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Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people

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Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people

#61

Post by bobthepanda »

bayesian_horse wrote: post #57
neals wrote: post #11

Make it a circle, get rid of the mirror, fill in the center. Bam! You got yourself a city.

A circle is harder to build and has more issues regarding sunlight. The sun hitting the building(s) is both a benefit (solar cells) and a problem (heat generation) at the same time. A linear structure will get a much more even energy distribution than a circle. Also one of the goals of the project is to reduce the energy needs of the population by making ways shorter. If you spread a city out on a circle, you got a m…

I think transport would be infinitely worse in a linear city.

In a traditional street network, there are many ways to get from A to B and one link being unavailable is not the end of the world. Forcing everyone onto essentially the same street is guaranteed to cause both high fragility and high congestion, since everyone has to squeeze into the same line.

Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people

#62

Post by bayesian_horse »

frognumber wrote: post #33
Retric wrote: post #10

At 56k per person for both living and working space plus associated infrastructure, 500bn doesn’t seem like nearly enough.

Probably not, but I also wouldn't presume Western economics. Saudi has supply to unlimited low-cost labor from Africa. Things get built with virtually no labor costs relative to the West. I think I would be miserable without a yard, though. I don't think I want to spend my life inside of a manufactured block.

Millions of people already live in manufactured blocks of some sort of other under worse conditions than presented here.

This is not a space habitat. It is climate controlled, it has access to the surroundings and there actually isn't that much building around you at any time. The major difference is that it is more thought out and uniform over a large area. It's not going to be built, ever, but it's a nice idea and some of the counter arguments aren't valid.

Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people

#63

Post by UberFly »

rutledjw wrote: post #32
ahamedirshad123 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's applicable for the US too.

What "city of the future" has the US built? We can barely get decent public transit in most cities? But we're certainly headed to the dark ages...

Like technology, cities of the future are slowly built. Just dig into what New York city is doing in alternate/green energy. This doesn't happen overnight, unless you're a magical Middle-Eastern YouTube video.

Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people

#64

Post by bayesian_horse »

ars wrote: post #20

Doesn't the ground move? How are they going to keep it in ... a line? They would have to build independent sections that, over time, will shift relative to each other.

Or the segments don't shift but rather the connections to their foundations move by a few millimeters a year. Then the foundations would be independent and move and the whole thing can still be perfectly straight the whole time.

Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people

#65

Post by plantwallshoe »

bobthepanda wrote: post #61
bayesian_horse wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A circle is harder to build and has more issues regarding sunlight. The sun hitting the building(s) is both a benefit (solar cells) and a problem (heat generation) at the same time. A linear structure will get a much more even energy distribution than a circle. Also one of the goals of the project is to reduce the energy needs of the population by making ways shorter. If you spread a city out on a circle, you got a m…

I think transport would be infinitely worse in a linear city. In a traditional street network, there are many ways to get from A to B and one link being unavailable is not the end of the world. Forcing everyone onto essentially the same street is guaranteed to cause both high fragility and high congestion, since everyone has to squeeze into the same line.

If it’s 200m wide you could probably get 6-8 trains running parallel.

Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people

#66

Post by plumeria »

bayesian_horse wrote: post #54
lurker616 wrote: post #49

What will this solve? What if a fire breaks out? Can protestors block a single street? Where are people going to dry clothes? Won't those who live at the base feel claustrophobic?

Most of these problems are probably already solved or could be solved. You are of course using dry cleaning services in some form. Fire suppression systems are built in. The structure is quite narrow, so you have a view to the outside from pretty much anywhere, and it's not much worse than any skyscraper, better probably because of (hopefully) better design. As to social aspects... That is my major concern also. Of c…

> You are of course using dry cleaning services in some form

People are moving out of dry cleaning into "wet cleaning" to avoid chemical solvents. Wet cleaning requires a drying machine.

Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people

#69

Post by Double_a_92 »

bobthepanda wrote: post #61
bayesian_horse wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A circle is harder to build and has more issues regarding sunlight. The sun hitting the building(s) is both a benefit (solar cells) and a problem (heat generation) at the same time. A linear structure will get a much more even energy distribution than a circle. Also one of the goals of the project is to reduce the energy needs of the population by making ways shorter. If you spread a city out on a circle, you got a m…

I think transport would be infinitely worse in a linear city. In a traditional street network, there are many ways to get from A to B and one link being unavailable is not the end of the world. Forcing everyone onto essentially the same street is guaranteed to cause both high fragility and high congestion, since everyone has to squeeze into the same line.

But if you knew that everyone has to use that same street, you could dimension it properly because you know exactly what to expect.

Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people

#70

Post by Animats »

rutledjw wrote: post #32
ahamedirshad123 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's applicable for the US too.

What "city of the future" has the US built? We can barely get decent public transit in most cities? But we're certainly headed to the dark ages...

> What "city of the future" has the US built?

Los Angeles.

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