As much as I celebrate metros... This city is built in the middle of a desert and only exists because of an immense amount of oil being burned to power gigantic desalination plants. It is hardly sustainable even with a metro.
That said, metro is better than no metro.
Riyadh existed long before oil. This 6th century poet is from modern-day Riyadh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-A%27sha
Oh, certainly, but the geography can't come anywhere near supporting 7 million people.
That's true for many places around the world. Saudi Arabia is investing in solar desalination https://youtu.be/sHmib-hSkbQ
Saudi Arabia just built a solar powered desalination plant, and they are investing in much more renewable infrastructure.
Why would they open it all at once?
It was rush hour
Finally
This is the keyword for such a city. It should've gotten such a system already by now when reaching the first million. All these arab/middle eastern cities seem so extremely focused on car infrastructure to a rather disturbing degree. And all the carbrains I know think these cities are the pinacle of modern city development: all just gigantic glass skyscrapers and highways circling around them - nothing else.
Also, back on Facebook/Instagram, there's not a single person who had the money to visit Dubai once and post pictures from there (at least that I'm aware of), that is not car brained. I'm sure they all use their car everywhere and nothing less, they could even be doing their basic shopping from the corner store with it, I think.
All these arab/middle eastern cities seem so extremely focused on car infrastructure to a rather disturbing degree.
Not all cities, but I do understand your sentiment and it is echoed by many locally. Luckily the people in the top are aware they need to fix this. Though even if they ever did, who wants to walk when its 37C at night? Some cities have installed outdoor cooling.
Can't they add some sort of vegetation or something and make sure it's watered as regularly as possible? Maybe something specific to the area (besides cactuses) that can keep more shade.
Cacti aren’t indigenous to Arabia, but palm trees are. There are greening projects, and Riyadh has a relatively cool dry weather, which makes it more livable than the humid coastal cities.
One interesting concept is "the line" city, basically one ultra long building. No need for cars and you can travel from one end to the other via high speed metro. It's basically a city optimized for public transport and so that everyone's apartment has a beautifu view on unspoiled nature (well desert in this case haha)
Ah well lol, thanks. Those are some good points. I'm more interested in a smaller concept and not in the desert. What I like is that in a smaller version every apartment could have a beautiful unobstructed view. You can't get that with more compact cities. And the infrastructure is kind of minimal - no junctions not just for transport but for water, cargo and power. You'd have to do the actual math at what scale this could make sense.
@LarmyOfLone
Yeh, the guy is pretty brutal about the whole project isn't he :-)
I agree a city "optimized for public transport and so that everyone’s apartment has a beautiful view on unspoiled nature" is very desirable.
Stuff like this: https://www.whispersandgiants.com/2024/01/16/preferable-future-habitats/
Those are beautiful images. But I think we also need more energy efficiency through shared (sound insulated) walls like a skyscraper or big apartment block. A line city would allow you to combine "living in nature" and just taking the stairs down and being in a park or walking between fields and into food forests, go cycling. And at the same time you get high urban density that is needed to accommodate all the people in an sustainable manner. Important would also be high ceilings (3-4m or 10-13 ft) so people don't feel like in a shitty box. Cheap food delivery or community run cafeterias. And you live among lots of people to meet and party with.
Another idea I had was to just put a big 500 unit apartment block in the middle of a large agricultural area / food forest. Not so efficient in transport, but everyone living there could work on the common necessities, maintain and build their own machinery and be truly self sufficient for food.
@LarmyOfLone
Big apartment blocks are less energy efficient, so I don't think they are the solution.
https://theconversation.com/cities-and-climate-change-why-low-rise-buildings-are-the-future-not-skyscrapers-170673
That's interesting! Yeah foundations and sky rises take a lot of resources. But those calculations might change with a line city, since you don't need a city grid and drastically simplify infrastructure. You'd also want to redesign how we live and work in general, so theoretically there would be many variables that could change this.
The fundamental idea though is that everyone has a beautiful view on nature. This also connects people to the land.
Obviously you'd want to balance the height against population density. There is also the thing that if you make it too high, you need to feed more people, so you need to get more agricultural land extending from the line. Then it might be more sensible to make the line city longer. Obviously you wouldn't need the line to be uninterrupted as long as the transport and infrastructure is buried.
My guess my lonely tower would do much worse in this equation, but it also could be more squat than tall. The main goal would be a real alternative to suburbia or people building McMansions or even eco cottages all over the places which all need their own street and water and canalization and power and emergency services.
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