Your dream city?

If you live in a metro city, chances are you adapted to make peace with it. Traffic, distances, lack of schools, hospitals, and so on.

So when someone says they are building a new city, you stand up and take notice. What is their vision? What are they building? Can others emulate them?

Neom in Saudi Arabia and Gelephu in Bhutan, are new cities being built.

Bhutan has long eschewed growth at all costs, preferring happiness coexisting with development. But a rapid migration of the young, especially post covid, has made them think again.

Gelephu is a thousand square kilometers of land area being modelled as a new city in the Kingdom of Bhutan. Just for context, the country Singapore is approximately seven hundred kilometers.

Mindfulness, wellness, health, serenity are some themes. Education that serves these themes. Nestled amidst nature. Tourists are welcome.

Neom is a new city being built in Saudi Arabia, the size of Belgium. Its theme is new age, modern, the use of green materials. It is open for business - financial services and technology but also health and wellness.

So if you could pick at will, which one would you pick and why?

You could easily say both given the quality of life you have today. You could say neither, too comfortable with the friends and family you have nearby.

Moving, they say, is as stressful as a divorce.

But India for example, has cities that are broken. If you have lived long enough, you may not notice, but the city takes a toll on your mind and body.

The air quality, the noise pollution, the traffic, lack of affordable schools and hospitals. The list is endless. Building in cities that are habited is hard.

So we need new cities, built from scratch. With a vision that cannot be altered no matter what the commercial interest.

What would your dream city look like?

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