NEOM and the Forgotten Boldness: A Homage to the Line That Let Us Dream

As we near the end of 2025, the global narrative around NEOM—and The Line in particular—is shifting. The once-hyped 170 km linear city is said to be shrinking, evolving, and becoming more grounded. Western commentators, quick to sneer, are already calling it a failure. But to us, their glee resembles that of a jealous child, mocking a wild idea for not fitting neatly into a spreadsheet. The truth? Europe is not failing because of NEOM’s scale. It’s failing because it’s forgotten how to dream.

While European design culture still holds values, its entrepreneurial spirit has dulled. Ideas there take years to take form. Energy feels stuck. China once offered escape—but its building frenzy is settling as the nation matures. Now it’s Saudi Arabia’s turn. And like it or not, NEOM has become the new gravitational center for design minds who dare to imagine.

When we at DXMID were invited to collaborate on The Line back in 2020, it felt like a jolt of electricity. We were used to rational projects. Sensible briefs. Safe ideas focused purely on sustainability checklists. Suddenly, we were students again—exploring neopunk, disruptive concepts, impossible geometries. We weren’t building to meet demands. We were sketching visions that had no precedent. And yes, we were paid—not for deliverables, but for dreaming.

None of those projects were built. But that wasn’t the point. NEOM reminded us that architecture doesn’t always need to explain itself. It needs to inspire. It needs to provoke. To be bold. Because the future won’t be shaped by those who replicate the rational—it will be reshaped by those who dare to leap.

Before those moments slip into the forgotten drawers of architectural history, we want to showcase them. This is a tribute—to NEOM, to The Line, and to Saudi Arabia—for giving us the oxygen of creativity once more. You can still see that energy at events like Cityscape, where we’ve proudly participated in recent years.

The Projects We Never Built — But Will Never Forget:

1. The Pixel Landscape

A seating system embedded in NEOM’s terrain, powered by artificial intelligence. It responded to human behavior—creating dynamic social cubes that adapted to interaction. We didn’t see The Line as a sterile wall, but as falling pixels, merging with the land. A digital oasis for a digital society.

2. Curved Dune Walks

White, sweeping curvilinear forms emerged from the desert, cooling the air and guiding walkers along a refreshing journey. Inspired by dunes and sea winds, this project envisioned a sensual interface between heat and architecture—soft, curved, ocean-bound.

3. Bubbleflight over Akkaba

In one wild brainstorm, our Sri Lankan collaborator Duvitri Rajapakse imagined a performance where people floated in translucent bubbles across the mountains of Akkaba. It was theatrical, impossible, magical. But it made us remember that not all architecture must be practical—it must move us.

4. Stargazing Scars

We explored perforating The Line—carving subtle paths to the outside for nightwalkers. These were not breaches but cosmic invitations. Minimal light. Maximum silence. An act of architecture opening itself to the sky.

5. The Hanging Waterfall

Conceived with our student and collaborator Nuha Imran, a Sri Lankan architect based in Saudi, this was no ordinary waterfall. It defied gravity—cantilevered across the Line’s interior. Water flowed from void to void, breaking the grid. We were explicitly told not to “break The Line.” We did it anyway.

Because design isn’t obedience. It’s rebellion with purpose.

One Last Thing Before the AI Storm

None of these images used artificial intelligence. Every render, every vision, came from our own hands. Photoshop. 3D tools. Sketchbooks. Maybe these ideas belong to another world. Maybe they will be studied one day as the last sparks of the human imagination before the AI revolution took over.

Until then, this is our homage.

To the Line. To NEOM. To the beautiful madness of bold design.

And to anyone, anywhere, still dreaming.