Arizona is Desperate to Develop Housing in the Desert. This Town Has it Figured Out

An experimental 1970s Arizona community still offers lessons for sustainable building using passive architecture techniques. Designed by architect Paolo Soleri and located about 70 miles north of Phoenix, Arcosanti is the only example of Soleri’s “arcology” — architecture and ecology — an approach that uses climate-specific designs to build in areas like the desert with extreme weather.

According to a Bloomberg CityLab by Leilani Marie Labong, “Planned for 5,000 residents, Arcosanti currently houses just 38. Residents tend gardens, produce ceramics and craft bronze bells — a core revenue source. They maintain existing structures and, very incrementally, build new ones.” The community struggles with funding and relies on a rotating cast of volunteers, but continues to maintain the 20-acre property. 

Around the world, similar developments have had varying degrees of success. Close to home in Arizona, a new development called Culdesac Tempe now houses 300 people in a car-free neighborhood. According to Labong, “Culdesac Tempe looks less like a frontier outpost and more like an amenity-rich urban development, showing that arcology doesn’t have to be fringe.”

Ultimately, Arcosanti remains an unrealized dream, but also a “living, breathing experiment in coexistence.” According to Arcosanti resident and archivist  Ray Paskus, the community is “not a monument; it’s a laboratory.”