In the desert, 60 miles to the north of Phoenix, Arizona, a jumbled collection of earth-coloured buildings rise from the dust and sagebrush that surrounds them.
A peculiar assortment of stacked modernist boxes and sweeping concrete arches, the buildings form the Arcosanti complex and, strewn across the hillside in their half-finished state, give the impression of an incomplete Lego set left on the landscape.
Arcosanti is the long-lived life’s work of Italian architect Paolo Soleri, and it has remained in this state for the best part of the last 30 years, its buildings constructed piecemeal by a skeleton workforce of volunteers and visitors who live on-site and dedicate their lives to realising its ambitious dream. Begun in 1970, Arcosanti was created by Soleri to serve as a working model of the principles of arcology, a philosophy and architectural perspective he developed in the mid-20th century that sought to harmonise human habitation with the natural world around it and create cities that functioned as complex and interconnected living organisms.
A former student of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Soleri conceived of arcology as a rebuttal to the ceaseless sprawl of American suburbanisation and the consumerist societies it generated. He was so vehemently opposed to this existence that the name of his studio, ‘Cosanti’ – a portmanteau of the Italian cosa and anti – translates to ‘against things’. Soleri was not, however, a Thoreau type who wanted to abolish urban living in favour of a rugged naturalism, he merely wanted to reorder it, viewing cities as “the necessary instrument for the evolution of humankind”.
Soleri imagined cities that did not expand inexorably outward, but upwards and down into the earth; cities that were designed around people and not cars, where the inhabitants could live in greater connection with their food, energy, and one another. Arcosanti was to be the proof of this model.
Central to Soleri’s vision were design principles that emphasised the frugal and efficient use of resources. Passive solar design is one of the key features at Arcosanti. Buildings are south-facing to shelter their occupants from the worst of the Arizona summer, and constructed from cast concrete panels that absorb and slowly release the sun’s heat during the frigid desert winters. The panels are produced on-site through a method Soleri developed called ‘silt-casting’, where forms are built from the surrounding dirt and broken up to be recycled again once the concrete is poured and dried. This method also blurs the distinction between the natural and the built environments, as the forms impart the texture and colour of the soil onto the panels and transform them into engineered extensions of the earth they sit upon. Food is sourced year-round from Arconsanti’s greenhouse and from terraced gardens that straddle its slopes, while wastewater is treated on-site through a combination of greywater recycling tanks and biological oxidation ponds.
Central to Soleri’s vision were design principles that emphasised the frugal and efficient use of resources.
From the outset, Arcosanti aimed to meld the spheres of work, social and family life into a cohesive whole. While private residences are small and, in many cases, spartan, large public areas such as the vaults and the amphitheatre serve as focal points for the community and performing spaces for visiting artists and events. That tourism has become one of the leading sources of income for Arcosanti is evidence both of the shortcomings of its goal of self-sustainability, and also its resilience. Though the town never came close to reaching its goal of 5,000 residents, the 70 people who now call it home full-time ensure Arcosanti’s survival through a combination of volunteer labour, workshop teaching, and profits derived from the sale of ceramics and bronze ‘Soleri’ bells produced on-site – an industry initially meant to employ the majority of the aforementioned 5,000, and which remains Arcosanti’s largest earner.
Fifty years on from its founding, less than 5% of the original plan for Arcosanti has been constructed, with the most recent building completed in 1989. Far from being a model city, Arcosanti today is a hamlet, home to a few diehards who arrived in the ‘70s and others that have trickled in in the decades since, lured by the appeal of an alternative lifestyle and willing to devote themselves to a grand idea. Their days are spent in service to Arcosanti, feeding it with their labour, tending to its aging infrastructure, and educating the tourists that come for a taste of counterculture. Although none are likely to witness any major progress in their lifetime, they continue on in the belief that the values and lessons of Arcosanti are worth working for, and that one day they will be needed by the world at large.
Words — Nick Ainge-Roy
Photographs — Jessica Jameson
