This week on Dezeen, we reported on the news that Saudi Arabia is scaling back the expected population it hopes The Line mega city will reach by 2030.
News agency Bloomberg reported that officials expect The Line, which is the flagship development for Saudi Arabia’s Neom project, to house fewer than 300,000 people by 2030 compared to an original goal of 1.5 million.
A source told Bloomberg that just 2.4 kilometres of the planned 170-kilometre-long city will be completed by 2030.
In design news, Bulgari unveiled the world’s thinnest watch, which has a thickness of just 1.7 millimetres.
The Italian jewellery company also revealed a serpent-informed watch designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando.
In architecture news, we covered an official report into the collapse of the 10-year-old Tretten bridge in Norway, which criticised the structure’s design and construction.
A “strong focus on aesthetics” contributed to the collapse of the mass-timber bridge, stated the report.
In the UK, Thomas Heatherwick’s Humanise campaign released a set of visualisations depicting “boring alter-egos” of UK landmarks.
Made by creative agency Uncommon Creative Studio, the AI-created buildings, including Buckingham Palace (above), were designed to draw attention to the UK’s “boring” architecture.
“The series of images shows six of the most loved and quintessentially British landmarks stripped of their personality to reveal their boring alter-egos,” said Uncommon Creative Studio, which is a Humanise campaign founding partner.
Popular projects this week included a compact bio-based home in the Netherlands, a “down-to-earth” house for two sisters in Finland and an “open-air laboratory” built from foraged wood by Architectural Association students.
Our latest lookbooks featured interiors where mezzanines maximise usable space and homes where flooring enhances the connection between indoors and outdoors.
This week on Dezeen
This week on Dezeen is our regular roundup of the week’s top news stories. Subscribe to our newsletters to be sure you don’t miss anything.
