In case you didn’t know, Middle Eastern architects tend to truly detest conventional cities. They don’t seem to be appealing because they are so flat and roomy, therefore designers are working hard to come up with fresh solutions to this critical issue.
The Line, a gigantic 170-kilometer (105-mile) city that is only 200 meters (656 feet) wide that packs an entire city into a multi-level mirrored stretch of metropolitan metropolis, was revealed by Saudi Arabia earlier this year. Now, even stranger plans have been made by architects in Dubai.
The radical new idea, known as the Downtown Circle, was developed by a company named ZNera Space and involves a vast, ringed urban region that is suspended 550 meters (1,800 feet) in the air. The Burj Khalifa, the highest structure in the world, would be surrounded by a ring that has a circumference of 3,000 meters (9,800 feet). It is intended that the megastructure will serve as both a landmark for Dubai and a technical wonder.
There would be a core green space that surrounded the entire ring, along with everything from housing to shopping malls. The building would have five levels, each of which would be divided into smaller areas with a different theme—commercial, residential, public, or whatever.
Instead of using cars, the Circle would be traversed by passenger pods that move at a speed of 100 km/h (62 mph) while providing sweeping views of the city below.
You would be gravely mistaken if you assumed that the green space, which locals refer to as the Downtown Circle’s “lung,” would just be a nice garden. It’s almost as if the planners are making a Minecraft world, not a real metropolis, with all the canyons, waterfalls, sand dunes, swamps, and other natural habitats you can imagine in this area.
The idea is still only that for the time being. But with so many fresh ideas, Middle Eastern city architecture appears to have a bright future. It will be intriguing to watch if any of the designs—a long, straight metropolis; a massive floating donut city; or something else different—come to pass.
