Urban Laboratory: Paolo Soleri’s Arcosanti

Located in Arizona’s Yavapai County, Arcosanti is an experimental community conceived by Italian-American architect Paolo Soleri.

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Still in construction, the town is the physical manifestation of arcology, a portmanteau of “architecture” and “ecology” coined by Soleri himself, who aims to transform the world by studying and implementing self-sustainable design practices. Similar to Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City, Arcosanti is an experiment in how urban environments can be constructed to minimize environmental impact while encouraging social interaction and community.

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The site broke ground in 1970, with the goal of constructing a community for a population of 5,000. Everything is designed to be ecologically sound, utilizing a variety of techniques ranging from simple design cues to more advanced technological innovations like solar panels and composting toilets. Many of the buildings, for example, are oriented southward in order to maximize the sunlight’s heat in the winter, and minimize it in the summer. There are greenhouses planned for gardening space, which will also be able to collect heat to distribute through the community, while the large concrete structures act as heat sinks in the summer.

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Arcosanti also aims to re-envision city life, organizing their experimental town in an organic manner instead of a standard city grid. Such planning is done to maximize the opportunities for human interaction while maintaining privacy for residents. A variety of structures provide community outlets for residents, which include an amphitheater, swimming pool, two workshop apses and storefronts, in addition to a ring of apartments and a visitor’s center. There are usually around 50–100 residents living in the community at a given time, and they get about 40,000 tourists a year

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For those curious about Arcosanti, they offer guided tours and a variety of workshops for visitors, which helps fund the project’s construction and staff. To learn more about this experimental community, visit arcosanti.org.