When we worked on the Line, Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, has unveiled plans for a 170-kilometre belt of zero-energy walkable communities for a million people.
The linear city will have no cars or streets, with all residents living within a five-minute walk of essential facilities.
Now, The Line is planned to be 170 kilometres (110 mi) long, preserving 95% of the nature within Neom. It will stretch from the Red Sea approximately to the city of Tabuk. It is intended that it will have nine million residents, resulting in an average population density of 260,000 people per square kilometre. By comparison, Manila, the world's most densely populated city in 2020, had a density of 44,000/km2. The Line's plan consists of two mirrored buildings with an outdoor space in between, having a total width of 200 metres (660 ft) and a total height of 500 metres (1,600 ft).
The plan is for the city to be powered entirely by renewable energy. It will consist of three layers, one on the surface for pedestrians, one underground for infrastructure, and another underground for transportation. Artificial intelligence will monitor the city and use predictive and data models to find ways to improve daily life for its citizens, with residents being paid for submitting data to The Line.
OBJECTIVE
Our objective of this video was to deliver a piece of communication to simply explain the concept of the plan (line and the spine). We want the viewer to be wowed, excited, inspired and have a grasp of the unprecedented idea of the plan. The video should transform the presentation from anarchical sketches into a video.
We needed to showcase NEOM’s regional plan in a video to deliver a piece of communication to simply explain the concept of the plan to the world. We have aimed to turn the typical audience journey - from driving awareness, understanding, consideration and conviction - and go directly to the core of making people advocates of the project (Build Belief).
CHALLENGE
Due to the need-to-know basis and high level of security we had very limited input to work with, in order to create an explainer video within 2 weeks (including approval rounds) for the official announcement by the crown prince.
