It is a huge cube building with 20 Empire State buildings in Manhattan, New York. According to CNN in the U.S., Saudi Arabia announced a plan to build a cube-shaped super-large skyscraper “Mukaab” northwest of the capital Riyadh as part of its economic development plan “Vision 2030.”
The construction plan follows the “New Murabba” project led by Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman. Funded by the Saudi Sovereignty Fund (PIF) and hosted by the New Muraba Development Company (NMDC), a startup founded by Crown Prince Muhammad, the New Muraba plans to build a 194 (about 5,747,500 pyeong) congregation, which is one-third of Manhattan’s area in the U.S.Crown Prince Muhammad is building a super-large building called “Mukav,” which is 400m wide, long, and high, respectively, in the center. The NMDC explained that it is a 400-meter-high skyscraper, so you can see Mukav anywhere in the city. In fact, it means building a new cube-shaped city.
Mukav will have 110,000 residential and accommodation spaces, 89,256 square meters of commercial space, and technical and design universities. Hologram technology is applied to the exterior walls and inside buildings modeled after ancient ruins, allowing 3D images of dense forests and exoplanets with rocks floating in the air to float in the air.
The announcement resembles some of Crown Prince Muhammad’s dreams of “Neom City.” Earlier, Neom City is a super-large future city plan with robots and air taxis and an artificial moon rising, and is part of Vision 2030 with New Muraba. The key project here is “The Line,” a super-large building-type city with a height of 500m and a length of 170km. It is called the “Mirror City” because it is the exterior wall of the mirror.
Although a surprising form of concept image is being released, pessimism is growing. The question of financing is first. It is unclear how to raise huge construction costs, but criticism has been raised that “the crown prince is only making false promises,” saying that only large buildings are increasing one after another. The Neom City project is also slow to proceed due to funding problems amounting to $1 trillion.
There is also a fundamental question of whether construction is possible. The Line’s height is 500m, which is the same as Jamsil Lotte World Tower. The plan is to build this huge skyscraper long enough to last more than 100km, but there are many views that the construction itself is impossible.
Critics are also criticizing the concept of an “eco-friendly city.” It is pointed out that carbon generated in the process of large-scale civil engineering and construction and artificial snow necessary to maintain ski resorts in a desert climate are rather more harmful to the environment.
CNN also said there were religious issues. The name “Mukab” is similar to the “Kaba” temple, the center of Islamic worship and pilgrimage. A local reporter pointed out that if billions of Muslims try to build a capitalist new caba after the temple, where prayers are held five times a day, it could attract opposition from Muslims.
JENNIFER KIM
ASIA JOURNAL
