Saudi Arabia’s NEOM megaproject opened the first inhabited residential zone of The Line on Sunday, with approximately 12,000 residents – including NEOM employees, their families, and a selected group of initial commercial tenants – becoming the first people to live in the 170-kilometer-long mirrored structure that has become one of the most discussed and debated urban development projects in history since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced it in 2017. The opening of Zone 1, a 3-kilometer inhabited segment within The Line’s planned full extent, marks the first concrete residential proof-of-concept for an architectural and urban planning vision that has attracted enormous international attention, significant skepticism from urban planning experts, and massive financial commitment from the Saudi government as part of the Vision 2030 economic diversification program.

The Line’s design is unlike any inhabited structure ever built at scale. The structure rises 500 meters above the desert floor of the Tabuk region in northwestern Saudi Arabia, extends along a perfectly straight 170-kilometer axis oriented to maximize the movement of sunlight through the interior, and is mirrored on its exterior faces to reflect the desert landscape. The interior is organized into a series of neighborhoods stacked vertically and extending horizontally, with no private automobiles permitted anywhere within the structure; a high-speed transit system running the length of The Line is designed to move residents from one end to the other in 20 minutes when the full length is inhabited. Bloomberg‘s architecture correspondent described the completed Zone 1 interior as “genuinely impressive at the scale that has been built, with abundant natural light, high-quality finishes, and a density of amenities that creates a real neighborhood feel – while noting that the ultimate test of The Line’s urban planning theory can only come when far larger sections are inhabited and the transit systems carry real passenger loads.”

The scale gap between what has been built and what has been planned remains enormous. Zone 1’s 3-kilometer length represents less than 2 percent of The Line’s intended 170-kilometer extent, and NEOM has significantly revised its original 2030 population target of 1.5 million residents downward on multiple occasions, with current planning documents suggesting a 2030 population of approximately 300,000 in the segments under construction. Reuters reported that the slower-than-planned construction pace reflects both the extraordinary engineering challenges of the project – excavation and foundation work for a 500-meter tall structure across mountainous desert terrain has proved more complex than initial feasibility studies anticipated – and a reassessment of the pace at which sufficient residents can be attracted to voluntarily relocate to an unprecedented urban environment in a remote desert location.

Critics of the project, who include prominent urban planning academics and environmental organizations, have raised concerns about several dimensions of The Line’s concept. The displacement of approximately 20,000 members of the Huwaitat indigenous tribe from the project site drew international condemnation and a significant legal case; human rights organizations have documented reported abuses in the relocation process. Environmental critics have questioned the carbon footprint of constructing a 170-kilometer mirrored structure in a region with extreme heat, and the energy implications of maintaining climate control for the building’s vast interior. Supporters of NEOM, including Saudi authorities and some architectural theorists, argue that The Line’s transit-centered, car-free model and renewable energy supply represent a more environmentally rational approach to urban density than conventional sprawling desert cities like Phoenix or Las Vegas, and that the project’s genuine innovation warrants suspension of judgment until the inhabited experience can be evaluated empirically at significant scale. Financial Times will publish a comprehensive assessment of The Line’s first year of habitation beginning in mid-2027.