The latest ambitious addition to NEOM’s development, Oxagon, will be an eight-sided floating city adjacent to the gigaproject’s Red Sea coastline. The aptly-named city is planned as a logistics and industrial hub for not only NEOM, but the entire country as well. Oxagon will have a diameter of 4.3 miles (7 kilometers), cover a total of 30 square miles (48 square kilometers), and will have the distinction as being home to the world’s largest floating structure. Half of the city will consist of this floating structure, just offshore of the other land-based half of the city where people will live.
Its developments include a next-generation automated and integrated port to strengthen the country’s supply-chain capabilities and link to new advanced manufacturing industries established in the city. The city’s port will have a total capacity of 3.5 million standard shipping containers (TEUs) and will connect with the country’s arteries of roads, airports, and highspeed railways. Oxagon will cement its status as a regional supply chain hub by developing a driverless last-mile delivery system for the end-customer that originates from automated and optimized fulfilment centers and intelligent port offloading. The new city will be key to Saudi Arabia’s greater efforts to increase regional and international trade, taking advantage of its prime location near the Suez Canal, which oversees 13 percent of all global trade.
A conceptual bird’s eye view of Oxagon from the Red Sea. Source: NEOM.com
As with the rest of NEOM, Oxagon will be 100 percent powered by clean energy. The city will be planned from the start around a clean energy system that minimizes waste by recycling resources and accounts for the entire life cycle of a product. Oxagon will established itself as an incubator for the clean technologies of the future, such as renewable energy (solar cell manufacturing, green hydrogen production, battery storage, on-shore wind power generation), sustainable food production (greenhouses, aquaculture, alternative meat, sustainable packaging), water innovation (renewable-powered desalination, green wastewater treatment), and health/wellbeing (pharmaceuticals, biotech, nutrition, medical R&D).
Industrial, commercial, and residential zones will eventually be linked by autonomous transportation systems like self-driving pods and shuttles and green-powered watercraft. Meanwhile, modern construction techniques and equipment like modular construction, 3D printing, sustainable steel, zero-emission heavy machinery, and green building technologies such as energy-saving appliances and HVAC systems will maximize building energy efficiency and reduce resource requirements.
The Saudi government will promote investment and industry in the city by establishing a favorable regulatory environment. This favorable business environment, as well as nearby planned communities connected to public transportation, public amenities, and a close proximity to beaches and nature reserves, will make Oxagon an attractive place to live and work for its populace. Read more about Oxagon and NEOM from NEOM’s website.
Conceptual image of Oxagon’s shipping/port sector. Source: NEOM.com
