Urban design experts expressed skepticism about whether the Saudi government's vision for a mirrored-skyscraper-linear-megacity in the desert is realistic.
The experience of Soviet architects and urban planners is being reimagined in Saudi Arabia, which is launching a $200 billion project to build a new, 170-km long city.
How the USSR built the ‘ideal’ communal cities (PHOTOS)
The plan of the future settlement in Novosibirsk. Archive photo
In the 1930s, when the Soviet Union expanded its industrialization program and began constructing factories throughout the whole country, a flow of people poured into the cities from villages and the countryside. There wasn’t enough space in the old districts and people arriving to larger construction sites were forced to live in tents, underground dwellings, as well as makeshift homes. It was essential to build not only homes, but critical infrastructure.
Novokuznetsk, 1932. The first houses for workers. TASS
New districts, which were dubbed, “socialist cities”, were expected to provide housing to millions of people in the shortest amount of time and simultaneously meet the ideological objectives of the time. People accustomed to private property, now received housing and social services from the government. Moreover, all
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