Arcology

Mr. Smith — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:51:31 +0000

In “Consciously Creating Positive Social Change,” the concluding chapter of Principles for a Self-Directed Society, I propose a novel concept which I am quite proud of and which I thought was completely original. Certainly I had never before heard anyone discuss a concept that was similar to mine. The idea is to build a planned community as a single megastructure in pyramidal form, with industrial functions in the interior base, business offices and shops in the central interior, and residential communities all around the outside. I pictured a tree-lined, terraced community powered by solar panels and wind turbines, with greenhouses surrounding the structure’s base. The purpose is to be as nearly self-sufficient and ecologically sustainable as possible. Clearly trade with the outside world is indispensable; no single small community could conceivably manufacture all the high-technology items it would require in today’s society, and attempting to do so would not be a practical use of time and resources. However, a well-planned community of this type could go a long way towards self-sufficiency, and would minimize its members’ ecological impact and carbon footprint. I was very proud of this idea, although I was concerned that the engineering challenges and fabulous costs that would be associated with a massive construction project of this type would relegate my idea to the annals of science fiction for the time being. Imagine my surprise when I learned that this idea is not new after all!

I have since learned that there is an entire field of Architectural Ecology known as “Arcology” devoted to this very concept. A gentleman who goes by the online moniker of PrometheusPan informed me that forward-thinking architects and ecologists have been dreaming of such planned communities for decades, led by architect Paolo Soleri in the 1960′s. In fact there is a real-world Arcology project called “Arcosanti” currently under construction in the Arizona desert; a project proposal for a gigantic pyrmid housing 750,000 people to be built over Tokyo Bay; and a proposed project under consideration in south China. A lot of people have put a lot of thought into the theory of Arcology and I find this to be very encouraging. I quickly got over the minor twinge of disappointment in learning that I was not the first person to come up with this concept: instead I am now quite pleased that so many people already believe that such projects are practical, workable, and in fact a critical solution to the growing problems of urban sprawl, population pressure, and environmental degradation as a result of human activity.

Principles » urban sprawl

Arcology