An US-desert city built from scratch.
15.10.2025The online magazine dezeen recently published an interesting article reporting that not only Saudi Arabia is planning a mega-city in the middle of the desert, but that the architecture studio BIG is also planning a large city in the American desert of Nevada between Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. Dezeen writes: “Renderings of the “built-from-scratch” city Telosa designed by BIG show details of specific buildings, such as a large, wooden “mobility hub” and a “sports village” hosted in an outstretched, silver building.” Telosa has a target population of five million by 2050, with the first phase of construction expected to house 50’00 people by 2030, BIG states on its website.
BIG describes the project as follows: “Telosa will provide a model of how best to incorporate an existing natural environment into a new city’s design and operations to ensure continuity of the natural resource flow.The air quality of the region will be maintained by banning fossil-fuel vehicles, requiring zero stack emissions, and minimizing the heat-island impact of the city to avoid associated air quality issues. Maximum permeability of the city’s footprint for water infiltration and groundwater recharge will require green infrastructure with all buildings, thoroughfares, and open spaces.”
Dezeen writes that Telosa is a conceptual city designed for an organisation run by businessperson Marc Lore. And BIG specifies this concept as follows: “Surrounding Equitism Tower, the city of Telosa focuses on people-centric design. Telosa’s public realm is vibrant and active, with open space woven throughout the dense city fabric forming its central spine. Lush in native planting, parks host carefully managed reservoirs, which store water for the city and provide all residents with open space within minutes of where they live.”
BIG continues: “A timber skyscraper dubbed Equitism Tower in recognition of Telosa’s new economic model for society is planned to serve as a beacon for the city. Telosa envisions transparent governance through Equitism, a model based on the premise that citizens should have a stake in the land; as the city does better, the residents do better. With Equitism, Telosa aims to create a much higher level of social services offered to residents without additional burdens on taxpayers. Equitism Tower’s projected features include space for water storage, aeroponic farms, and a photovoltaic roof.
