well.
Neom will probably need a thousand elevators
Congratulations Stewart on producing a serious thoughtful critique of something that is so obviously idiotic. Highly enjoyable.
There will be no sprawl, suburbs or stroads in this " city". But limiting yourself to a thin line in the middle of an empty dessert is just dumb. Everybody who played Cizes Skylines knows that the perfect layouts are always circles and giant roundabouts 🙂
8:54 *East Coast
Can you imagine the slums outside the wall if this city becomes a success?
I live in Ciudad Lineal in Madrid an actually you can see the original plan in the streets without problem. The central main street is named very accurately Arturo Soria and is one of the longest in Madrid. Buses and cars move quickly using Arturo Soria and lateral streets are mostly quiet.
11:08 recognizable place))
There is a reason cities are not in a line. Circles are much, like much more efficient.