Saudi Arabia's gargantuan The Line megaproject appears to be experiencing changes in its design team composition. According to the Architect's Journal, Morphosis Architects has reportedly left the signature development of the larger $500 billion NEOM initiative.
The Thom Mayne-led studio was believed to be behind the initial master plan of the notoriously secretive scheme that was first revealed in 2022 as a 105-mile-long linear city aspiring to eventually house 9 million people between its 500-meter-tall walls. While NEOM continued to release updates on The Line and other satellite developments' construction progress in the Saudi desert, reporting from Bloomberg earlier this year pointed to a scaled-back schedule and emphasis on finishing an initial 1.5-mile segment for 300,000 residents by the end of the decade.
Critics of the project have also been vocal about human rights abuses connected with its development. The BBC reported this spring about the authorization of "lethal force to clear land" by officials, which left one member of the local Huwaitat tribe dead during a raid. In 2022, human rights monitoring group ALQST highlighted the case of three local tribesmen who received death sentences over their alleged opposition to The Line project.
Austrian firm Delugan Meissl Associated Architects (DMAA) is, according to AJ, taking over for Morphosis following its departure. The practice also participated in NEOM's The Line Experience preview exhibition in Riyadh last year.
4 Comments
Coming long after the world was aware of the appalling humanitarian issues with this client and project, we can assume this is about reduced scope and fees. Ethical leadership would have meant not taking the job to begin with.
Notable that Tom Wiscombe and Oyler Wu still seem fine working on a project in which the client is actually executing the people it is displacing...
Kinda funny that Adjaye is so toxic that even the line parted ways with him.
This seems to be a case where the end justifies the means. For me, and, I hope for many others, this is the end of the "Line".
This project is an absurdly ignorant concept, an affront to the collective architectural wisdom of humans, and a sustainability and human rights nightmare. I have zero respect for any architect involved.
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