British engineering concern Atkins has been announced as a strategic Delivery Partner for The Line, Saudi Arabia’s complicated centerpiece for the NEOM megadevelopment that is set to be constructed in just under three years.
As part of their five-year contract, Atkins will provide project and construction consultancy services in unison with the project’s other, now-assumed partners that include Bechtel, Morphosis, and several leading international firms revealed last month via an exhibition in Riyadh.
In a press release, Atkins stated “[t]he project has adopted a highly collaborative delivery model in response to its scale, complexity, supply chain and requirements for innovation.”
“As a Delivery Partner organization, we will work closely with NEOM and our partners to seamlessly connect people, data and technology to drive innovation, value, efficiency and certainty on the project,” Atkins President Philip Hoare added. “Our combined intent is to radically transform the way major infrastructure projects are delivered, and THE LINE, with its vision and complexity, provides a great opportunity to demonstrate what our industry can achieve.”
Atkins CEO Campbell Gray reiterated his company’s commitment to the state’s ambit, which has faced criticism over displacement and ecological impact, stating “Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s most dynamic growth markets, and we are committed to supporting the country’s ambitions through our global engineering expertise, our in-depth local knowledge, and our investment in the Kingdom’s future talent.”
Construction on the $500 billion development began last fall.
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More poetry:
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Shelley
seamlessly connect people, data and technology to drive innovation, value, efficiency and certainty
I haven't looked hard, but I haven't seen any discussion about what kind of society this mammoth project is designed for, how it will work, how it will serve Saudi Arabia, its people, its culture, or the world, whether there will be social transformation of any sort. I assume, however, this new world will be seamless.
They will move everyone to NEOM, and use the rest of the country to siphon oil at a rapid pace to extract and sell it before everyone stops relying on it... just kidding...
I'm guessing, however, it will seamlessly dovetail with surveillance.
The absolute monarchy restricts almost all political rights and civil liberties. No officials at the national level are elected. The regime relies on extensive surveillance, the criminalization of dissent, appeals to sectarianism and ethnicity, and public spending supported by oil revenues to maintain power. Women and religious minorities face extensive discrimination in law and in practice. Working conditions for the large expatriate labor force are often exploitative.
https://freedomhouse.org/country/saudi-arabia/freedom-net/2021
Get in line—the project name has metaphorical significance.
Saudi is responsible for washing everything: Architecture, Sports, etc. all in the name of some inflated, fake culture at that. Really sad but interesting to watch a kingdom race so hard to prove validity stemming from their longstanding history as Arabia.
"Combinatory Urbanism: The Complex Behavior of Collective Form"
This is the theoretical base to argue against the idea.
Just saying...
It's deeply ironic that Morphosis is probably the most responsible for the publicity materials released so far - maybe the lens flare style is exactly why they were picked. But in the absence of plans and drawings, I suppose one could speculate that maybe some of Mayne's theories might be in play at Neom. It's such a tabula rasa at the moment that it could be a sandbox for anything you desire - which is what the Gulf states sell to investors. Any dream and fantasy, for a price.
It is very much coming from Morphosis; they have sold the concept and services to the clients and I don't know the extend but they brought in a few architects. It is a very doable construction and planning concept even though it is not an environmental solution to anything. It is a banner for the construction industry driver of dreaming business.;) But, it definitely changes the questions of form-making and sheds light on who controls the "future" making industry and the limitations of their vision of the future.
This is ample evidence that the megalomania and self-aggrandizement of ancient kings still prevails. It also reiterates how prominent AE firms prefer money over morality and planet sensitive work.
Finally, all this comes across as a last hurrah or even an act of desperation to remain noticed and relevant in a world that increasingly won't care about fossil fuel riches. After all what else do they have that the world wants?
take this picture and deconstruct the style in photoshop. easy. It has been done thousands of miles longer than neom.
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