‘Arabian Wilds’

In the wake of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, in which football was often second to politics and overshadowed by how the tournament came to fruition, I came across the newest released project in Saudi Arabia’s Neom craze: a floating port city named Oxagon on the banks of the red sea. Said to profit from the busiest seafaring passage on the planet, the Suez Canal, the new city will be the largest floating structure in the world[1]. Oxagon will be the port and logistics hub for the wider Neom region, a renewable energy-powered region in Saudi Arabia that will host several large projects, among which ‘The Line’. With all the Neom projects, which would be ten in total, and the eight venues of the 2022 World Cup, of which seven are completely newly built, it begs the question of what this building craze on the Arabian peninsula contributes to global society.

I have long struggled to find the right words to discuss this rather controversial topic. The truth is, going into November I had a pretty unnuanced opinion on the matter. Only the wrongdoings of the Qatari regarding the massive projects that had to be seemed to be reviewed in the media. In turn, my opinion on Qatar, somewhat generalizing I might add, shimmered over to my view on the megaprojects going on in the Neom-district. Whenever new utopian images were released, I reacted hesitant and pessimistic. I was unequivocally sure that it was not possible to realize the vast amounts of greenery the images suggest in the middle of the desert, sustainably. Something I am still quite wary of today.

It was only until the Mexico v. Poland game, the first game in Stadium 974 by Fenwick-Iribarren Architects, that I realized that there might be more to this story. The modular and demountable stadium is being dismounted as we speak[1], for it serves no further use after the world cup. Constructed using a total of 974 shipping containers, Stadium 974 is the only venue at the world cup without air conditioning.[2] Whether this is because of technical limitations within this demountable construction, or just because it simply did not fit into the sustainable narrative of the building remains to be seen. As a matter of fact, the majority of the stadiums for the event have been designed to be partially dismantled after the world cup. However, despite some throwaway plans to ship the 170.000 seats to developing countries, no concrete plans are in place for how to reuse the dismantled materials.[3]

The fact that no concrete plans are in place for what to do with the residual materials shows the lack of long-term planning concerning such projects, and that the sustainability claims are no more than a publicity stunt. The premise of Stadium 974 and the partial demountability of the venues, only hold value if the materials can be redistributed. If not reused, you can argue that the project is never truly finished. It is not uncommon to see such unfinished mega projects on the Arabian peninsula, such as the stalled Jeddah tower[5] or the sinking islands of Dubai.[6] With construction having started on The Line[7], I am afraid Neom’s prize project might find its way into the list of ‘failed’ oil-funded projects.

Nevertheless, the premise of Stadium 974 did shake my thesis and the design itself holds a lot of value looking towards a more sustainable future. As it forced me to review my stance on the architecture of the world cup, it made me rethink my views on the entirety of Neom. By setting the ambition of running an entire region of 9 million people on renewable energy, some technological advancement is necessary. As Stadium 974 was a first regarding demountability, the projects in Neom might be a first regarding sustainable energy.

Similar to the critical notes for Qatar, it is difficult not to be sceptic about the Neom developments. For it might claim to be run on sustainable energy, none is said about compensation for the building materials – the embodied carbon dioxide of which, for ‘The Line’ alone, is estimated to be around four times the yearly emissions of the entire UK[8] – or the necessary water to sustain such life in the desert. Not to mention the impact on the desert’s ecosystem a 500-metre-tall and 170-kilometre-long mirrored wall has, or the livability inside such a structure.

What started as an optimistic search for positives, quickly turned into a reality check. Doing the research, I found that my scepticism, although wavered at first, was not without reason. The bright side I set out to find, is at all times overshadowed by the negatives. A bright side that is even more eclipsed when we look at how these projects are realized. While we all know the sad truth about the construction of the Qatari stadiums[9], the first reports of several human rights violations in the construction of Neom have come in.[10] Reports as such, pose the question to architects whether or not we want to design buildings that are being realized on the backs of modern slavery, and of which sustainability claims are questionable. This is a question* to which the answer, in my opinion, is quite simple. As designers, we have a moral responsibility, a social responsibility, to improve the quality of life on our planet. Something that these projects, as it currently seems, do simply not fit with.

Since it is a December piece, Christmas is still close in the rearview mirror, and new years’ is less than 48 hours away, here comes the hopeful conclusion. As of yet, the dismounted materials in Qatar are yet to be distributed and there is still much to be learned regarding the Saudi desert transformation. Thus, as we welcome 2023, let us hope that those Qatari materials find their way into beautiful new projects; let us hope that the sound, thought-out, detailed foundations underneath Neom are revealed and show that our scepticism is unjustified; let us hope that Saudi Arabia learns from Qatar’s grave mistakes regarding human rights violations; and if this all does not happen, let us hope designers remember their responsibilities.
“You may say I’m a dreamer,…”

Happy 2023!

*It is sometimes framed as an ethical dilemma, but for me, this matter does not hold the moral ambiguity to be called a dilemma. There are no equal negatives in this matter, but one that weighs in undoubtedly more than the other.

[1] https://www.dezeen.com/2022/12/21/oxagon-floating-port-city-neom-saudi-arabia/?li_source=LI&li_medium=rhs_block_2

[2] https://www.archdaily.com/993811/workers-begin-dismantling-qatars-stadium-974-the-first-temporary-world-cup-stadium

[3] https://www.qatar2022.qa/en/news/stadium-974-qatars-beacon-of-sustainability

[4] https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/63885578

[5] https://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/civil/jeddah-tower.htm

[6] https://tomorrow.city/a/dubai-man-made-islands

[7] https://www.dezeen.com/2022/10/19/line-megacity-under-construction-saudi-arabia-drone/

[8] https://www.dezeen.com/2022/08/08/sustainability-liveability-the-line-saudi-170km-city-naive/

[9] https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/nov/14/stadiums-of-shame-the-numbers-world-cup-hosts-qatar-dont-want-to-be-seen

[10] https://www.dezeen.com/2022/12/13/human-rights-violations-neom-amnesty-international/