Category: City Planning

As society moves toward an increasingly urbanized future, the need for innovative, sustainable, and flexible construction practices has never been more crucial. The densification of cities demands modern urban planning that prioritizes resilience and efficiency. The foundation of a better future lies in how we build—and to ensure long-lasting, sustainable progress, we must build better.

Achieving this goal requires an integrated approach, leveraging emerging technologies and sustainable practices. Among the key technologies driving this transformation is Building Information Modeling (BIM), which allows architects and builders to create virtual models of structures before construction begins. By simulating the project in a digital environment, BIM helps avoid potential mistakes, saving time and resources during the building process. Construction Management Software also plays a significant role in streamlining workflow, making projects more efficient and organized.

Hyundai Motor Group (HMG) has revealed its Smart City master model, which it presents as a philosophy to create cities which are “human-centered, coexist with nature, and embrace the future.”

 By LAWRENCE BUTCHER

HMG president and chief innovation officer Youngcho Chi said, “The HMG Smart City master model is our vision for a human-centered city that will revitalize urban communities. In the future smart cities, our ambition is for humankind to live with nature while embracing technology. Our air and ground mobility solutions will redefine urban boundaries, connect people in meaningful ways, and revitalize cities. We will continue to work with governments around the globe to bring our smart city vision to reality, while rapidly advancing capabilities in future mobility solutions.”

The HMG Smart City concept, inspired by a honeycomb pattern, envisions a hexagonal-shaped city with a human-centered surface layer and function-centered underground layer. On the surface layer, the buildings encircle nature, in the form of parks and forest, which sit at the center of the city, effectively minimizing the gross area developed.

The buildings are divided into three sections by population density – high, medium and low. The density decreases nearer the parks and forests in the city center, affording people an unobstructed view of nature from any part of the city. Buildings are arranged within these sections according to their purposes. For instance, city landmarks will be in the high-density area, while security infrastructure will be located in the medium density area, enabling effortless access to any section.

Mohammed bin Salman presents ‘The Line’ in 2021.Source: Neom

• Parallel skyscrapers would make up linear city in Neom project
• Prince’s mega-projects could be destination for oil windfall

B Vivian Nereim

Saudi Arabia is planning the world’s largest buildings in a mostly unpopulated part of the country as part of an entirely new $500 billion development called Neom, according to people familiar with the matter.

Neom, the brainchild of Saudi Crown Prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman, aims to build twin skyscrapers about 500 meters (1,640 feet) tall that stretch horizontally for dozens of miles, the people said. 

The skyscrapers would house a mix of residential, retail and office space running from the Red Sea coast into the desert, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. The plan is a shift from the concept announced last year of building a string of developments linked by underground hyper-speed rail, into a long continuous structure, the people said.h

Designers were instructed to work on a half mile-long prototype, current and former Neom employees said. If it goes forward in full, each structure would be larger than the world’s current biggest buildings, most of which are factories or malls rather than residential communities.

Interview with Hwang Jong Sung, Lead Researcher of the National Information Society Agency and the former Master Planner of the Busan Eco Delta Smart City. 

By Liew Ming En

At a seaside town in South Korea, science fiction meets reality. At 7 am, your home greets you and reminds you to stretch. As you get dressed, smart mirrors keep you updated on the day’s news. Outside, tiny robots zip through the streets, keeping the roads clean.

This is the Busan Eco Delta Smart City, as described by the New York Times. A pilot project first announced in 2018, the city was designed to be smart from the onset. It will feature cutting-edge tech like robots, AR, and AI that hopes to bring greater convenience to its residents.

Hwang Jong Sung, Lead Researcher of the National Information Society Agency and the former Master Planner of the city, shares more about the tech and mission of the city.

Smart Dubai is exploring blockchain use cases across a variety of areas as part of its goal to make Dubai the happiest and most innovative city on the planet

By Rohma Sadaqat

Blockchain is a novel technology that can remove market inefficiencies and spur economic growth when applied to existing businesses or industries, says Kokila Alagh, founder of Karm Legal Consultants.

Speaking to Khaleej Times on the sidelines of the Gitex Global 2021 exhibition in Dubai, she explained that all the industries stand to benefit from blockchain technology. “Blockchain can empower smart cities as it enables information sharing without the need for a single administrator and a single point of failure. Blockchain allows network members to share data with a high degree of dependability and transparency. Cities have a diverse set of stakeholders, and data sharing among them is critical for providing high-quality urban services.”

For this data exchange, blockchain is anticipated to be utilised. Smart Dubai, for example, is exploring blockchain use cases across a variety of areas, including banking, education, and transportation, as part of its goal to make Dubai the happiest and most innovative city on the planet. In another use case, a program is underway to use blockchain to simplify registration processes for students travelling between different emirates.

 by Laura Agadoni

Real estate has long been the go-to investment for those looking to build long-term wealth for generations.

If you find yourself imagining what it would be like to build a city, you might play SimCity or other video games like it. But if you’re a billionaire, you don’t have to just pretend; you could actually do it.

In fact, the new thing for the modern-day titans of industry seems to be city planning — Bill Gates plans to build a 24,000-acre smart city in a remote part of Arizona, and Jeffrey Berns, a cryptocurrency millionaire, is planning a city on 67,000 acres in the Nevada desert.

The latest announcement comes from billionaire Marc Lore, former Walmart CEO and creator of Jet.com, (the sale of which made him a billionaire). Lore is planning a city of his own, likely in another desert locale, or in Lore’s words, a place “where the land [is] worth nothing, or very little.”

Besides building a futuristic city, Lore’s other plans to keep him busy after his Walmart retirement include advising start-ups and working on a reality TV show.

By Tim Wenger

For followers of tech blogs, sustainable design, and futuristic thinking, the term “NEOM” and “The Line” are by now familiar. Outside those circles, NEOM is not yet a household name. The term signifies a new, futuristic plan for a city, built to the highest standards of sustainability and convenience. It’s forward-thinking, controversial, and in the broad history of cities, is far beyond the scope of anything that has been done before.

NEOM, an acronym for “new future,” is garnering increased publicity due to its concept as the ultimate “smart city.” But if you’re like most of us, even if you’ve heard the term, you may not fully grasp what NEOM is all about. Let’s cover the basics of what NEOM is, where NEOM is, and when NEOM will be complete.