Not for long, with the amount of ambiguity they use in their "planning" generative AI will happily generate some sci Fi city themed cgi images for them...
It's at least partially "keeping up with the Joneses" and phallus measuring contests: each Gulf State (+ Egypt)'s leader seems to feel the need to one-up their fellow leaders in ever-larger megaprojects. Dubai probably started it with their Palm Islands (partially built, but then the 2008 recession intervened) and Burj Khalifa - but at least they were at least semi-realistic projects.
@@mittfh Why dump billions in reforming the whole region and solve at least one of the millenary crisis affecting hundreds of millions of lives when you can play real life lego builder
Why does every single Saudi Megaproject sound like something that you and your mates would come up with while you were absolutely hammered down at your local pub?
While it may be announced. Having some concept art or long term plan does not assure they have gotten far enough to even evaluate how much funding it would even take.
@@Seagaltalk There's a place for esoteric designs. But more and more this feels less esoteric and more like architectural firms trying to differentiate themselves and in the process all making exactly the same sort of visual nonsense.
No freaking way they can build this monstrosity can be supported on two points alone. The structure would need many multiple support points as its would be way heavier than a standard bridge. On the bright side, it's unlikely to collapse as its incredibly unlikely to be built.
So, serious question, if an architect's designs can't be practically realized, what's the difference between an architect and an artist? Does he display the concepts? Are they functional blueprints/plans or just visual representations of the proposed project?
The job of an architect is to come up with cool ideas. The job of an Engineer is to -tell tell the architect why it can't be built- come up with a more practical way to make the building happen.
I'm an architect, and I'd say no. If you have no idea how to build what you're drawing, you're just doing sci-fi concept art. Accountability to physics, materials, and construction is what makes architecture difficult. The Saudis might as well have just used Midjourney for this and save a few hundred grand.
@henryglennon3864 Does Frank Lloyd Wright’s Illinois building have any value? It was never built, but the Fordham Spire drew from it; and it established the idealized concept of placing skyscrapers in their own parkland, instead of clashing with their neighbors and competing for available space, light, and stylistic dominance.
All that glass in a desert environment... where are the massive cooling towers to keep the rooms at a cozy 20°C? If the AC goes out, that place turns into a massive greenhouse.
@@koharumi1 It adds weight to the glass though, and not a small amount. Also, Singapore didn't put glass roofs on the entirety of those buildings. This promises a view of the stars from almost every room, the glass shuts out a lot of light.
I’m not an expert by any means, but the sharp temperature fluctuations in the desert are also an issue for materials like glass, no? It doesn’t just get hot - it also gets cold. Which isn’t particularly good for brittle materials like glass in the long-term. That is, unless they’re willing to shell out *serious* cash on materials designed for that stress.
well they have all the oil to fuel the AC at least. and all over the world , we should lower our CO2 emission and lower our home temperature in winter. 😊
They need to think about the façade design as well. I don’t think that having full strong sunlight hitting you at all times is gonna be very pleasant, or healthy for your skin. I get it, you’d want unobstructed views of the site, but all that light coming through, completely unfiltered, would be so uncomfortable
Wait wait wait. This guy made a big heart, some store fronts and pictures of buildings...... My god did I pick the wrong career, should have gone con artist like this guy.
Of all the issues with this design, this is probably the last to consider. 1. Can it even be build? 2. Will it ever be build? 3. If it is build, would anyone want to go there or will it just sit empty over a dead piece of dirty sea? All very fair questions for sure and probably No is the answer to all 3 questions, but that hasn't stopped a single Saudi ever.
These projects always look like what happens if someone turns on cheats in a game, starts building some ridiculous crap, and then loses interest halfway through.
Coming next: SPIKA, a bridge up-ended so it is vertical; and UNDAWAT, an underwater bridge-hotel-airport. And underwater railway. And an underwater lagoon. With flying fish. Because. Don't ask why, it's just because. Oooh look over there, an underwater monorail.
I wouldn't put it past them to play around in MidJourney and get inspired. Heck, you could probably design a quiz: Midjourney or actual Gulf Coast State Megaproject Concept Art?
I was thinking, the emergency exits are either going to require a long walk or a long drop. Not the safest thing in a fire (or other emergency situation).
I picked up somewhere (no clue if true) that the designs of The Line were created by videogame artists because MBS found the architects' designs too boring.
@@antonnurwald5700 It's an interesting idea. The problem is that unlike in the real world, architecture in video games don't have to follow even the simplest laws of physics. I am a scifi nerd, Star Wars being a great example of this where the sheer scale is incredible with structures that defy gravity or are shaped in impossible ways that are ever so visually appealing. BUT even I think of real buildings, or what is meant to be a real building, differently.
The problem with that idea is that video game environment design still needs to consider things like the movement of people through the space and the "materials" used, just in a different way. An environment that isn't pleasant to *interact* with quickly becomes *unfun*-- it's a source of friction that distracts from the gameplay and the designed challenges of the game. It's just no fun to feel like you're wrestling with the game itself rather than enjoying it! So the game's mechanics have to be considered when designing an environment; how does the player move? An environment design for a game like Warframe with its fast, fluid movement must be very different than that for a turn-based JRPG where the player doesn't even have a jump button. Must the environment be populated with lots of things to interact with, e.g. due to a focus on worldbuilding and investigation, or would those be distracting, e.g. due to a focus on combat? Can the character SWIM? "Material" also needs to be considered because the environments need to be "built" in a way that allows the game's engine to render them well. Different game engines have different ways of handling lighting (and some games allow players to adjust the lighting settings themselves), so designs need to consider how the environment will be lit or some of the detail might not even be properly visible or might look flat or strange. Some platforms have a lot more processing power than others, which means that the level of detail you might want wouldn't be achievable without affecting load times, leading the environment to look jumbled or sloppy. Depending on how the game engine handles water, that might drastically affect your ability to incorporate water elements into a design or change their appearance. He might thrive in one of those bloated AAA projects where they just keep crunching developers until they make things pretty enough, and actual cohesion between gameplay and other aspects of design is hardly even considered, though.
Bridges flex. How do they think to keep glass panes in place and swimming pool leveled? Not to mention the structure of that length would weight at least 50 000 tons - and they're planning vertical abutments? Good luck with that.
If Saudi Arabia is that desperate for monuments for tourism money, they could always just build a big pyramid. It's tried and tested method of drawing in tourists.
Anytime a hotel or house is built away from a city, I'm left wondering what public resources are wasted to get a fire department or ambulance to such a site.
I guess that's one perspective. It is worth mentioning that a great deal of basic necessities, like food, can't be produced in cities, so cities are also reliant on some people living outside of them. The resource benefit does not go only one way.
@@WarriorOfWriters Right, and this is obviously an odd example, given it won't likely really be built, but creating a hotel outside a city, but within commute distance, can be beneficial as it brings in tourists who then spend money, so net, net it can be a gain. Sometimes the views outside the city are better than any of the real estate inside so it is worth the trade off. Obviously each situation is very particular, but I wouldn't assume building a house or hotel outside a city is never worth the cost to the city.
More and more I'm coming around to the idea that we in the West SHOULD invade the Middle East just for their oil and be open about our intentions. Just take the entire Ghawar Field. The Arabs have uniformly squandered some of the greatest natural wealth ever discovered with this crap. They could have turned their countries into genuinely open and prosperous societies with a high standard of living for all their citizens. Instead their absolute rulers prefer to fund Wahabbi terrorism worldwide and build shit like this.
Neom had announced the first finished project this week. SINDALAH a beach resort that was announced at the end of 2022 had just finished this week. You can look up articles and videos about it here in youtube. Also, Saudi finished many grand projects in the past such as Jubail industrial city, the 4th largest tower in the world Abraj Al-Bait, King abdullah economic city, and many more. For recent projects that are amazing and have delivered, Red sea global, Alula, Dirryah gate, and Neom. Look them up.
The views of the stars are incredible NOW, when it's a desert wasteland. When there's an infinity pool above you that's lit up 24/7 you will not see the stars as well.
If you look closely, the concept art shows pillars that are covered in mirrors to make them less conspicious. So the span of the building is shorter than it seems at first glance. The span only covers the water and that's about half of the total horizontal length of the building.
There are currently 7 cantilever bridges in the world with main spans of 1500 feet or more. Now no pools are installed on the road decks obviously, but they are traveled by tens of thousands of cars, trucks, even semis daily so their load isn't exactly light. As pictured I think it's a no go due to the water weight. Slap some arches or trusses extending from each end underneath out 100-200 feet both ways with cross beams and it might actually work, especially if cut the pool down from a single one to several smaller ones keeping as much weight as possible near the ends.
This is pretty much exactly what I was thinking. They could cut out a lot of the water volume by adding wading sections and making the pool narrower in the middle, opting for lounging space or poolside bars/restaurants instead, so with some changes it might actually be possible to build.
It was hard to tell the difference between the play speed being increased and Simon's normal speaking rate, in the best possible way. Great video, as always!
Its insane because it is a tourist destination in what is one of the most restrictive state on the globe. They dream big, but the way that they restrict freedoms in their nations puts off a lot of peoples who might otherwise be interested in the luxury that theses destinations offer.
You can probably make an entire channel on shit Saudi Arabia says they'll totally build but never will. From a conceptual perspective, these are always fun to just think about though.
9:55, no. Even the strongest one solid piece steal beams that long, would at least start bending downward in the middle, with or without a pool on top under the weight of the beam alone I think.
Wrong, the longest cantilever span is 539 meters, it's a bridge that carries cargo trains and traffic. The longest span without any tower support is 260 meters. It would be possible, from an engineering standpoint to hide the supporting structure within the "hotel design" and create a viable 460 meter span, especially if they extended the base pillars outwards with arches.
As an architect, I’m not very confident in this working at all. I don’t think the weight of an entire hotel can be held by what essentially is a half kilometer long truss bridge that doesn’t have any vertical supports in its length, just at its beginning and its end. Your typical trussed bridge can span 100m tops in between vertical supports, so I don’t see how they’re going to make that times five while bearing a permanent load and a pool on top of it, let’s remember that water is insanely heavy. I think the trusses would have to be massive in order to hold the entire weight without any vertical supports, and that would probably not be very aesthetically pleasing. I would love to know how the architectural and engineering teams are planning on making it work, though.
Check out Trysfjord Bridge, it's got a 260 meter span. Without sitting down and doing any calculations, you could "cheat" and hide the trusses in what would only look like parts of hotel on the surface, but would in fact be structural. You could also go for bigger arches, and the infinity pool would have to either be split in two, which lets be honest, wouldn't really hurt the design much. Or very slimmed down in the middle. Could you make it work on an engineering level? I'm fairly sure that the answer is yes, but you are going to end up wasting a lot of "hotel" sapce, I don't think the project would ever make economic sense though, with all the restrictions the engineering would place upon the number of actual rooms they could have.
The fact that you can see small additional support columns in the concept art makes me think they've done some calculations and realized those were needed. OTOH, adding a structural arch to it seems perfectly fine aesthetically so I'm not sure why they don't just do that.
In the end, in most cases, whoever buys the thing first loses money as the value of the property fails to keep pace with the market or even goes down. Then, if the locality is desirable enough, someone will buy units and subdivide them into something more consistent with the local market.
I suspect it has something to do with the person at the top and their life experiences. Imagine living a life where you have so much money you never want for anything. If you want something to happen you just tell one of your aides and it happens and everyone you've ever met just says yes to you. There's no understanding of the complexity of running a massive project, let alone a whole country. I'm quite confident they will just burn through their massive cash pile without achieving much of anything.
Let me run 2 add campaigns by you quickly. Saudi builds Cheap motel in the desert, rooms only 50cent for a night. Saudi builds the most luxurious hotel in the world with views of a coral reef and the stars from your private glass hotel room. With world class amenities, 3 star restaurants, sparkling waterfalls and more! 1500 dollars/night I'll tell you straight away that while the chance that you would go for the second concept might be small, the chance that'd you'd stay in the first one is exactly 0.
As a proud Saudi civil engineer and interdisciplinary artist, I can assure you this project is challenging but fully within reach. Some delays may happen due to design adjustments, but it is achievable. First, I need to address something to the uploader of the video. At 10:00 , you casually remarked, “We’re neither expert physicist nor trained architects.” Let me set the record straight. We, the civil engineers, are the ones making these projects happen, not physicists, not architects, and certainly not “mathematical beasts.” They don’t handle the real-world demands of construction. We put ourselves on the line to build your cities. We are the ones who manage all construction projects. We design the roads, the tunnels, the bridges, the water plants, the dams, the man-made lakes, the airports, the railroads, the buildings (except for the architectural aspects), etc Our work isn’t easy, and respect for our role is essential because without us, cities wouldn’t evolve. Becoming a civil engineer required mastering a vast array of fields: • Environmental engineering • Water and wastewater treatment • Structural analysis • Air pollution • Geotechnical engineering • Engineering geology • Concrete and steel design • Material engineering • Transportation Engineering • Hydraulic engineering • Statics and dynamics • Engineering technologies • Sustainability • Engineering Instruments • Construction management • Probability and statistics And more. Along with that, I pushed through math subjects that I couldn’t stand: Algebra, Calculus I, II, and III, Ordinary Differential Equations, all while managing ADHD without support from my instructors. After all that effort, I didn’t work my way into this field to hear random UA-camrs ignore our role to push an agenda against ambitious Saudi projects. We are the project managers, the ones who create the design, run the calculations, manage operations, deliver the project, and hold the responsibility for every element once it’s done. We’re the backbone. Next time you talk about a construction project, you better respect our role instead of giving credit to mathematicians. With that being said, Let’s break down the project and get into the core factors. *~ Design Considerations Not Mentioned in The Video ~* 1. *Misunderstanding Basic Load Distribution* That line you said about “any load suspended by two anchor points can only be so heavy” is completely misleading. It’s a quick phrase for content creators looking to generate hype, not a statement rooted in real engineering. The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge in Turkey spans 4.6 kilometers, carrying immense loads over an unsupported span of 2.2 kilometers. How did they make it happen? Civil engineers. 2. *Not a Simple “Plank Over Blocks”* This isn’t “a wooden plank placed over two concrete blocks.” Look closely at the design images. There’s extensive support across the structure. It’s anything but two anchor points. 3. *Diverse Support Types* The structure doesn’t rely on one kind of support. On one side, multiple tower-like supports carry the load, with a hill or mountain offering natural stability. On the opposite side, there are three substantial towers. 4. *Truss Structure for Weight Distribution* A truss design could be key here, distributing weight across the structure’s members for maximum stability and efficiency. There are also other options to distribute the weight of the structure. 5. *The Planning Process* In today’s world, engineers rely on advanced technology to carefully design and calculate every part of a project during the planning phase, long before construction begins. Using specialized software, we input all project details and run simulations to ensure safety, stability, and feasibility. The process starts with architects, who create the initial design based on aesthetics and functionality, shaping the building’s look and layout. Once their design is complete, civil and structural engineers take over to handle the technical side. We analyze every detail, from material strength to the forces the building will face, such as wind and weight, to confirm if the design can perform safely in the real world. If we find any issues, often due to design choices that push limits, we return the plans to the architects for adjustments. This collaboration is essential, and while it can cause delays, it guarantees that each project is safe, practical, and ready for construction. *~ Other Considerations ~* 1. The Pool Issue The rooftop pool will require particular design attention to handle its load. But the building itself can leverage materials that deliver strength without adding unnecessary weight. Advanced, lightweight materials are available to support a structure of this caliber. 2. *The Environmental and Geotechnical Aspects* Before construction, engineers visit the site to collect soil samples and conduct tests to analyze ground stability. They check for factors like groundwater, slope stability, and soil strength, as these are crucial for designing a safe foundation. Engineers also assess environmental risks, like earthquakes, floods, or storms, and examine how the project might impact local ecosystems. By understanding both the ground and environmental conditions, engineers ensure the project’s foundation is solid and the design is safe for the site, protecting future occupants and respecting the environment. There are other considerations but I hope everyone now has a better idea of constructing projects before criticizing them. Remember: civil engineers are at the heart of all ambitious projects like this. We calculate, create, and oversee every aspect, ensuring each piece comes together safely and successfully. The strength of these structures doesn’t come from empty statements. It comes from the work we pour into every beam, every joint, every calculated load. We deserve to be acknowledged for the work we do in building cities around the world, and the uploader should know that us Saudis are not only dreamers, we dream, and we achieve 😉🇸🇦 *NEOM already opened its doors two weeks ago, and people can now go and visit Sindalah, the first Island resort in our new city on the Red Sea. We also opened other Island Resorts our other megaproject in Tabuk, The Red Sea Project. 2 new airports are now open in Tabuk to welcome visitors from around the world, Neom Bay Airport and Red Sea International airport. You can use Saudia airlines, Fly Dubai, or Qatar airways to visit them. I don’t know why people are so upset to see us developing, but they need to wake up because the dream is already a reality.* We’re not working with any architectural firms, we are the most prominent ones , such as the award-winning Foster + Partners from the UK who designed some of the world’s most iconic buildings, like The Gherkin, The British Museum, and The City Hall in London, Apple’s headquarters in California, Hong Kong’s Airport, and the iconic Faisaliya tower in Riyadh. They designed most of the buildings in The Red Sea project and are going to look beautiful once they are finished. I visited that side of the kingdom and the water was the cleanest I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s definitely one of the best beach spots in the world and I’m happy that my country is making it accessible for everyone to visit. So, there’s no need to minimize our ambitions here, and constantly complain about our development. Us Saudis never do such jealous stuff when we see other countries developing, we always show our support. You should learn that from us.
excellent response. PLEASE invite Simons' team to visit Sindalah. I'd LOVE to see a video of it... Although, being an unemployed back-end .NET senior developer, I'll likely never be able to afford it....
That was well written but doesn't address two things that people in support of the project cope with too much and dismiss. a) A lot of this design is stupid and excessive for absolutely no reason except "I'm rich, look what I can build", so the whole "environmentally friendly" argument is trash. b) to do all of this you need money and the clock has started ticking for fossil fuel countries. OPEC+ for the fourth time this year is scaling down their forecasts for fossil fuel consumption because they don't want to listen to experts and are coping hard that oil and gas consumption (especially oil) is reaching a peak very soon, before any of these projects reach meaningful progress. The IAE has historically been MUCH more accurate at predicting anything regarding fossil fuels as well as Bloomberg NEF and both expect oil peaks in various sectors between 2027-2029, decades before OPEC+ thinks. Not to mention non-OPEC+ production is going up because of OPEC+ cuts and so they are stealing market share and driving prices down. c) The economic impact is at best highly speculative. The thought process is "omg it looks so cool, surely it will bring prosperity" because it has been decided by an authoritarian out of touch government, not because experts say it will be any good. d) slave labor
@ you’re argument is using the usual stereotypical western media view against us. That’s what’s you can call bullshit. Let me answer each of your points: A) Why don’t you say these things when the Chinese, British, Japanese, Indians, Americans, Singaporeans, and others who build similar projects? Why is it always "too much" when we do it? Do you want us to go back to being a third-world country to be satisfied? The city is being built to attract tourists from all over the world. It is such a strategic location. I visited Tabuk myself in August 2021 and I was shocked by how the weather was 30 degrees in summer because it was 45 degrees in my hometown. That region is beautiful for camping, exploring, diving, and other activities, yet it didn’t have a proper atmosphere to welcome tourists. So, we have to build such projects to attract tourists. We aren’t saying we’re rich, but if we can afford to build something beautiful and unique, we will do it. I believe MBS did an amazing job with this project. He brought the best people to make it happen, and it will happen, even if there were some minor setbacks, it will be a new attractive destination for Saudis and non-Saudis to visit. The "environmentally-friendly" argument is not trash. There’s nothing 100% environmentally friendly, but I can assure you that they’re taking it seriously. They have developed new advanced systems of collecting and treating water, made certain areas environmentally protected, added more greenery, banned people from visiting the small islands on the Red Sea and banned diving in certain areas to protect the ecosystem, and the res sea airport was built by sustainable materials. You can’t say it’s bullshit if you didn’t do proper research. Don’t believe UA-cam videos, go and investigate it yourself before making baseless claims. B)The project is set to be completed in 2030, and trust me, we have enough money and oil reserves to sustain ourselves for many decades, and this is why the project is being built in the first place, to diversify our economy for when the oil reserves no longer have oil. Our economy is being less dependent on oil every year, now we have all kinds of international corporations opening their regional offices in Saudi, we have food security, a lot of groundwater reserves in the empty quarter, and the largest water treatment plants in the world. God has blessed this land for centuries. Thank god for his endless blessings, My ancestors have been wealthy for centuries, even before we discovered oil, and they’re not the only ones. So don’t worry about us because we[re doing an amazing job at maintaining our economic growth. C)Slave labour is such a cliché and it’s actually offensive to the workers. Imagine having a low-wage job and people called you slave. If those workers were really enslaved, then why are they still applying to come work here? Do some critical thinking my friend. They are getting much more money than they ever will if they stayed in their countries, and they also applied, left their homes, flew here, and signed the contacts themselves. No one made them wear chains and forced them to come work here. Whatever living conditions they have here would still be much better than the living conditions they had in their home countries. Millions were able to have better lives, lifted their families from poverty, provided education for their children, and saved themselves from hunger because we offered them their jobs. This is life. Some people are rich, and some are not. The ones who aren’t educated enough would have lesser salaries, and live in less fortunate communities. This is part of our nature as human beings. Calling those who are less fortunate "slaves" is degrading them. It is such a disrespectful term to use. Without the jobs they have here, their countries would have a huge amount of unemployment, and would be in constant chaos. Billions are being sent to their countries, playing an important role in their economy. We have a lot of labour laws to protect them, they live in air-conditioned rooms, with toilets, and meals. They have their mobile phones, the freedom to change jobs, and travel freely after their work without any restrictions. I know that some employers are not being fair to their workers, but this is also the workers fault because they should go to the police and report them. Unlike the Eastern European slaves in the UK who are living inside homes without electricity, heating, , or even mattresses. They also work as labour construction workers, but they are subjected to violence and threats, you can type "modern slavery in uk" and hear their stories. Nothing like the workers here. Trust me, not all Saudis are rich. We have poverty, families unable to afford basic things, and are struggling too. These projects will help us all by providing jobs and making the future more interesting. Stop being envious towards us. People were complaining about us when we were an ultra-conservative country that’s closed to foreigners, without any tourist visas, with strict religious laws against women and religious police roaming our streets. Now when we changed our laws, opened our borders, gave women their rights, and drastically changed to a much more developed country, people are still complaining. I don’t know why but it’s always the Americans, British and Europeans who are complaining about us. If we visited their countries, they complain, and if we stopped visiting them and started developing our countries, they complain. I think this hatred towards us is because of racial and religious differences, a backwards mindset that we don’t have. We aren’t doing this to satisfy anyone, we’re doing it to improve our future. In a world where governments are ruled by corrupt politicians who aren’t doing anything to help their people and improve their countries, Saudi Arabia is doing an amazing job. Regardless if these projects will be successful or not, there’s a lot of other successful projects all over the kingdom. We aren’t just building NEOM, there are countless other projects that are being built all over the kingdom, in all sectors. Have you seen the designs of the hotels in Al Ula? They’re outstanding. We have invested in all kinds of sustainability projects, constantly having international exhibitions and forums for all sectors, and everyone is noticing the progress. I don’t want to seem arrogant, but I’m sure that most countries around the world would wish to have the same kind of success, safety, and growth as us. I don’t want to brag, but here are some of the benefits I have as a Saudi citizen: We have this digital government where I can finish all my government work from anywhere in the world. I have free healthcare, free education, and if I get accepted at any of the top universities around the world, I can have a free scholarship, fully paid by the government, including flights and accommodation, with a monthly allowance on top of it. If I was a female, I can bring a family member as a companion, and they would also have a monthly allowance, tickets, and health insurance. If I was married, I can get my whole family to be with me, and all of them would have allowances. I can receive free healthcare at any of our government hospitals and clinics, regardless of cost, and if my treatment isn’t available in the kingdom, they would find the best doctor to help me, wherever they were in the world, and pay for my treatment, accommodation, for me, and for my companion. I can literally have a video call with my doctor and get a free consultation within minutes, wherever I was in the world. I can also get free online courses in any subject I want for free, and at any time. If I wanted to open a business, I am entitled to free support and free monthly consultations with successful business counsellors who can guide me through the process until I reach my goals. As a disabled person, I even get more support, and I’m entitled to receive monthly payments up to 2500 USD to help me with my disability. If any company hired me, they receive special benefits because of it, and I am protected by law from any discrimination. I also have discounts on all transportation tickets, including flights. How many countries offer such services for free to all their citizens? I’m sure the US isn’t doing half of that. we are developing the whole kingdom, all of us are working towards our vision 2030, and you will be able to see where we will go in the future.
Mark Foster Gage has never met an engineer he didn't want to make cry. "What do you mean you can't support a massive pointless bridge span I want to fill with water? What do you mean the entire floor can't be glass?"
TBF I actually really like this bridge hotel and it's design. It really scratches my cyberpunk concept art itch and kinda hopes this one actually gets built. Most of the other stuff from neom I don't really care for.
Damn, architect forgot that tall buildings work because you only have to walk a short way from entrance to elevator, then elevator to room. A sideways skyscraper that is only one floor high it sounds like entails hella walking unless there's just an airport moving walkway down the center
Speaking as an architect, it looks like the bridge hotel is supported by a hidden internal truss structure. With all the doo-dads like rooms, furnishings, partitions, a pool, trees, etc. the dead load will be enormous for it's unsupported length. It's going to need a profound structural redesign for it to be practical.
Doubt that's true, people get statistics of general deaths and assign them to the given period. They did the same when talking about the stadiums built in Qatar
@BabyMakR I'm no fan of Saudi or MBS by any stretch of the imagination. Look at what he did in Yemen. But I'd need to see the evidence because western sources cannot be trusted.
The projects they stoppe due to the global recession, they did different projects once they started building again, as the projects that were stopped were the ones less practical
And "the best view of the stars I have ever seen" when theres a bloody great swimming pool covering most of the top and thus blocking the view of the sky. Great for perving at the swimmers whilst pleasuring oneself on the bed I guess, so theres that...
Reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Homer was allowed to design the next car for his cousins Car company. Had every ridiculous option in the book that any schoolboy would dream of but no practicality or cost value. Of course the cousins car company went bankrupt after.
I’m beginning to feel sorry for future saudis now. This is turning into a daylight robbery now. These projects will never materialize and these consultants will never turn down free money.
Its because creating manufacturing jobs doesn't make financial sense in gulf states: Wages in gulf states are higher than many NEARBY countries & import fees are low to none. Now add the fact that gulf states lack many key resources for manufacturing. The shipping costs are very unfavorable as you would need to import the heavier & bulker raw materials (Instead of finished product), produce it, and then (because the population is too small for a sizable strong local consumption) spend even more money to ship it out to other countries. This combination makes a locally produced item noncompetitive. Western countries face this issue to a lesser extent & they use protectionist import tariffs to make local products competitive by making imports more expensive. That approach would not work for gulf states (1) they import nearly everything and (2) because the cornerstone of gulf states' economy relies on having the most open market, lack of taxation & having the lowest tariffs. On an investing standpoint, it would make MUCH more sense to just invest in the production in a nearby country which has cheap labor & local raw materials, directly import a portion, and export the rest directly to other countries.
Your speaking with pure stupidity my friend. The gulf states are actually investing in manufacturing consumer goods but you only clicking on videos that speak about these mega projects
They tried lol, they certainly tried to get their hand semiconductor and ev car, but the problem is their don't have the population and education to pull off, so the best they can do is build the factory and let company around the world to rent out the factory with taxes incentives
@@note-_-7188 Tell me then where is the major industrial heartland of the gulf and KSA that were roughly can be standing in par europe's Rhine valley??
It's interesting that tourism and finance have no particular reason to go to the area either. Sure, it's a stopover point from Europe to Asia but that's not a great reason to park you money or your butt there. Manufacturing needs a surprising amount of water.
This one looks much more plausible than many of the other components of Neom. Still won't make it straight from concept art to reality, but it's an improvement.
Actually this one dosen't sound that crazy. The unsupported portion is around 220 meters. Cross section is around 16 x 24 meters so you really have space to package the carrying structure. Challenging but totally doable.
They should start by asking if the rich people are interested before making all this stuff. I think this one looks great as a concept. Better than the tower and Neom.
The simplest form of a bridge is - as you said, Simon - put a plank on two bricks. It works for a while, but it doesn't work for high weights or long distances. Treyam is a truss or beam bridge. I don't think it'll be able to support all that weight. I think it has to be a suspension or cable stay bridge, and the designers are going to HATE that. (I think both suspension and cable stay bridges are beautiful.)
All of these insane mega projects in Saudi Arabia will make an excellent backdrop for a post-apocalyptic movie or video game. All of these sites will be abandoned and crumbling into the desert in a few years.
while Simon sinks any chance he ever had at visiting Saudi Arabia, we get to be entertained by watching his take of the Ozymandias-like leaders of Saudi Arabia and their "visionary" projects.
although there are concerns about its feasibility, Saudi Arabia's focus on such projects demonstrates their ambition to develop a sustainable economy and tourism
@@AL-lh2ht Yes but they were mostly for business reasons in real places. If you are going for business you want to be close to an airport and other stuff, not in the middle of nowhere
These projects seem determined to clash as much with their environment as possible. A glass house in the hot desert, suspended in the air, with a pool on top. The energy required to run it would be extraordinary!
So no piers and no suspension cables to hold up what looks like an incredibly heavy span with (among other features) a massive pool. I think his will be stunning success as elites from all over the world will be clamoring to live in the world's first structure that's either constructed of unobtanium or held up by literal magic.
My favourite part of the concept art is how there are no roads. Seems legit. (5:50) Also I wonder how female guests will feel in a room where the bottom is see through. I get it could be one way - but that doesn't mean they will feel comfortable with the idea that boats passing underneath can upskirt them.
If you think Treyam is bad, you should check out other projects under MAGNA, lol. MAGNA is a coastal project with 12 hotels and destinations along the Gulf of Aqaba. Each one has an amazing rendering video. Can't say the same about the real thing, though, as I can’t imagine they have enough funds for three main cities and the MAGNA hotels at the same time. My favourite is the AQUELLUM one. I work for hotel industry events so I saw a lot of data from the NEOM project. It feels like a rich people's lego.
I'm starting to think all these plans are examples of what would happen if you gave unlimited funding to a group of guys who sit around high all day having people write down their "ideas".
It's not even supporting the weight of the building, it's the building supporting the weight of all the water in the infinity pool. Not going to get nice airy internal spaces, when you're having hold up several thousand tons of water.
At least they keep the concept artists in business.
Not for long, with the amount of ambiguity they use in their "planning" generative AI will happily generate some sci Fi city themed cgi images for them...
Stable Diffusion is waiting in the wings.
😂😂
lol…
It's AI.
"Umhinged things the gulf states do" is my favorite genre of your videos.
Um-hinged is my new favourite word.
Brain Blaze!
and they are mostly based on bigrotry and racism. Often including lies, adam "arabs acting too western" something is worst offender of this.
It's at least partially "keeping up with the Joneses" and phallus measuring contests: each Gulf State (+ Egypt)'s leader seems to feel the need to one-up their fellow leaders in ever-larger megaprojects. Dubai probably started it with their Palm Islands (partially built, but then the 2008 recession intervened) and Burj Khalifa - but at least they were at least semi-realistic projects.
@@mittfh Why dump billions in reforming the whole region and solve at least one of the millenary crisis affecting hundreds of millions of lives when you can play real life lego builder
Why does every single Saudi Megaproject sound like something that you and your mates would come up with while you were absolutely hammered down at your local pub?
Because the Arab leaders are about that smart
Cause they are...
Cause we wouldn’t be drunk enough to come up with this dross😊
Because real drunk is considered haram, so they play pretend they are drunk. 😂
Because some Sheiks came up with them while they were absolutely hammered down at their local palace.😎
I love all of these projects that are publicly announced, funded, and started before they've been fully planned.
A country that got rich by luck and is ruled by the greatest nepo babies on earth. I wouldn't expect anything else.
While it may be announced. Having some concept art or long term plan does not assure they have gotten far enough to even evaluate how much funding it would even take.
Well, according to insiders, people have 5 minutes to make a presentation for MSB, who has a VERY VERY short attention span.
and nowhere near engineered
The funding is a bit of an "Amber pledge" kind of funding.
I like how even the concept art makes it look like the sole relic of a lost civilization
You give it way too much credit, it looks to me like what you'd get if you asked AI to make a picture of a desert bridge hotel.
@ItsHyomoto probably used AI. The architect sounds like a big enough doofus to pass off AI nonesense as a design
@@Seagaltalk There's a place for esoteric designs. But more and more this feels less esoteric and more like architectural firms trying to differentiate themselves and in the process all making exactly the same sort of visual nonsense.
Stretch to call Saudi a civilization
@path2source good point
In 50 years, Saudi Arabia is gonna look like an abandoned theme park with all these “dream” projects
@@abdulbaridakheel8390 so that's why neom got downscaled so much. Got it
@hsupergabe 😂😂😂🤣🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🏜🏜🥵🥵☀️🥵😝😝😅😅🤣🤣🤣😝😝🤣🤣
They said that about dubai. Lol. I live here #Saudivision2030 is happening and you'll either love it or hate it.
@@abdulbaridakheel8390arabs couldn’t run a riot!🤣😂😂🤣
Again Saudi Arabia is playing be Elon Musk or the DCEU before James Gunn, a lot of animation and little results
No freaking way they can build this monstrosity can be supported on two points alone.
The structure would need many multiple support points as its would be way heavier than a standard bridge.
On the bright side, it's unlikely to collapse as its incredibly unlikely to be built.
The red sea also gets strong winds, famously not a problem for bridges /s
I am sure the architect has budgeted the costs of using unobtanium.
@@TheanHooYew no, they've created an alloy made out of unobtanium aaaand...you guessed it, vibranium.
There are mirror covered pillars. Look closely.
This is the very first thing that caught my attention, and I'm not an engineer.
So, serious question, if an architect's designs can't be practically realized, what's the difference between an architect and an artist? Does he display the concepts? Are they functional blueprints/plans or just visual representations of the proposed project?
The job of an architect is to come up with cool ideas. The job of an Engineer is to -tell tell the architect why it can't be built- come up with a more practical way to make the building happen.
I'm an architect, and I'd say no. If you have no idea how to build what you're drawing, you're just doing sci-fi concept art. Accountability to physics, materials, and construction is what makes architecture difficult. The Saudis might as well have just used Midjourney for this and save a few hundred grand.
Architects used to have actual technical skills.
He's a grifter. Conmen sell dreams to marks. That's exactly what he's doing.
@henryglennon3864
Does Frank Lloyd Wright’s Illinois building have any value?
It was never built, but the Fordham Spire drew from it; and it established the idealized concept of placing skyscrapers in their own parkland, instead of clashing with their neighbors and competing for available space, light, and stylistic dominance.
All that glass in a desert environment... where are the massive cooling towers to keep the rooms at a cozy 20°C? If the AC goes out, that place turns into a massive greenhouse.
It is possible for glass to keep heat out. Singapore did this with some of their structures.
@@koharumi1 It adds weight to the glass though, and not a small amount.
Also, Singapore didn't put glass roofs on the entirety of those buildings. This promises a view of the stars from almost every room, the glass shuts out a lot of light.
I’m not an expert by any means, but the sharp temperature fluctuations in the desert are also an issue for materials like glass, no?
It doesn’t just get hot - it also gets cold. Which isn’t particularly good for brittle materials like glass in the long-term. That is, unless they’re willing to shell out *serious* cash on materials designed for that stress.
@@TheAmbush101 The area that they're building in gets hot, sure, but it's not a ridiculous temperature difference. It's on the coast of the Red Sea
Designing a glasshouse in the desert... I hope they 'll include serious airconditioners.
They know the technology that "definitely exists"
well they have all the oil to fuel the AC at least. and all over the world , we should lower our CO2 emission and lower our home temperature in winter. 😊
Yes, they'll build a huge oil-fired power plant in proximity to this latest banana-brained scheme that'll turn the local air black.
That's what the waterfalls are for. 😅
They need to think about the façade design as well. I don’t think that having full strong sunlight hitting you at all times is gonna be very pleasant, or healthy for your skin. I get it, you’d want unobstructed views of the site, but all that light coming through, completely unfiltered, would be so uncomfortable
Wait wait wait. This guy made a big heart, some store fronts and pictures of buildings...... My god did I pick the wrong career, should have gone con artist like this guy.
Hahahaha
As they build the Bridge Hotel, they'll most likely be destroying the "vibrant coral reefs" in the lagoon.
They'll just use the skeletons of all the slaves they killed while building it...
it's probably a fake reef, part of the design.
The "clear waters" ... wont be for too long when you're building in the vicinity.
Of all the issues with this design, this is probably the last to consider. 1. Can it even be build? 2. Will it ever be build? 3. If it is build, would anyone want to go there or will it just sit empty over a dead piece of dirty sea? All very fair questions for sure and probably No is the answer to all 3 questions, but that hasn't stopped a single Saudi ever.
3. well its always aimed at people with a ton of money so how many of them will beeline it to here for 3/4's of a year, to some sea and sand watching?
Surely an architect whose buildings are never built is at best a painter?
Don’t give Austrian architecture students ideas…
@@Argent_99we don't want them to be rejected from art school
His Lego game is unmatched
What about the Sindala project that was opened two weeks ago? or shebara? 😂
His idea of architecture were beautiful though, similar to the greats like Rome Babylon China and similar cultures
These projects always look like what happens if someone turns on cheats in a game, starts building some ridiculous crap, and then loses interest halfway through.
Except in a game you don't have millions of neighbors dying of famine, war and being born a female ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
LOL. Subnautica
Coming next: SPIKA, a bridge up-ended so it is vertical; and UNDAWAT, an underwater bridge-hotel-airport. And underwater railway. And an underwater lagoon. With flying fish. Because. Don't ask why, it's just because. Oooh look over there, an underwater monorail.
I was going to suggest connecting them with Musk's Hyperloop 🤭🤣
I wouldn't put it past them to play around in MidJourney and get inspired. Heck, you could probably design a quiz: Midjourney or actual Gulf Coast State Megaproject Concept Art?
Omg you made me spit out my water 😂
😂underwater lagoon😂
Man that top floor pool will be great in a sandstorm….
Not to mention the immense weight of the water and all the structural implications that go along with it.
@@jaysdoodI'm sure that the million consultants working on the project realize that.
I was thinking, the emergency exits are either going to require a long walk or a long drop. Not the safest thing in a fire (or other emergency situation).
@@jaysdood The thing is basically a long bridge. Where are the support structures?
The region they're building these structures in has no significant sandstorms
Sounds like Gage would be great at designing video game environments.
Except video game environments are actually built. On a daily basis, honestly. Gage's whole shtick is that he never sees a project completed!
I picked up somewhere (no clue if true) that the designs of The Line were created by videogame artists because MBS found the architects' designs too boring.
@@antonnurwald5700 It's an interesting idea. The problem is that unlike in the real world, architecture in video games don't have to follow even the simplest laws of physics. I am a scifi nerd, Star Wars being a great example of this where the sheer scale is incredible with structures that defy gravity or are shaped in impossible ways that are ever so visually appealing. BUT even I think of real buildings, or what is meant to be a real building, differently.
The problem with that idea is that video game environment design still needs to consider things like the movement of people through the space and the "materials" used, just in a different way.
An environment that isn't pleasant to *interact* with quickly becomes *unfun*-- it's a source of friction that distracts from the gameplay and the designed challenges of the game. It's just no fun to feel like you're wrestling with the game itself rather than enjoying it! So the game's mechanics have to be considered when designing an environment; how does the player move? An environment design for a game like Warframe with its fast, fluid movement must be very different than that for a turn-based JRPG where the player doesn't even have a jump button. Must the environment be populated with lots of things to interact with, e.g. due to a focus on worldbuilding and investigation, or would those be distracting, e.g. due to a focus on combat? Can the character SWIM?
"Material" also needs to be considered because the environments need to be "built" in a way that allows the game's engine to render them well. Different game engines have different ways of handling lighting (and some games allow players to adjust the lighting settings themselves), so designs need to consider how the environment will be lit or some of the detail might not even be properly visible or might look flat or strange. Some platforms have a lot more processing power than others, which means that the level of detail you might want wouldn't be achievable without affecting load times, leading the environment to look jumbled or sloppy. Depending on how the game engine handles water, that might drastically affect your ability to incorporate water elements into a design or change their appearance.
He might thrive in one of those bloated AAA projects where they just keep crunching developers until they make things pretty enough, and actual cohesion between gameplay and other aspects of design is hardly even considered, though.
@@katdixon8390 wow, that was awesome, hope you work with a cool team that appreciates your knowledge.
By now it should be clear to everyone, that the Tower of Babel must've been a Saudi project
Except that one was supposedly successfully built...
@@Narangarath….???? I think you need to read the Bible….
nice and @nara.... he means it was started but never completed 🤔 its actually real cute and made me smile😏😅
Bridges flex. How do they think to keep glass panes in place and swimming pool leveled? Not to mention the structure of that length would weight at least 50 000 tons - and they're planning vertical abutments? Good luck with that.
The Vaporization of that pool in the desert would be insane already.
Even if they could build it (they can’t) who would want to stay there.
Just the water would be 20000 tons if the pool is 20x2x500 m. Near impossible with today's tech, expensive, risky and unfeasible.
If Saudi Arabia is that desperate for monuments for tourism money, they could always just build a big pyramid. It's tried and tested method of drawing in tourists.
Anytime a hotel or house is built away from a city, I'm left wondering what public resources are wasted to get a fire department or ambulance to such a site.
On site facilities perhaps?
I guess that's one perspective. It is worth mentioning that a great deal of basic necessities, like food, can't be produced in cities, so cities are also reliant on some people living outside of them. The resource benefit does not go only one way.
@brendanconlon8292 yes, but we're talking about areas potentially containing large groups of people, not being serviceable by fundamental services.
@@WarriorOfWriters Right, and this is obviously an odd example, given it won't likely really be built, but creating a hotel outside a city, but within commute distance, can be beneficial as it brings in tourists who then spend money, so net, net it can be a gain. Sometimes the views outside the city are better than any of the real estate inside so it is worth the trade off. Obviously each situation is very particular, but I wouldn't assume building a house or hotel outside a city is never worth the cost to the city.
Neom is the absolute end game of the Expectations vs Reality memes, & i kinda love it, they are just burning thru their Oil Money reserves
Remember MBS paying $450 million for a fake Leonardo Da Vinci painting? All his projects follow the same pattern...🤭🤣
Oh, I'm in a hotel room, above me water, below me water. How well I'll sleep here, feeling so safe!
Generational wealth is lost within 3 generations. Saudi Arabia is proving that on a massive scale.
More and more I'm coming around to the idea that we in the West SHOULD invade the Middle East just for their oil and be open about our intentions. Just take the entire Ghawar Field.
The Arabs have uniformly squandered some of the greatest natural wealth ever discovered with this crap. They could have turned their countries into genuinely open and prosperous societies with a high standard of living for all their citizens. Instead their absolute rulers prefer to fund Wahabbi terrorism worldwide and build shit like this.
There is an old English saying “it’s like casting pearls before swine”. That could be said of the huge oil fortune the Arabs found under their sand.
As soon as I saw the infinity pool I thought that there is no way that is going to be built. The weight of all that water is just not viable.
They claim to have special new materials for building, idk perhaps otherwise oh boy 😅
@@WE-WUZZING-KANGS-N-SHEEOYTI heard it was developed by the Max Planck Institute
Simon, anyone from the Turkish embassy invites you to a party, say no.
Can they successfully finish a project first???
I remember a dialogue between two NPC in Fallout 4
- Why did they built a vault in the subway ?
- To create work, so the builders won't riot.
Sindalah opened 2 days ago ❤
@@judaswasametalheadit’s even better because one of the NPCs is a pre war ghoul
They're like a kid with a credit card
Neom had announced the first finished project this week. SINDALAH a beach resort that was announced at the end of 2022 had just finished this week. You can look up articles and videos about it here in youtube.
Also, Saudi finished many grand projects in the past such as Jubail industrial city, the 4th largest tower in the world Abraj Al-Bait, King abdullah economic city, and many more. For recent projects that are amazing and have delivered, Red sea global, Alula, Dirryah gate, and Neom. Look them up.
The views of the stars are incredible NOW, when it's a desert wasteland. When there's an infinity pool above you that's lit up 24/7 you will not see the stars as well.
Reminds me a lot of the long-abandoned theme parks and housing developments built in Japan in the 1990s, when too much money made people stupid.
If you look closely, the concept art shows pillars that are covered in mirrors to make them less conspicious. So the span of the building is shorter than it seems at first glance. The span only covers the water and that's about half of the total horizontal length of the building.
The hotel part is also high enough that they can hide some arches/suspension cables behind the cladding
There are currently 7 cantilever bridges in the world with main spans of 1500 feet or more. Now no pools are installed on the road decks obviously, but they are traveled by tens of thousands of cars, trucks, even semis daily so their load isn't exactly light. As pictured I think it's a no go due to the water weight. Slap some arches or trusses extending from each end underneath out 100-200 feet both ways with cross beams and it might actually work, especially if cut the pool down from a single one to several smaller ones keeping as much weight as possible near the ends.
This is pretty much exactly what I was thinking. They could cut out a lot of the water volume by adding wading sections and making the pool narrower in the middle, opting for lounging space or poolside bars/restaurants instead, so with some changes it might actually be possible to build.
It was hard to tell the difference between the play speed being increased and Simon's normal speaking rate, in the best possible way. Great video, as always!
I love how every project from Saudi Arabia are like me playing Cities Skylines.
But they try for real.
Random concept artist at every gaming studio can come up with something that looks better.
Bridges need to flex ........ No thanks. Bouncing hotel room ???? Miss me with that !!!!
lol
Its insane because it is a tourist destination in what is one of the most restrictive state on the globe. They dream big, but the way that they restrict freedoms in their nations puts off a lot of peoples who might otherwise be interested in the luxury that theses destinations offer.
How can they be a tourist destination when they can’t even solve simple stuff like having decent customer service on their national airline?
This looks like some shit you’d see on the cover of a 1950s pulp magazine about mars colonization lmao
You can probably make an entire channel on shit Saudi Arabia says they'll totally build but never will.
From a conceptual perspective, these are always fun to just think about though.
this is what happens when you have too much money, you don’t know what to do with it 🤦♂️
Imagine what they could achieve rather than just wanting to make what are basically ridiculously fancy hotels for super billionaires.
I will never get over the ridiculousness of The Line. Why would anyone want a city built in a 100 mile line? Ridiculous
Beyond ridiculous! Also check out Mukaab in Riyadh 🤭
Just the geometry alone makes your average journey from one place to the another within the city 10 times as far.
FFS this isn’t a Megaproject it’s just a fever dream. If the project hasn’t been built it’s just an idea.
9:55, no. Even the strongest one solid piece steal beams that long, would at least start bending downward in the middle, with or without a pool on top under the weight of the beam alone I think.
Wrong, the longest cantilever span is 539 meters, it's a bridge that carries cargo trains and traffic. The longest span without any tower support is 260 meters. It would be possible, from an engineering standpoint to hide the supporting structure within the "hotel design" and create a viable 460 meter span, especially if they extended the base pillars outwards with arches.
As an architect, I’m not very confident in this working at all. I don’t think the weight of an entire hotel can be held by what essentially is a half kilometer long truss bridge that doesn’t have any vertical supports in its length, just at its beginning and its end. Your typical trussed bridge can span 100m tops in between vertical supports, so I don’t see how they’re going to make that times five while bearing a permanent load and a pool on top of it, let’s remember that water is insanely heavy. I think the trusses would have to be massive in order to hold the entire weight without any vertical supports, and that would probably not be very aesthetically pleasing. I would love to know how the architectural and engineering teams are planning on making it work, though.
Check out Trysfjord Bridge, it's got a 260 meter span. Without sitting down and doing any calculations, you could "cheat" and hide the trusses in what would only look like parts of hotel on the surface, but would in fact be structural. You could also go for bigger arches, and the infinity pool would have to either be split in two, which lets be honest, wouldn't really hurt the design much. Or very slimmed down in the middle.
Could you make it work on an engineering level? I'm fairly sure that the answer is yes, but you are going to end up wasting a lot of "hotel" sapce, I don't think the project would ever make economic sense though, with all the restrictions the engineering would place upon the number of actual rooms they could have.
The fact that you can see small additional support columns in the concept art makes me think they've done some calculations and realized those were needed. OTOH, adding a structural arch to it seems perfectly fine aesthetically so I'm not sure why they don't just do that.
I don't get the obsession with building things that nobody can afford.
Because it's the most return by offering it to only people with more money than they know what to do with,
In the end, in most cases, whoever buys the thing first loses money as the value of the property fails to keep pace with the market or even goes down. Then, if the locality is desirable enough, someone will buy units and subdivide them into something more consistent with the local market.
I suspect it has something to do with the person at the top and their life experiences. Imagine living a life where you have so much money you never want for anything. If you want something to happen you just tell one of your aides and it happens and everyone you've ever met just says yes to you. There's no understanding of the complexity of running a massive project, let alone a whole country. I'm quite confident they will just burn through their massive cash pile without achieving much of anything.
Let me run 2 add campaigns by you quickly.
Saudi builds Cheap motel in the desert, rooms only 50cent for a night.
Saudi builds the most luxurious hotel in the world with views of a coral reef and the stars from your private glass hotel room. With world class amenities, 3 star restaurants, sparkling waterfalls and more! 1500 dollars/night
I'll tell you straight away that while the chance that you would go for the second concept might be small, the chance that'd you'd stay in the first one is exactly 0.
If you belong to the top 25% you'll be their
As a proud Saudi civil engineer and interdisciplinary artist, I can assure you this project is challenging but fully within reach. Some delays may happen due to design adjustments, but it is achievable.
First, I need to address something to the uploader of the video. At 10:00 , you casually remarked, “We’re neither expert physicist nor trained architects.” Let me set the record straight. We, the civil engineers, are the ones making these projects happen, not physicists, not architects, and certainly not “mathematical beasts.” They don’t handle the real-world demands of construction.
We put ourselves on the line to build your cities. We are the ones who manage all construction projects. We design the roads, the tunnels, the bridges, the water plants, the dams, the man-made lakes, the airports, the railroads, the buildings (except for the architectural aspects), etc
Our work isn’t easy, and respect for our role is essential because without us, cities wouldn’t evolve.
Becoming a civil engineer required mastering a vast array of fields:
• Environmental engineering
• Water and wastewater treatment
• Structural analysis
• Air pollution
• Geotechnical engineering
• Engineering geology
• Concrete and steel design
• Material engineering
• Transportation Engineering
• Hydraulic engineering
• Statics and dynamics
• Engineering technologies
• Sustainability
• Engineering Instruments
• Construction management
• Probability and statistics
And more.
Along with that, I pushed through math subjects that I couldn’t stand: Algebra, Calculus I, II, and III, Ordinary Differential Equations, all while managing ADHD without support from my instructors.
After all that effort, I didn’t work my way into this field to hear random UA-camrs ignore our role to push an agenda against ambitious Saudi projects. We are the project managers, the ones who create the design, run the calculations, manage operations, deliver the project, and hold the responsibility for every element once it’s done. We’re the backbone. Next time you talk about a construction project, you better respect our role instead of giving credit to mathematicians.
With that being said, Let’s break down the project and get into the core factors.
*~ Design Considerations Not Mentioned in The Video ~*
1. *Misunderstanding Basic Load Distribution*
That line you said about “any load suspended by two anchor points can only be so heavy” is completely misleading. It’s a quick phrase for content creators looking to generate hype, not a statement rooted in real engineering. The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge in Turkey spans 4.6 kilometers, carrying immense loads over an unsupported span of 2.2 kilometers. How did they make it happen? Civil engineers.
2. *Not a Simple “Plank Over Blocks”*
This isn’t “a wooden plank placed over two concrete blocks.” Look closely at the design images. There’s extensive support across the structure. It’s anything but two anchor points.
3. *Diverse Support Types*
The structure doesn’t rely on one kind of support. On one side, multiple tower-like supports carry the load, with a hill or mountain offering natural stability. On the opposite side, there are three substantial towers.
4. *Truss Structure for Weight Distribution*
A truss design could be key here, distributing weight across the structure’s members for maximum stability and efficiency. There are also other options to distribute the weight of the structure.
5. *The Planning Process*
In today’s world, engineers rely on advanced technology to carefully design and calculate every part of a project during the planning phase, long before construction begins. Using specialized software, we input all project details and run simulations to ensure safety, stability, and feasibility.
The process starts with architects, who create the initial design based on aesthetics and functionality, shaping the building’s look and layout. Once their design is complete, civil and structural engineers take over to handle the technical side. We analyze every detail, from material strength to the forces the building will face, such as wind and weight, to confirm if the design can perform safely in the real world.
If we find any issues, often due to design choices that push limits, we return the plans to the architects for adjustments. This collaboration is essential, and while it can cause delays, it guarantees that each project is safe, practical, and ready for construction.
*~ Other Considerations ~*
1. The Pool Issue
The rooftop pool will require particular design attention to handle its load. But the building itself can leverage materials that deliver strength without adding unnecessary weight. Advanced, lightweight materials are available to support a structure of this caliber.
2. *The Environmental and Geotechnical Aspects*
Before construction, engineers visit the site to collect soil samples and conduct tests to analyze ground stability. They check for factors like groundwater, slope stability, and soil strength, as these are crucial for designing a safe foundation. Engineers also assess environmental risks, like earthquakes, floods, or storms, and examine how the project might impact local ecosystems. By understanding both the ground and environmental conditions, engineers ensure the project’s foundation is solid and the design is safe for the site, protecting future occupants and respecting the environment.
There are other considerations but I hope everyone now has a better idea of constructing projects before criticizing them. Remember: civil engineers are at the heart of all ambitious projects like this. We calculate, create, and oversee every aspect, ensuring each piece comes together safely and successfully. The strength of these structures doesn’t come from empty statements. It comes from the work we pour into every beam, every joint, every calculated load. We deserve to be acknowledged for the work we do in building cities around the world, and the uploader should know that us Saudis are not only dreamers, we dream, and we achieve 😉🇸🇦
*NEOM already opened its doors two weeks ago, and people can now go and visit Sindalah, the first Island resort in our new city on the Red Sea. We also opened other Island Resorts our other megaproject in Tabuk, The Red Sea Project. 2 new airports are now open in Tabuk to welcome visitors from around the world, Neom Bay Airport and Red Sea International airport. You can use Saudia airlines, Fly Dubai, or Qatar airways to visit them. I don’t know why people are so upset to see us developing, but they need to wake up because the dream is already a reality.*
We’re not working with any architectural firms, we are the most prominent ones , such as the award-winning Foster + Partners from the UK who designed some of the world’s most iconic buildings, like The Gherkin, The British Museum, and The City Hall in London, Apple’s headquarters in California, Hong Kong’s Airport, and the iconic Faisaliya tower in Riyadh. They designed most of the buildings in The Red Sea project and are going to look beautiful once they are finished. I visited that side of the kingdom and the water was the cleanest I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s definitely one of the best beach spots in the world and I’m happy that my country is making it accessible for everyone to visit.
So, there’s no need to minimize our ambitions here, and constantly complain about our development. Us Saudis never do such jealous stuff when we see other countries developing, we always show our support. You should learn that from us.
excellent response.
PLEASE invite Simons' team to visit Sindalah.
I'd LOVE to see a video of it...
Although, being an unemployed back-end .NET senior developer, I'll likely never be able to afford it....
That was well written but doesn't address two things that people in support of the project cope with too much and dismiss.
a) A lot of this design is stupid and excessive for absolutely no reason except "I'm rich, look what I can build", so the whole "environmentally friendly" argument is trash.
b) to do all of this you need money and the clock has started ticking for fossil fuel countries. OPEC+ for the fourth time this year is scaling down their forecasts for fossil fuel consumption because they don't want to listen to experts and are coping hard that oil and gas consumption (especially oil) is reaching a peak very soon, before any of these projects reach meaningful progress. The IAE has historically been MUCH more accurate at predicting anything regarding fossil fuels as well as Bloomberg NEF and both expect oil peaks in various sectors between 2027-2029, decades before OPEC+ thinks. Not to mention non-OPEC+ production is going up because of OPEC+ cuts and so they are stealing market share and driving prices down.
c) The economic impact is at best highly speculative. The thought process is "omg it looks so cool, surely it will bring prosperity" because it has been decided by an authoritarian out of touch government, not because experts say it will be any good.
d) slave labor
@ you’re argument is using the usual stereotypical western media view against us. That’s what’s you can call bullshit. Let me answer each of your points:
A) Why don’t you say these things when the Chinese, British, Japanese, Indians, Americans, Singaporeans, and others who build similar projects? Why is it always "too much" when we do it? Do you want us to go back to being a third-world country to be satisfied? The city is being built to attract tourists from all over the world. It is such a strategic location. I visited Tabuk myself in August 2021 and I was shocked by how the weather was 30 degrees in summer because it was 45 degrees in my hometown. That region is beautiful for camping, exploring, diving, and other activities, yet it didn’t have a proper atmosphere to welcome tourists. So, we have to build such projects to attract tourists. We aren’t saying we’re rich, but if we can afford to build something beautiful and unique, we will do it. I believe MBS did an amazing job with this project. He brought the best people to make it happen, and it will happen, even if there were some minor setbacks, it will be a new attractive destination for Saudis and non-Saudis to visit.
The "environmentally-friendly" argument is not trash. There’s nothing 100% environmentally friendly, but I can assure you that they’re taking it seriously. They have developed new advanced systems of collecting and treating water, made certain areas environmentally protected, added more greenery, banned people from visiting the small islands on the Red Sea and banned diving in certain areas to protect the ecosystem, and the res sea airport was built by sustainable materials. You can’t say it’s bullshit if you didn’t do proper research. Don’t believe UA-cam videos, go and investigate it yourself before making baseless claims.
B)The project is set to be completed in 2030, and trust me, we have enough money and oil reserves to sustain ourselves for many decades, and this is why the project is being built in the first place, to diversify our economy for when the oil reserves no longer have oil. Our economy is being less dependent on oil every year, now we have all kinds of international corporations opening their regional offices in Saudi, we have food security, a lot of groundwater reserves in the empty quarter, and the largest water treatment plants in the world. God has blessed this land for centuries. Thank god for his endless blessings, My ancestors have been wealthy for centuries, even before we discovered oil, and they’re not the only ones. So don’t worry about us because we[re doing an amazing job at maintaining our economic growth.
C)Slave labour is such a cliché and it’s actually offensive to the workers. Imagine having a low-wage job and people called you slave. If those workers were really enslaved, then why are they still applying to come work here? Do some critical thinking my friend. They are getting much more money than they ever will if they stayed in their countries, and they also applied, left their homes, flew here, and signed the contacts themselves. No one made them wear chains and forced them to come work here. Whatever living conditions they have here would still be much better than the living conditions they had in their home countries. Millions were able to have better lives, lifted their families from poverty, provided education for their children, and saved themselves from hunger because we offered them their jobs. This is life. Some people are rich, and some are not. The ones who aren’t educated enough would have lesser salaries, and live in less fortunate communities. This is part of our nature as human beings. Calling those who are less fortunate "slaves" is degrading them. It is such a disrespectful term to use.
Without the jobs they have here, their countries would have a huge amount of unemployment, and would be in constant chaos. Billions are being sent to their countries, playing an important role in their economy. We have a lot of labour laws to protect them, they live in air-conditioned rooms, with toilets, and meals. They have their mobile phones, the freedom to change jobs, and travel freely after their work without any restrictions. I know that some employers are not being fair to their workers, but this is also the workers fault because they should go to the police and report them. Unlike the Eastern European slaves in the UK who are living inside homes without electricity, heating, , or even mattresses. They also work as labour construction workers, but they are subjected to violence and threats, you can type "modern slavery in uk" and hear their stories. Nothing like the workers here.
Trust me, not all Saudis are rich. We have poverty, families unable to afford basic things, and are struggling too. These projects will help us all by providing jobs and making the future more interesting. Stop being envious towards us.
People were complaining about us when we were an ultra-conservative country that’s closed to foreigners, without any tourist visas, with strict religious laws against women and religious police roaming our streets.
Now when we changed our laws, opened our borders, gave women their rights, and drastically changed to a much more developed country, people are still complaining.
I don’t know why but it’s always the Americans, British and Europeans who are complaining about us. If we visited their countries, they complain, and if we stopped visiting them and started developing our countries, they complain. I think this hatred towards us is because of racial and religious differences, a backwards mindset that we don’t have.
We aren’t doing this to satisfy anyone, we’re doing it to improve our future. In a world where governments are ruled by corrupt politicians who aren’t doing anything to help their people and improve their countries, Saudi Arabia is doing an amazing job. Regardless if these projects will be successful or not, there’s a lot of other successful projects all over the kingdom. We aren’t just building NEOM, there are countless other projects that are being built all over the kingdom, in all sectors. Have you seen the designs of the hotels in Al Ula? They’re outstanding. We have invested in all kinds of sustainability projects, constantly having international exhibitions and forums for all sectors, and everyone is noticing the progress. I don’t want to seem arrogant, but I’m sure that most countries around the world would wish to have the same kind of success, safety, and growth as us.
I don’t want to brag, but here are some of the benefits I have as a Saudi citizen:
We have this digital government where I can finish all my government work from anywhere in the world. I have free healthcare, free education, and if I get accepted at any of the top universities around the world, I can have a free scholarship, fully paid by the government, including flights and accommodation, with a monthly allowance on top of it. If I was a female, I can bring a family member as a companion, and they would also have a monthly allowance, tickets, and health insurance. If I was married, I can get my whole family to be with me, and all of them would have allowances. I can receive free healthcare at any of our government hospitals and clinics, regardless of cost, and if my treatment isn’t available in the kingdom, they would find the best doctor to help me, wherever they were in the world, and pay for my treatment, accommodation, for me, and for my companion. I can literally have a video call with my doctor and get a free consultation within minutes, wherever I was in the world. I can also get free online courses in any subject I want for free, and at any time. If I wanted to open a business, I am entitled to free support and free monthly consultations with successful business counsellors who can guide me through the process until I reach my goals. As a disabled person, I even get more support, and I’m entitled to receive monthly payments up to 2500 USD to help me with my disability. If any company hired me, they receive special benefits because of it, and I am protected by law from any discrimination. I also have discounts on all transportation tickets, including flights. How many countries offer such services for free to all their citizens? I’m sure the US isn’t doing half of that.
we are developing the whole kingdom, all of us are working towards our vision 2030, and you will be able to see where we will go in the future.
Look over here while we pick your pocket.
Mark Foster Gage has never met an engineer he didn't want to make cry.
"What do you mean you can't support a massive pointless bridge span I want to fill with water? What do you mean the entire floor can't be glass?"
TBF I actually really like this bridge hotel and it's design. It really scratches my cyberpunk concept art itch and kinda hopes this one actually gets built. Most of the other stuff from neom I don't really care for.
I’d like to go visit it, if it was anywhere else in the world other than where they want to build it.
Damn, architect forgot that tall buildings work because you only have to walk a short way from entrance to elevator, then elevator to room. A sideways skyscraper that is only one floor high it sounds like entails hella walking unless there's just an airport moving walkway down the center
Of course it’ll have maglev AI piloted personal transport pods, duh!
3 words : AI drone taxi
Russia uses sports washing, saudi Arabia uses architectural washing... And since none of it, is going to be built, its cheaper 😂😂😂
In this context then I’d use the USA uses Democracy washing lol
How about finishing one project before starting another?
You don't know what projects they have right? hints, its hundreds and a lot of them are finished.
Just another pie in the sky vanity project from the bone chopping Prince that won’t happen…
Speaking as an architect, it looks like the bridge hotel is supported by a hidden internal truss structure. With all the doo-dads like rooms, furnishings, partitions, a pool, trees, etc. the dead load will be enormous for it's unsupported length. It's going to need a profound structural redesign for it to be practical.
Not questioning your professional judgement, but how do you know what the structural design looks like?
5:05 you forgot to mention the 21,000 people who have died on Neom so far, though that may be more suited for an Into the Shadows episode.
Doubt that's true, people get statistics of general deaths and assign them to the given period. They did the same when talking about the stadiums built in Qatar
@@ebewarrior Lots of places reporting it. That's on top of the military being allowed to use deadly force to move people.
@BabyMakR I'm no fan of Saudi or MBS by any stretch of the imagination. Look at what he did in Yemen. But I'd need to see the evidence because western sources cannot be trusted.
21,000 people died? unless they are building it with human bones that makes no sense at all. I'm calling nonsense
This makes me wonder what if Dubai was able to complete all the past projects it had
The projects they stoppe due to the global recession, they did different projects once they started building again, as the projects that were stopped were the ones less practical
good thing.... all those racist arabs gonna go back to camels
So which is it, the pristine lagoon, or the lagoon with a ton of people swimming and boating through it like the video? It can't be both.
And "the best view of the stars I have ever seen" when theres a bloody great swimming pool covering most of the top and thus blocking the view of the sky. Great for perving at the swimmers whilst pleasuring oneself on the bed I guess, so theres that...
@@meetoo594 Not to mention scenarios where some lovers would try to find hidden spots on the rooftop to getting frisky under the stars...
I think the Saudis watched Thor and thought yeah we can build a piece of Asgard.
I just imagine the Monorail guy from that Simpsons episode, MBS nodding and saying "tell me more"
I love the black hole globe on the shelf behind you.
Reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Homer was allowed to design the next car for his cousins Car company. Had every ridiculous option in the book that any schoolboy would dream of but no practicality or cost value. Of course the cousins car company went bankrupt after.
I’m beginning to feel sorry for future saudis now. This is turning into a daylight robbery now. These projects will never materialize and these consultants will never turn down free money.
Let's go to Saudi Arabia for a nice vacation; said nobody, ever
Muslims: are we a joke to you?
@ well, yes, kind of. But they're not going on a nice vacation.
I have to admit, out of all of the mega projects that I've seen on here, this is the first that I would actually consider visiting.
Do they plan to build this thing using minecraft physics, whats supporting that span ?
Physics will bend to MBS's dictates so the span won't bend 🤭
@@eleghariyes it will
Yes, because physics is going to receive a 1,000 lashes if it doesn't.
From one insane unfinished abandoned project , to another, perfect 👌
"Neon" is the sound a child makes when being fed a spoonful of food.
I only saw the thumbnail and I already have anxiety... I would NEVER dare go across something like that on ANYTHING.
The way he said 'Mathematical BEAST!!"😂
It's crazy that all these gulf states want to diversify their economies by investing in anything BUT manufacturing consumer goods.
Its because creating manufacturing jobs doesn't make financial sense in gulf states: Wages in gulf states are higher than many NEARBY countries & import fees are low to none. Now add the fact that gulf states lack many key resources for manufacturing. The shipping costs are very unfavorable as you would need to import the heavier & bulker raw materials (Instead of finished product), produce it, and then (because the population is too small for a sizable strong local consumption) spend even more money to ship it out to other countries. This combination makes a locally produced item noncompetitive. Western countries face this issue to a lesser extent & they use protectionist import tariffs to make local products competitive by making imports more expensive. That approach would not work for gulf states (1) they import nearly everything and (2) because the cornerstone of gulf states' economy relies on having the most open market, lack of taxation & having the lowest tariffs. On an investing standpoint, it would make MUCH more sense to just invest in the production in a nearby country which has cheap labor & local raw materials, directly import a portion, and export the rest directly to other countries.
Your speaking with pure stupidity my friend. The gulf states are actually investing in manufacturing consumer goods but you only clicking on videos that speak about these mega projects
They tried lol, they certainly tried to get their hand semiconductor and ev car, but the problem is their don't have the population and education to pull off, so the best they can do is build the factory and let company around the world to rent out the factory with taxes incentives
@@note-_-7188 Tell me then where is the major industrial heartland of the gulf and KSA that were roughly can be standing in par europe's Rhine valley??
It's interesting that tourism and finance have no particular reason to go to the area either. Sure, it's a stopover point from Europe to Asia but that's not a great reason to park you money or your butt there.
Manufacturing needs a surprising amount of water.
This one looks much more plausible than many of the other components of Neom. Still won't make it straight from concept art to reality, but it's an improvement.
All that glass in the desert... I make industrial air handlers... Our shop will be busy for decades... Thank you MBS, you're my hero.
Actually this one dosen't sound that crazy. The unsupported portion is around 220 meters. Cross section is around 16 x 24 meters so you really have space to package the carrying structure. Challenging but totally doable.
They should start by asking if the rich people are interested before making all this stuff. I think this one looks great as a concept. Better than the tower and Neom.
The original proposed population of the LINE was 9 million! I only watch videos about NEOM for the laughs.
The simplest form of a bridge is - as you said, Simon - put a plank on two bricks. It works for a while, but it doesn't work for high weights or long distances.
Treyam is a truss or beam bridge. I don't think it'll be able to support all that weight.
I think it has to be a suspension or cable stay bridge, and the designers are going to HATE that. (I think both suspension and cable stay bridges are beautiful.)
amazing what these Arabs do with money from oil and with the minds of people in the West and with the hands of workers from Pakistan, India, Nepal...
They need to stop wasting all of this money
This our money don't worry about it
All of these insane mega projects in Saudi Arabia will make an excellent backdrop for a post-apocalyptic movie or video game. All of these sites will be abandoned and crumbling into the desert in a few years.
Man the setting for Spec Ops The Line 2 gets more exciting by the day
21,000 deaths in 8 years, Neom is a slaughterhouse
The building is actually perfectly feasible and wouldn't collapse, as long as it's built somewhere like Mars or the Moon with much lower gravity.
Reminds me of the elephant bridge in the movie Bahubali 😅
A weel designed access and service arch might make it possible.
I can draw it up for these guys if they want
Oop's I meant well. Oh well
while Simon sinks any chance he ever had at visiting Saudi Arabia, we get to be entertained by watching his take of the Ozymandias-like leaders of Saudi Arabia and their "visionary" projects.
although there are concerns about its feasibility, Saudi Arabia's focus on such projects demonstrates their ambition to develop a sustainable economy and tourism
What do they imagine people are going to do when they get to this stupid hotel?
The same thing as any other fancy hotel....You have been to any of them right?
@@AL-lh2ht Yes but they were mostly for business reasons in real places. If you are going for business you want to be close to an airport and other stuff, not in the middle of nowhere
cocaine
These projects seem determined to clash as much with their environment as possible. A glass house in the hot desert, suspended in the air, with a pool on top. The energy required to run it would be extraordinary!
Cokain sniffing royals thats been watching too much sci-fi😂😂
So no piers and no suspension cables to hold up what looks like an incredibly heavy span with (among other features) a massive pool. I think his will be stunning success as elites from all over the world will be clamoring to live in the world's first structure that's either constructed of unobtanium or held up by literal magic.
Lol this Neom thing is funny af.
Do check out Mukaab too - that golden cube project in Riyadh 🤭🤣
My favourite part of the concept art is how there are no roads. Seems legit. (5:50)
Also I wonder how female guests will feel in a room where the bottom is see through. I get it could be one way - but that doesn't mean they will feel comfortable with the idea that boats passing underneath can upskirt them.
Wow, that seems like almost reasonable, and kinda doesn't look too stupid.
The no supporting structure doesn't seem reasonable, and it probably looks way less pretty once you put that in
It reminds me of the griddle city from the Iain M Banks novel Hydrogen Santana. For refence, the griddle city encircled an entire planet.
Saudi Arabia's Insane Bridge Hotel...just another of saudis projects that will never be built
If you think Treyam is bad, you should check out other projects under MAGNA, lol. MAGNA is a coastal project with 12 hotels and destinations along the Gulf of Aqaba. Each one has an amazing rendering video. Can't say the same about the real thing, though, as I can’t imagine they have enough funds for three main cities and the MAGNA hotels at the same time. My favourite is the AQUELLUM one. I work for hotel industry events so I saw a lot of data from the NEOM project. It feels like a rich people's lego.
I'm starting to think all these plans are examples of what would happen if you gave unlimited funding to a group of guys who sit around high all day having people write down their "ideas".
I's sure a pile of coke helps.
Remember the original design for EPCOT at Disney World? All of these Saudi projects remind me of that.
Another fantasy project that will probably end in failure.
It's not even supporting the weight of the building, it's the building supporting the weight of all the water in the infinity pool. Not going to get nice airy internal spaces, when you're having hold up several thousand tons of water.
I'm gonna be rich because I'm gonna start a company in Saudi Arabia called "Nonsense Construction Inc"
Right up until you offend a certain royal dude, who invites you to take a nice long walk in the Rub' al Khali.
@@r.awilliams9815 Then I'll call it No Nonsense Construction Inc.
No support collection mna for a structure with lots of glass and water... So it collapses in weeks or days? (not like it will be completed)