+ PAOLO SOLERI + 
 

j gaw meem  f l wright p soleri

  

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CLIENT
MATERIALS
VOCABULARY
PROBLEM
EVALUATION
INTRODUCTION

Arcosanti
Arcosanti: A Planned Area Development
 
Paolo Soleri is an architect and a futurist.  All his life he has been very concerned about man's survival on the planet.  He wants to see us as humans avoid a disaster on this planet by changing the way we build our cities.  Soleri is not just satisfied simply to think, draw, and argue.  Along with a few disciples, he has devoted much of his life and energy to transform his hopeful vision for a city of the future into stone and flesh.  The world and the many people, which visit him, do not understand what he is trying to do.  But he does not get discouraged.  He just keeps on planning and building the city of the future.  It is called ARCOSANTI and it is in Arizona.

Arcosanti
Arconsanti: A Planned Area Development
CLIENT

The Arcosanti Foundation wants to involve you in designing a city of the future.  This city will be in the Southwest where there is little water, high mesas on which to build cities much like the Acoma pueblo has done and some land below the mesas where dry land or irrigated farming can take place to grow food for the city on top of the mesa.

Using your knowledge of the architectural conventions and studying some of Soleri's drawings, draw in plan and elevation your idea of the city of the future.  Include spaces for:

  • Government buildings or offices (city center)
  • Housing for families (residential)
  • Spaces for culture and the arts
  • Spaces for education
  • Transportation, heliport
  • Open spaces for recreation
  • Manufacturing and warehousing
  • Farming and agriculture

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MATERIALS

  • Drawing paper
  • Pens
  • Colored pencils
  • Markers
  • Trace paper
  • Chip board for building models
  • Scissors
  • Glue

VOCABULARY

ACOMA PUEBLO:

A Native American settlement East of Albuquerque, NM that is built on a Mesa (flat topped mountain).  This settlement is the oldest continuously inhabited city in America, having been in existence for almost 1,000 years.

ARCHOLOGY:

The scientific study of architecture, how it will meet human needs in the future, what activities it will support, and how it will look.

ARCOSANTI:

A futuristic habitat under design and construction in Mayer, Arizona designed and built by Paolo Soleri and his colleagues.

FUTURIST:

A person who is interested in the future as opposed to the past and predicts that certain events will take place based on precedents.  Fulfillment for this kind of person comes from the future, not the past.

RESIDENTAL:

Places or property where people live, eat, sleep and play.

SUSTAINABILITY:

In this case, architecture which sustains the planer, is ecologically sound and conserves resources.

ARID LAND:

Land which is excessively dry having insufficient rainfall to support agriculture.

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Arcosanti
Arcosanti: A Planned Area Development
 
SOLVING THE PROBLEM

Think about the following ideas in designing your city of the future and help to solve the problems they present in a futuristic way.  We need new ideas for solving some of these problems.  Write your ideas down for each category, and then start designing the whole city to solve some of these problems.

ARID LANDS AND HABITAT

  1. Do we need air conditioning?
  2. How much water do we need to survive?

FOOD FOR THE BODY, FOOD FOR THE MIND

  1. How can we grow food so people know where it comes from?
  2. Will there be huge greenhouses?  Farms?
  3. Will the food be healthier for us than the food we buy in the supermarket?

CROWDING VERSUS DISPERSION  (DENSIFICATION VS DISPERSION)

Maybe we can learn to live closer together instead of spreading ourselves out in one house to every lot.  If there were better use of open space, we would all have more room to enjoy nature instead of greedily using it up for individual families.

Arcosanti
Arcosanti: A Planned Area Development
 
LIVING, LEARNING, WORKING MIX AND THE WASTE OF COMMUTING

Instead of having to travel great distances to go to work, perhaps people will work at home, or close by.  Computers are now making this possible.

MULTI-CULTURAL LIVING

So many wars have been created because people don't understand each other.  Maybe all the children who don't have parents in the world could be brought to your city to make it into a real multi-cultural center.  Perhaps adopting children from different cultures to live in your city could help to encourage world understanding of different kinds of people.

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OTHER DESIGN THOUGHTS

  1. What other ideas do you have for the city of the future.  Does the car become obsolete?
  2. Do people use bicycles, or travel on air?
  3. Let your mind expand and think of new ideas for a new city.

EVALUATION

Display your ideas to your friends, parents or schoolmates.  Send your ideas too, to our website so we can see what you come up with.

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For additional evaluation of your students' projects, see the  EVALUATION FORM AND RATING SCALE .

display a printable page

 

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