Aerial photos reveal repetitive housing of Neom workers camps

Satellite photography has revealed the numerous settlements containing thousands of identical housing blocks that have been built for those working on Neom in the northwest of Saudi Arabia.

Taken from Google Maps, the satellite images show a series of large camps surrounded by desert that have been built alongside Neom's major construction sites.

The images show vast numbers of seemingly identical housing blocks arranged around communal facilities, including cafeterias and sports fields.

The housing has been built for some of the 140,000-strong workforce that has reportedly been working on Neom's major construction projects, including The Line, Trojena and Oxagon.

The largest of the settlements, known as Neom Community 1, is located to the south of The Line construction site.

Each of the expansive housing districts appears to contain hundreds of single-storey, single-occupancy homes. Some of the homes are arranged in continuous rows, while others are grouped around small lawns.

At the centre of the settlement are groups of communal facilities including shops, restaurants, mosques and schools, as well as sports facilities such as swimming pools, gyms, tennis courts, football pitches and basketball courts.

The settlement also includes several American chains such as Starbucks and Dunkin'.

Although the settlement was built primarily for Neom workers, the site also includes a visitor centre and a Hampton by Hilton hotel.

To the south of the site, a district named Neom Media Village contains housing units alongside two large recording studios.

Also located to the south of The Line, near its planned western end, is a settlement known as Neom Residential Camp 1.

The camp contains several housing districts with larger, predominantly two-storey blocks again arranged around central communal facilities.

A third major camp to the south of The Line looks to currently be under construction.

The latest workers' camp appears to contain larger residential buildings arranged in lines on either side of central gardens. The communal facilities at the centre of this site appear to have been more thoughtfully arranged in a curved grouping.

Further south along the country's coast, another large workers' camp has been constructed alongside the site of the planned Oxagon port designed by Danish architecture studio Bjarke Ingels Group.

Here, the communal facilities were placed near the entrance to the camp, with housing blocks to the south.

Named Oxagon Community, this district contains a plaza alongside the sea, with access to the beach on the Red Sea coast.

As with the other communities, the single-storey housing blocks are arranged repetitively alongside small gardens.

The final major workers' camp has been built near the site of the planned Trojena ski resort in the mountainous Tabuk region.

Here, the contractor housing takes a different form, influenced by the mountainous climate. Alongside more closely packed housing blocks, the camp contains communal facilities including a full-size cricket pitch.

Neom is the largest and most high-profile of 14 gigaprojects being developed in Saudi Arabia as part of the Saudi Vision 2030 plan to shift the country's economy away from a reliance on oil.

It has been criticised widely on human rights grounds, and last year, Dezeen asked if it was time for architecture studios to walk away from the project in the face of mounting pressure from campaigners.

Following the departure of CEO Nadhmi al-Nasr at the end of last year, Neom is undertaking a broad review and is reportedly "considering significantly cutting its workforce".

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