linearity

Abstract

In January 2021, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud launched The Line city project. Even for the Saudis’ fantastical ambitions, the project looks amazing: a city stretched along a straight line for 170 kilometers across the sandy desert from the Red Sea coast to the capital of the mountainous Tabuk province. The city will have three floors: a pedestrian zone on the surface, service infrastructure on the underground floor, and on the floor below there will be highspeed railways.

It seems ironic that the ideas of a linear city, which were actively developed in the USSR, find large-scale implementation in a country with an absolute monarchy.

Why do the ideas of a linear city come to life in our present-day world? How are these ideas transformed by digital technologies? How is the very notion of linearity changing as the fabric of the city becomes increasingly virtual and roads are replaced by 5G channels?

As usual, we do not claim to have a comprehensive set of answers to these questions related to the cutting edge of urban theory and philosophy of the city. But is it just the city? Giant projects of the revival of the Great Silk Road, the concept of the Eastern pivot and Greater Eurasia form the image of a linear continent – not a city, but a giant complex of many cities in a number of countries. A group of architects from sub-Saharan Africa is initiating the Great Green Wall competition: a great band of green oases is to block the hot breath of the desert and mitigate the climate of the entire equatorial Africa.

Today linearity looks like a global challenge and at the same time a strict condition for development on the most diverse levels: neighbourhood, city, region, continent, and humanity.