Arizona Colony Struggles To Build 'Arcology'

Since 1970, Paolo Soleri's project for a 'lean alternative' to sprawl through high-density anti-consumerism has failed to destroy the America suburb.

1 minute read

June 24, 2004, 9:00 AM PDT

By Jeffrey Goodman


Seventy miles north of Phoenix, renegade architect Paolo Soleri has assembled just part of his dream community of 5,000 due to lack of funds. Calling his project an 'arcology,' a combination of architecture and ecology, Soleri hopes to prove that the typical suburban house is not only a poor use of land but "the single most consumptive and segregational habitat that we can conceive." Arcosanti, the town, is urbanism taken to its extreme.

Thanks to Jeffrey Goodman

Wednesday, June 23, 2004 in Smithsonian Magazine

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