The NEOM megadevelopment in Saudi Arabia is moving forward with an attention-grabbing feature after the American engineering firm Bechtel announced its retention as project managers for a new manmade ski resort project called Trojena.
According to NEOM’s website, the resort will be spread across six development districts containing a manmade lake, "folded" village, wildlife reserves, observatory, hotel, and the country’s first-ever high-altitude ski run. It will have room for 3,600 guest accommodations and 2,200 custom-built ultra-luxury "slope residences" for approximately 7,000 people set against more than 500 square miles of undeveloped mountain land.
The resort will be located about 30 miles from Saudi Arabia’s Gulf of Aqaba coast and range in elevation from 4,921 to 8,530 feet. Bechtel says the development will be a centerpiece in the Kingdom’s tourist-driven 2030 development goals and will eventually play host to the 2029 Asian Winter Games after its anticipated completion in 2026.
"NEOM and TROJENA continue to attract international firms as collaborators of a new future where people can live, work, and play in harmony with nature," Trojena Executive Director Philip Gurlet says in a promotional video. "Our vision defies current industry practices and lays the foundation of what sustainable regional and tourist developments can be."
The self-described "world’s most ambitious tourism project" is pushing toward realization in spite of decided local opposition and serious derision from architectural critics who feel Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's vision for a "habitable supercomputer" is at best far-flung and at times bordering on apocalyptic.
Nevertheless, the NEOM team says it plans on even more developments, including a new private luxury island, that showcase "different ideas" and will be announced at later unnamed dates. A timeframe for the start of the resort’s construction was not provided in the press announcement. Bin Salman called it "a unique example of how Saudi Arabia is creating destinations based on its geographical and environmental diversity."
As it currently stands, the first planned segments of the $500 billion project are slated to be ready in 2025.
4 Comments
Gotta say, they've been paying international AEC professionals (and quite a few pros from other design industries, such as gaming and set design) a handsome fortune to work on NEOM and its tangential projects.
I had no idea Saudi Arabia had such high mountains!
I love to hate this project but i'll find it perversely funny if they actually pull it off.
When labor is dirt cheap and you still have endless money ... anything is possible
just what the climate crisis called for
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