Protesters against Neom don’t last long. How can western architects ignore this?
The ambitious development of the Saudi region of Neom, goes the PR gush, is “dedicated to the sanctity of all life on Earth”. Well, not quite all, it turns out. It was recently reported that three members of the Huwaitat tribe, arrested for protesting against the forced eviction of their and other families to make way for it, have been sentenced to death. Another protester from the tribe was shot dead by security forces in 2020. Which, for all those businesses and consultants who help to plan, design, build, market and otherwise enable monuments for tyrants, poses an old question with new force: what point is too much? When will whatever gain that might arise from the creation of extraordinary buildings cease to outweigh the atrocities that go with them?
Neom is arguably the most dramatic project in the world of architecture and construction right now. It includes The Line, a planned structure to house 9 million people, that will run dead straight for 170 kilometres (105 miles), projecting at one end into the Red Sea, but will be only 200 metres wide. It will be flanked on either side by 500-metre high walls of building, mirrored on the outside. Imagine a tower taller than the Empire State Building extruded from Birmingham to Leeds, and then doubled, and you have an idea of the scale. There have been some doubts whether The Line would truly happen but last week drone footage showed that a start has been made on digging its foundations.
