New Cities Atlas
Digital cities are redefining urban life by integrating technology, data, and connectivity into governance, infrastructure, and social interaction. Emerging smart city platforms use AI, IoT, and big data to enhance transportation, energy efficiency, and public services, creating more responsive and efficient urban environments. At the same time, social media and
New Cities Atlas
Cairo’s New Administrative Capital is Egypt’s most ambitious urban project, designed to relieve congestion in Cairo and create a modern government and business hub. Located 45 km east of Cairo, the city spans 700 square kilometers and is set to house 6.5 million people. It features a
New Cities Atlas
Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast is a focal point for new city developments aimed at diversifying the economy, expanding tourism, and creating sustainable urban hubs. Projects like NEOM and the Red Sea Project are designed to leverage the region’s natural beauty, strategic location, and renewable energy potential. NEOM,
New Cities Atlas
NEOM is Saudi Arabia’s most ambitious megacity project, a $500 billion initiative under Vision 2030, designed to transform the country’s economy beyond oil. Located in northwest Saudi Arabia along the Red Sea, NEOM aims to be a global hub for technology, sustainability, and tourism. The project includes The
New Cities Atlas
Shenzhen is China’s most successful special economic zone (SEZ) and a global model for rapid urbanization. Once a small fishing village, it transformed into a megacity of over 17 million people in just four decades. Established as an SEZ in 1980, Shenzhen attracted foreign investment, high-tech industries, and
China
Ordos New Town (Kangbashi) was designed as a futuristic city to house one million people, fueled by Inner Mongolia’s coal wealth. Planned in the early 2000s, it featured grand boulevards, iconic architecture, and cultural landmarks like the Ordos Museum. However, speculative real estate investment outpaced actual demand, leading to
China
Inner Mongolia’s new urban developments reflect China’s broader strategy of rapid urbanization and resource-driven growth, particularly in coal-rich areas. Cities like Ordos New Town (Kangbashi) were built with grand infrastructure and modern amenities, aiming to accommodate growing populations and economic expansion. However, many developments struggled with
China
Every era of great economic ambition produces its ghost cities, and China's has produced more than most. Yujiapu is among the most instructive. Launched in the 2000s as part of Tianjin's Binhai New Area, it was conceived with the kind of confidence that looks either visionary
New Cities Atlas
In 1984, China was still in the earliest days of figuring out what it wanted to be. Deng Xiaoping had cracked the door open to foreign investment and market economics, but nobody quite knew how far the experiment would go or what it would produce. TEDA, the Tianjin Economic-Technological
New Cities Atlas
Milton Keynes is one of the most misunderstood cities in Britain, which is saying something for a country that has made an art form of misunderstanding it. The standard critique (grid roads, roundabouts, concrete cows, a soulless monument to the automobile) is the kind of lazy shorthand that gets repeated
New Cities Atlas
Saudi Arabia has a problem that most countries would envy and a few have figured out how to solve. It is sitting on nearly inexhaustible oil wealth accumulated over half a century, and it knows, as surely as any economist who has studied the arc of petrostate economies, that the
New Cities Atlas
When China announced Xiong'an New Area in 2017, it didn't do so quietly. State media heralded it as the most significant new city project since Shenzhen, a comparison that, if you know what Shenzhen became, is either an extraordinary promise or an extraordinary act of hubris.