Neom registers 33 new patents for projects

November 24, 2023, 3:32 AM

Many of Neom's projects are still shrouded in mystery but plans for The Line have been shared publicly

Company applies for 45 patents
12 symbols registered in two months
Two major projects coming

Saudi Arabia’s futuristic city Neom has ramped up its applications for patents on names and logos, registering a total of 33 this year, including 27 within the last two months, indicating that at least two new major projects are still to come.

Neom Company has made a total of 45 applications to the US patent and trademark office since June 2021, making this year by far its most active as deadlines begin to approach for the vast giga-project to show concrete achievements.

They include 18 mysterious symbols, with 12 registered in the past two months.

The filings take in the two latest projects announced: an eco-tourism site called Leyja and a skyscraper beach resort called Epicon. One of the symbols has appeared on Leyja promotional material and another in Epicon branding.

The recent patent applications include names such as Elanan, Treyam, Tonomus, Gidori and Xaynor that continue with Neom’s sci-fi theme.

Some, such as Leyja and Epicon, are described as real estate projects – so expect Zardun and Aquellum to be announced sometime soon.

Enowa and Tonomus are listed as financial services entities and Topian covers pharmaceutical and sanitary products and services, but the nature of many of them is left unspecified, at least publicly.

Timetables emerge

A report issued in September by real estate consultants Knight Frank estimated Neom has so far commissioned only $237 billion of a total $500 billion-worth of projects. Amar Hussain from Knight Frank Riyadh said the new patents showed Neom was “moving forward to become a reality”.

Six regions have been announced within the territory Neom occupies bordering Jordan opposite Egypt’s Sinai peninsula in northwest Saudi Arabia: Sindalah island, Leyja, Epicon, winter resort Trojena, industrial city Oxagon, and Neom’s centrepiece, a new 170 km-long concept city called The Line.

Many of Neom’s projects remain shrouded in secrecy but timetables are beginning to press on the project as 2030 approaches, the target year for the Vision 2030 project to transform Saudi Arabia into a country not reliant on oil revenues.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in September that hotels on Sindalah will open next year, an entrepreneur developing “air taxis” said last week they could begin operating in 2026, and the Trojena mountain resort is to host the Asian Winter Games in 2029.

Footage released in October 2022 showed the start of foundational work for The Line, but only a first phase is due for completion by 2030. Saudi Arabia is set to host the 2034 football World Cup.

Twelve of the world’s top architects have been hired to design the car-free, carbon-neutral city, which is being pitched as a solution to urban environmental problems.

In a recent Discovery Channel documentary some of the architects talked publicly for the first time about the project, which they liken to the US space agency Nasa’s first moon landing.

“If it succeeds it will be the new Babylon, so to speak. If it doesn’t succeed, it’ll be an interesting phenomenon,” says Peter Cook, whose Cook Haffner Architecture Platform is described as the lead designer for the linear vertical city.

“The Line is something that is intriguing to many people, puzzling to many people, and in some ways puzzling even to those who are involved in designing it,” adds Cook, whose “Plug-In City” design from the 1960s seems to have partly inspired the thinking.

Architectural digest

Neom has listed the architects as Morphosis, OMA, Peter Cook, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, Fuksas, Tom Wiscombe, Adjaye Associates, UNstudio, HOK, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Oyler Wu Collaborative and Delugan Meissl Architects (DMAA).

Developers have talked of the difficulty of turning the giga-project designs into reality. Hollywood creative designer Olivier Pron worked on the images used to market The Line.

“Many projects acquire their sanity as they move along and that’s I think very very much the case here too, and the jury is out,” leading architect Reinier de Graaf of OMA says in the documentary.