{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "#3yrsago Arcology: cutaways of the future city-hives that never were", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/175262170943/", "html": "

mostlysignssomeportents:

\n\n

Paolo Soleri\u2019s Arcology: The City in the Image of Man is a techo-hippie dream of deep mid-century modern futurism.

Soleri taught architecture at ASU, but his real classroom was Arcosanti:\n \u201can experimental town and molten bronze bell casting community\u201d a few \nhours from Phoenix, which was supposed to have 5,000 residents by now, \ndemonstrating \u201clean\u201d city living in high-density complexes that combined\n super-efficient usage of space with stylized, naturalistic exteriors \nthat made each building part of the landscape.\n

\nSoleri was a crank, a visionary, a mystic and a doomsayer. His \narcologies \u2013 \u201carchitecture\u201d plus \u201cecology\u201d \u2013 were meant to head off \nthe coming population bomb, which, combined with urban sprawl, would \ndestroy the planet. Soleri conceived of a city as dense as Tokyo or New \nYork, but with a pastoral sensibility that kept each of his titanic \ntowers in synch with nature.

\nIf this sounds familiar, it\u2019s because Soleri\u2019s ideas were far more \nsuccessful with futurists than they were with the actual future. \nArcologies appeared as staples of science fiction cover-art, and their \ndescendants can be contemporary sf, including the great, interplanetary \nhollow asteroid craft plying the spacelanes in Kim Stanley Robinson\u2019s \nbrilliant 2312. I think there was an arcology in ever single issue of OMNI.\n Judge Dredd\u2019s Mega City One was dense with towering arcologies. The \nvictory condition in Sim City 2000? Your highrises turn into arcologies.

\nI visited Arcosanti last week. As arcologies go, it\u2019s pretty modest \u2013 \nonly about 150 people living there at any one time. I missed the tour, \ntoo (bad timing), so I only got to see the edges \u2013 and the gift-shop.

\nThat\u2019s where I found Arcology: The City in the Image of Man:\n the 1969 classic origin node of the arcology meme. It\u2019s a huge, stark, \nblack and white book filled with dense (and often rambling \u2013 think \nDoctor Bronner\u2019s Soap meets Epcot Center) Solerian philosophy, crowded \naround the edges of the most magnificent drawings you\u2019ve ever seen.

\nSoleri\u2019s arcologies are all in cutaway form, like a full-page Fantastic \nFour clubhouse diagram by Jack Kirby, ferociously detailed and aching \nwith unfulfilled desire. Soleri wants these things to exist, and he uses\n his pen to show us how fucking cool it would be to live in the cities of his mind. Every one of these diagrams should be a poster.

\nYou can get the book for $40 in the Arcosanti gift shop (you can get \nsome bells while you\u2019re there!) \u2013 it\u2019s worth the visit, and you should \nprobably take the tour. The $67.50 retail edition\n costs a little more, but is still cheaper than a trip to Arcosanti from\n pretty much anywhere (though again, go to Arcosanti if you get the \nchance).

\nI took a bunch of photos of the cutaways while I was in the store.

\nArcology: The City in the Image of Man [Paolo Soleri/Cosanti]

https://boingboing.net/2015/04/16/arcology-cutaways-of-the-futu.html

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