NEOM Oxagon Innovation Hub
Smart technology strategy and integration architecture for the world's first fully automated industrial city on the Red Sea coast.
Smart technology strategy and integration architecture for the Innovation Hub at NEOM Oxagon. Oxagon is the world's first fully automated industrial city and the largest floating structure on the Red Sea coast. It is designed from the ground up to run on 100% renewable energy, with Industry 4.0 and circular economy principles. The work covered concept and detailed master planning. It assessed new technology in robotics, AI for process optimisation, IoT and digital platforms. It designed how industrial automation, building management and public infrastructure connect. It also set a phased rollout plan, and a compliance framework to protect data privacy in sensitive industrial work. Industry 4.0 manufacturing, AI orchestration and community spaces were all specified together at the master planning stage.
Oxagon needed a smart technology strategy for a type of district with no precedent: a fully automated industrial innovation hub. It combines Industry 4.0 manufacturing, living-lab research facilities, homes and public spaces, all running on 100% renewable energy. One integrated framework had to serve very different uses. It had to handle high-security industrial automation. It also had to support open research and serve the community. All of it was defined during the concept and master planning phase, before construction.
Served as Smart Technology Lead through Meinhardt Group in the concept and detailed master plan phases. Led the smart technology evaluation and strategy. Assessed new technology for running the hub: robotics, AI that tunes processes, IoT infrastructure and digital platforms. Led teams from across functions to find where the technology could be used in industrial, residential and public areas. Designed how the systems connect, so that industrial automation, building management and public infrastructure run as one coherent operating framework. Built a phased rollout plan for the technology. It follows the district's stages, from innovation lab to fully automated industrial showcase. Built the compliance and security framework that protects data privacy in sensitive industrial work.
Delivered a full smart technology strategy for the Oxagon Innovation Hub master plan. It covered the technology review, how the systems connect, a phased rollout plan and a compliance framework. The blueprint laid the technology base for the district. It builds in Industry 4.0 automation, IBM AI Robotics Orchestration Platform integration and circular economy operations from first principles. It was delivered during concept and detailed master planning. It informs construction specification for Phase 2 development, now underway.
- My role
- Smart Technology Lead, Meinhardt Group
Embed automation and AI from the ground up, in the design phase. Oxagon proves the principle at city scale. When smart systems are designed before the infrastructure is built, every layer, from robotics orchestration to building management, runs on a shared data architecture. The same logic applies to any new business system. Design the integration layer first; it is far cheaper than connecting separate systems after the fact.
The same diagnostic logic from deployments like this one, applied to your business in half a day.
Book the WorkshopDiscuss a similar programme- NEOM Oxagon: world's first fully automated industrial city and largest floating structure; 48 km² Innovation District on the Red Sea coast
- NEOM Oxagon Phase 2 earthworks and development update, AGBI, 2025
- Employer testimonial letter from Meinhardt SUIT Pte Ltd (Managing Director, July 2025) naming this project available to procurement teams on request; not published online
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Nothing about Oxagon had a precedent. When someone asked how a fully automated industrial city had been done before, the honest answer was that it hadn't. We had to balance high-security industrial automation against open research and ordinary community space, all inside one framework. That produced more than a few disagreements about where the walls, literal and digital, should sit. What stays with me is that Oxagon's Phase 2 is now under construction on the architecture we set during the concept phase.
