Mirror Line: Saudi Arabia's Neom to build the world's longest skyscraper

Saudi Arabia's $500 billion Neom project is set to be home to a record-setting 120km-long skyscraper called the Mirror Line.

According to documents seen by The Wall Street Journal, the world’s largest structure will comprise two buildings up to 490 metres tall, running parallel for 120 kilometres.

The structures will be connected by walkways and a high-speed train will run beneath.

Following on the heels of the WSJ report, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday said The Line, in the kingdom’s $500 billion giga-project Neom, will “embody how urban communities will be in the future”.

Prince Mohammed announced the designs of The Line, which “puts human first, providing an unprecedented urban” living experience while preserving nature.

“The idea of layering city functions vertically, giving people possibility of moving seamlessly in three dimensions to access them, is a concept referred to as Zero Gravity Urbanism,” Prince Mohammed said.

The Mirror Line is designed by the US-based Morphosis Architects and the project involves at least nine other design and engineering consultancies.

They proposed building it in stages by creating 790-metre-long structures of varying heights up to 490 metres that will connect in a line.

The project builds on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's announcement in January of plans to create a linear community that is expected to cost up to a trillion dollars and house about five million people when complete.

Prince Mohammed said the entire 170-kilometre coastal strip in the north-west of Saudi Arabia would be free of cars and streets, with zero carbon emissions.

Four other developments, Neom Bay, Aqaba Region, Neom Mountain and Neom Industrial City, are intended to surround it.

There is also the planned project named the Vault which is a resort built into a mountainside.

Unveiled by Prince Mohammed in 2017, Neom is Saudi Arabia's flagship business and tourism development on the Red Sea coast and a central project in the 2030 Vision outlining the kingdom's plans to diversify the economy.

The development will include smart towns and cities, ports and enterprise areas, research centres, sports and entertainment venues and tourist centres.

It will be spread across 26,500 square kilometres and will comprise several zones, including industrial and logistics areas, all planned for completion in 2025.

People are expected to begin arriving in 2024, Neom's head of tourism said. The area is predicted to be home to millions by 2030.

It's up to you to go green

Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.

“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”

When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.

He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.

“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.

One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.

The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.

Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.

But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”

Mirror Line: Saudi Arabia's Neom to build the world's longest skyscraper

Crown Prince announced the designs of The Line

It's up to you to go green