NEOM is a 26,000 sq kilometer region in the northwest Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It’s name means ‘new future’ and it is being proposed as a new economic model for the country. This one-of-a-kind Regional Plan presents a spatial approach for land development that limits urban expansion while minimizing rural development.  The plan calls for undeveloped areas, and aerial linkages between developments. The Regional Plan constitutes a spatial response to the client’s vision to establish a long-term, integrated planning framework for land use and infrastructure to guide sustainable future growth across the project area. The culminating element of the Regional Plan is a comprehensive Land Use and Marine Use Plan that classifies every square meter of the region into International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) land use categories.

This Regional Plan is comprised of tightly integrated spatial policy frameworks. This allows the Plan to accommodate adaptations to the dynamic evolution of markets and economies, as well as new mobility and infrastructure technologies, while addressing the timeless issues of connectivity, access, and conservation for strategic and sustainable regional growth. The Regional Plan establishes three integrated spatial policy frameworks – ConservationFramework, Technology Framework, and Visitor Experience Framework – that presents different development scenarios within each. The frameworks consist of development and conservation concepts, locations and alignments. A kit-of-parts for each framework provides options for what could be constructed in these locations and alignments.