Dubai’s $22 billion plan to connect city through THE LOOP

There’s another futuristic mega project coming to Dubai.

This time, it’s the world’s largest ‘urban indoor sharing facility’ dubbed THE LOOP.

Basically, it’s a covered, airconditioned path for cyclists and pedestrians that would wrap around the city.

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Apparently, the thought process behind THE LOOP is to encourage Dubai’s three million residents to switch from cars to healthier modes of transportation.

If it goes ahead, the 93-kilometer-long structure (57 miles) would be encased within a glazed tube.

It would have a kinetic floor that would produce energy when stepped on, too.

Urb, the architecture studio behind the proposed creation, has released renderings of THE LOOP.

These show plants and pools of water within the snake-like structure, which would be climate-controlled.

According to Urb, encouraging Dubai’s residents to swap cars for bikes would require a “seismic shift”.

Any successful initiative should therefore recognize the need for infrastructure that supports city-dwellers’ needs, the studio said.

“The key challenge in Dubai is that the infrastructure and existing urban fabric is engineered primarily for the user of cars,” Urb explained.

“Thus swapping cars for bikes in an existing high-developed car-orientated city, requires a seismic shift in urban planning as well as the infrastructure required to enable that shift.”

As a result, THE LOOP would connect leisure and wellness facilities like gyms, hotels, and sports courts.

There would be neighborhood pocket parks and allotments nestled within the belt, too.

Speaking of which, THE LOOP would include integrated vertical farms, something the studio says could provide food security.

Not only would it create a vibrant public space, Urb envisions that THE LOOP would help stitch together parts of the city that are currently disconnected by roads.

The highway aims to be part of a wider project to make Dubai a 20-minute city – where residents are able to access different districts within 20 minutes by foot or bicycle.

Other projects set to be built in Dubai include Vertical Forest by Italian studio Stefano Boeri Architetti, a concept for a pair of skyscrapers covered in thousands of trees.

Architecture studio ZN Era envisioned a skyscraper called Downtown Circle, which would be built around the Burj Khalifa in downtown Dubai, too.