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End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity

theguardian.com

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Re: End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity

#101

Post by tromp »

diebeforei485 wrote: post #92
delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #43

The only thing the Gulf states have going for them is oil money and a good hub location on the Europe–Southeast Asia airline routes. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Bahrain, Qatar, they all remind me of that quote from King of the Hill—they are monuments to man's arrogance. Desert cities hitting 50+ °C air temperature at midday which means air conditioning everywhere; vapid luxury in the form of expensive garish cars, shop…

Air conditioning is far more efficient than heating (by a factor of 4x)

It's 4x more efficient than an electric heater, but not 4x more than a heat pump [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coefficient_of_performance

Re: End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity

#102

Post by throwaway63467 »

I think these projects mostly exist to funnel away / launder money, no one really thinks they will become reality. A multi-decade mega project is just a great way to divert large amounts of money without raising too much suspicion as there’s very little oversight of what’s really happening there.

Re: End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity

#103

Post by walthamstow »

yard2010 wrote: post #68
delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #43

The only thing the Gulf states have going for them is oil money and a good hub location on the Europe–Southeast Asia airline routes. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Bahrain, Qatar, they all remind me of that quote from King of the Hill—they are monuments to man's arrogance. Desert cities hitting 50+ °C air temperature at midday which means air conditioning everywhere; vapid luxury in the form of expensive garish cars, shop…

What's the obsession with phalic towers? I would think letting toxic masculinity rule everything would result in less dicks everywhere but it is the other way around?

Is there any other kind of tower?

Re: End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity

#104

Post by JumpCrisscross »

somenameforme wrote: post #96
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017–2019_Saudi_Arabian_purge

That's not really what that was about, at all. I think most don't understand the state of Saudi Arabia. Modern Saudi Arabia was only founded in 1932, but the really interesting thing is that the founding king also had around 100 children, including 45 sons. And those sons also had tons of children. So there are thousands of direct lineage legitimate princes and princesses in Saudi Arabia, in a country of just 33 mill…

> there are thousands of direct lineage legitimate princes and princesses in Saudi Arabia

Who do you think MBS was purging in '17? Other royals. Rich royals. Competition for the throne.

Re: End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity

#105

Post by keiferski »

Are there any forums like HN but for architecture, and not prone to devolving into sociopolitical criticism, and instead focusing on the structures themselves? I find experimental architecture fascinating and would rather discuss the merits and flaws of the design itself.

Neom reminds me of Łódź, a city in Poland that is built around a single 5km long street. It’s quite cool and the simple geometry is aesthetically appealing in a way I’ve yet to find elsewhere.

Re: End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity

#106

Post by pndy »

saberience wrote: post #77
dkdbejwi383 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Acceleration etc wouldn't really matter if I live at one end of the line and my friend lives at the opposite end. It would be an annoyingly long journey that stops at every single other station in the entire city. In a regular city that grows outwards, you'd expect there to be circumferential routes as well as cross-city routes connecting various points, making the travel time more bearable.

I sort of assume they would have express trains as well as local trains, a bit like the NY subway. I.e. one train which just goes direct to the other end with no stops at high speed.

Wikipedia article mentions "the Spine" - an underground tunnel that would host transport superfast train infrastructure connecting both sides of the complex. Traveling from one end to another would take 20mins, supposedly.

Re: End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity

#107

Post by lvl102 »

delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #43

The only thing the Gulf states have going for them is oil money and a good hub location on the Europe–Southeast Asia airline routes. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Bahrain, Qatar, they all remind me of that quote from King of the Hill—they are monuments to man's arrogance. Desert cities hitting 50+ °C air temperature at midday which means air conditioning everywhere; vapid luxury in the form of expensive garish cars, shop…

For decades, they wanted to diversify away from oil and build tech industries. The problem is they don’t have skilled labor and would have to import “slaves” as they do with everything. They have some of the lowest skilled and laziest labor in the world. If/when dependence on oil ends, these countries will go back to being poor.

Edit: contrast ME with Mexico who is running out of oil. Yet, they are able to build because they happen to have some of the hardest working labor in the world (though not notably skilled). I rather bet on Mexico revival over ME 100/100.

Re: End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity

#108

Post by somenameforme »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #104
somenameforme wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not really what that was about, at all. I think most don't understand the state of Saudi Arabia. Modern Saudi Arabia was only founded in 1932, but the really interesting thing is that the founding king also had around 100 children, including 45 sons. And those sons also had tons of children. So there are thousands of direct lineage legitimate princes and princesses in Saudi Arabia, in a country of just 33 mill…

> there are thousands of direct lineage legitimate princes and princesses in Saudi Arabia Who do you think MBS was purging in '17? Other royals. Rich royals. Competition for the throne.

That's exactly what I was saying. These weren't just random "back alley local chiefs" being oppressed for having different views. It was (and is) basic power struggles.

Re: End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity

#109

Post by southernplaces7 »

walthamstow wrote: post #103
yard2010 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the obsession with phalic towers? I would think letting toxic masculinity rule everything would result in less dicks everywhere but it is the other way around?

Is there any other kind of tower?

Perhaps they can construct a deep underground, inverted tower, inside a sort of fissure, so some can then call it a vaginal tower.

In all seriousness, in those baking desert landscapes, it would even make a considerable amount of sense for cooling costs.

Re: End of the Line? Saudi Arabia to scale back plans for desert megacity

#110

Post by bdjsiqoocwk »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #48
delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #43

The only thing the Gulf states have going for them is oil money and a good hub location on the Europe–Southeast Asia airline routes. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Bahrain, Qatar, they all remind me of that quote from King of the Hill—they are monuments to man's arrogance. Desert cities hitting 50+ °C air temperature at midday which means air conditioning everywhere; vapid luxury in the form of expensive garish cars, shop…

> Desert cities hitting 50+ °C air temperature at midday which means air conditioning everywhere Couldn't that element be self-sufficient on solar?

What does "self-sufficient" even mean here? Can you power air conditioning if you build enough solar plants? Yes, but that's true everywhere. That doesn't mean it's financially viable.
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