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Neom is a planned, cross-border, smart city in the Tabuk province of northwestern Saudi Arabia. What can Neom learn from Dongtan and Masdar that can save it from partial construction and untimely abandonment by its government? How can it become a fully functioning smart city and a working model for a sustainable city?

First of all, it actually has to get people to live there. We saw with Dongtan how the individual citizen was not included in the city planning, and Masdar houses only the students at its university. Neom, on the other hand, plans not only to be a smart city but also to function as a desirable tourist location, a positive investment in regards to the city’s future population and economic growth. These smart eco-cities cannot just rely on a novelty factor of being “the first” or “the only” sustainable city in the world. People are what make a city – without them it is just an ambitious project. People will make the difference between success and failure for Neom.

These eco-city experiments show us the need to intertwine the people and the political landscape in the project. We have seen examples of new housing being built for inhabitants of favelas in Rio and townships in South Africa only to discover that they did not want to move. It is dangerous to predict how people want to live their lives. Perhaps investment in new improved services in the existing setup would be more acceptable or provision of transport infrastructure, like the cable car in Medellin, to allow those communities to access the job market. This gives them choice.

Peter Hall⁴⁰ looks at the inconclusive story of London’s strategy to find a new airport, which after 40 years is no nearer resolution. This is a lesson in adopting big ideas, and one that Jane Jacobs warned those who attempted drastic surgery on the city. Small, she believed, was the future. Cities should be nurtured not traumatized.