VIRTUAL Barcelona Livable Cities

Abstract

Walled cities were constructed for defense throughout different periods: ancient, medieval, renaissance, and the preindustrial period. The layout of these cities took the shape of circular, rectangular, and star-shaped areas. Even when walls were not needed anymore, cities still took a two-dimensional shape, sometimes with green belts and rings roads encircling and delimiting city growth. It was not until the late 19th century, enabled by rapid linear transport, that a linear city model without walls was deployed to avoid the problem of urban congestion without venturing into over-dispersal and diffuse urbanism. Nonetheless, the linear city model had a short-lived adoption in modern city planning. Now, in the second decade of the 21st century, a city of 5 million inhabitants, The Line, in Saudia Arabia is being planned for a sustainable future as a walled linear city 170 km long, 200 m wide, and 500 m high as part of a new region, called NEOM. This paper critiques the walled linear city as a sustainable model for cities due to its one-dimensionality and separation from its surroundings by a wall. The critique will be based upon theoretical examination and lessons gleaned from other linearly planned cities. The idea of planning a walled linear city as a possible upgrade to the linear city model of the 19th century but with vast differences in spatial scale and ecological perspective redefines the very notion of a city and raises questions regarding the basis upon which the model is justified as a template for future cities.