Byron York reports here on architect Paolo Soleri’s great
experiment in “sustainable” architecture, Arcosanti, a self-contained, high-density
city he began building in the high desert in Arizona in the 1970s.
Arcosanti is an “arcology,” a word Soleri coined by combining
“architecture” and “ecology.” In Soleri’s vision, an
arcology is a self-contained city in which hundreds of thousands of people live
in a small space, their needs met by green energy sources, recycled and
sustainable products, and carefully planned social and cultural events. There
are — God forbid — no cars.
York documents the fact that Soleri’s dream of a green,
sustainable future is one that just does not work. Unfortunately, no one told the Raleigh city planners that
Soleri’s future does not work. The
new Raleigh Comprehensive Plan produces basically the same thing: people crammed into high-density
housing near rail stations and manufactured auto congestion via “traffic
calming” policies.
York’s conclusion is correct:
Soleri’s vision — of Earth’s population confined to high-density
communities — is shared by some of the more extreme elements of the
environmental movement now gathered in Copenhagen. There’s even a new,
Soleri-inspired project starting in Abu Dhabi. But it’s hard to imagine many
Americans ever living in an arcology, except perhaps at gunpoint. If you want
to see why, just pay a visit to Arcosanti. (emphasis added)
Arcosanti mets the automobile catalytic converter.
Sometime in the 1980s, Soleri organized an open house to show
off his progress on building Arcosanti. Thousands showed up. But without paved
parking, the visitors parked in the open grassland. Soon hot catalytic converters ignited the grass and hundreds of cars
when up in flames. The sound of exploding gas tanks could be heard for miles. Maybe it was the automobile’s revenge for attempting to build a city without cars.
