Neom, Masdar, Songdo: The Unfinished Dream of the Perfect City

The article examines the gap between utopian visions of future cities and their real-world outcomes, focusing on projects like Neom, Masdar City, Songdo, and Forest City. Neom, a $500 billion Saudi project under Vision 2030, championed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has faced delays and scaled-back ambitions, with its flagship The Line now presented as a phased development rather than a city for millions. Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, designed by Foster + Partners in 2006 as the first carbon-neutral city, has become a tech and university district, far from its original self-sufficient metropolis. Songdo in South Korea, built on reclaimed land near Seoul, exemplifies the smart city but raises concerns about technological surveillance and over-optimization. Forest City in Malaysia, developed by China's Country Garden under the Belt & Road Initiative, was intended for 700,000 residents but has only 9,000 as of 2024, earning it the label 'ghost city' from analyst Joseph Rahman in Foreign Policy. Stefano Boeri's Liuzhou Forest City in China, proposed in 2017, remains a masterplan. The article cites UN data projecting urban population growth to 68% by 2050, and quotes transport economist Andrea Giuricin of the University of Milano-Bicocca, who argues that cities grow organically through economic opportunity, not just planning. He emphasizes the need to improve existing metropolises like Milan, London, Singapore, and Tokyo.