The New Live-Work Space

Smack in the middle of the northern Arizona desert, an hour outside of Phoenix, Arcosanti rises from the boulders like a huge ship cresting the ocean surface. The concrete domes and grand archways of this alternative community mimic the smooth roll of the nearby hills. Even the man who founded this prototype habitat seems himself born of this place. At 82, architect Paolo Soleri’s face is as craggy as the parched earth around him, and his unruly eyebrows spring forth like desert brush.

The man and his buildings are inseparable now. Some three decades after Soleri broke ground here, he is viewed as either wacko or visionary, hopelessly rooted in the past or too far ahead of his time, for creating a habitat where a small group of people live, work and interact on a daily basis, where the environment is revered, and where quality of life is measured in rewarding work and close relationships, not SUVs and high-definition television. Arcosanti was founded on Soleri’s theory of arcology--architecture combined with ecology--where dwellings, humans and nature are not separated.

How fitting to have this be the setting for the Paradox III conference last weekend, a gathering of some 200 architects, designers, writers, cybertypes, academics and students, here to discuss “Third Millennium Habitats: Integrating Community, Virtuality, and Nature,” the third in a series. Less than two weeks after the terrorist attacks on the East Coast, the weekend proved a catalyst for re-examining the purpose of architecture, the meaning of shelter and the importance of community.

Arcosanti’s semi-self-sustaining community served as both backdrop and inspiration. A greenhouse supplies fruits and vegetables, solar energy panels provide some energy, and the place has its own recycling program. Pottery and Soleri’s bronze bells are made under a huge half-dome decorated with a geometric finial. Strolling down narrow paths, one sees evidence of everyday life--abandoned tricycles sit underneath a tree, a father watches his giggling son coast down a bright blue waterslide. An unmistakable hippie-ish quality hangs around the place.

The Italian-born Soleri’s vision was for a city of 7,000; it currently holds 65 permanent residents and after 31 years is about 5% complete. It was never Soleri’s goal to create an island cut off from the rest of world--he believes it’s essential to be connected to humanity.

Funding comes from the sales of his handcrafted bells, made here and at Cosanti (Soleri’s original compound, outside Scottsdale) as well as from visitor ticket sales and five-week workshop programs, which cost $900 per person. Workshop students continue the complex’s construction and learn the philosophies. Some stay, becoming residents who work in everything from gardening to cooking to carpentry.

Soleri’s pre-Arcosanti history includes studying architecture in Turin, working with architect Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin East and West and breaking out on his own, building homes and commercial spaces. As his philosophies caught on, Soleri became something of a guru, albeit an unlikely one, given his shy demeanor and a voice that barely edges above a whisper. His charisma is most evident one on one, when his intensity and impish sense of humor are revealed.

Over lunch with a small group during last weekend’s conference, he patiently answered questions, eyeing a plate of food and glass of wine that sat tantalizing close. “Isn’t anyone going to eat?” he asked, but took only a sip of wine while the questions flowed.

Asked how arcology can make people more self-aware, he answered, “Arcology is an instrument; it doesn’t do that. It might help to organize life so that maybe there might be less tension and less disconnection from the environment, more frugality, less polluting, less wastefulness and less segregation.”

The world may now be ready to embrace values that Arcosanti espouses, Soleri suggested, since “the consumerist onslaught that was supposed to bring us happiness and fulfillment seems to be moving on a road of frustration and self-destruction.”

He was markedly candid about the labor of creating Arcosanti, saying those who had lived and toiled here in the early years, when the site was viewed more with skepticism than acceptance, “felt they were sacrificial lambs, and they were in a number of ways. They were sacrificing some of themselves. There is still that feeling around, but now also a feeling that we might be doing something that is important.”

Using Architecture to Facilitate Community

Despite oppressive 90-degree heat, button-down academics sat alongside Birkenstock-clad designer types in Arcosanti’s tented amphitheater, talking about issues that seemed more pressing than ever, given recent events.

“I’m in need of healing right now, and this is a healing place,” Los Angeles-based architect and design strategist Stephanie Smith told an audience gathered in an amphitheater. “I’ve been thinking of how architecture can be used in deeper ways, with Arcosanti as a model. I think people who make physical spaces have more of a responsibility now--we had to learn in such a destructive way that there’s a need for community.

“I hope we can make buildings that are unfinished,” she continued, “that are like Arcosanti--always growing, always changing.”

Smith was part of a panel titled “Green Development: Integrating Habitat, Virtuality and Nature,” one of several in the conference, which also included “Transmodern Culture: Cultivating the Values of a New Civilization” and “Emergence of a New Eco-Science: Restoring Nature and Community.”

“Arcology is really right on the money for what needs to be happening on the planet right now,” said Paradox keynote speaker Jon Jerde, founder and chairman of the Venice-based architecture firm Jerde Partnership International Inc., whose projects include Universal CityWalk and San Diego’s Horton Plaza shopping mall. “It’s not about the amount of goodies you have, but the proximity you have to other people. And since Sept. 11, there’s been a fairly astounding thing happening in America. All of a sudden people who were isolated have woken up and become more communal,” he said, pointing out how strangers are reaching out to each other in a need to connect.

Science writer and University of Montana lecturer Janine Benyus made a strong argument for encouraging humans to look to nature for guidance: “The mites and bacteria that we breathe have already figured out how to create a sustainable environment. A sustainable world is all around us. We learn about harvesting solar energy by studying the leaf. It’s a matter of changing our lens so we can suddenly see.”

William D. Browning, director of the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Green Development Services in Snowmass, Colo., described a Netherlands bank that is not just energy-efficient, but also includes livable work spaces with open spaces, sunlight and clean air, making employees so happy that absenteeism has declined and productivity risen. “I’m thinking about an architecture of hope,” he said. “We should be asking questions about what it means to do well-adapted environments for humans.”

Throughout the weekend, Soleri could usually be found hovering nearby, listening intently to the panelists and audience comments or nimbly meandering through the crowd in his pink work shirt, khakis and flip-flops. Once in a while he would even offer a panel a cryptic comment of his own, such as this: “The future never existed, so we can only create the past.”

Joe Henson came to Arcosanti years ago, took a hiatus and returned; he’s now gallery director. A robust man with shoulder-length gray hair, his eyes grow big when he talks about Soleri. “His ideas are so encompassing,” he said, “even the simplest ideas. And he’s very tolerant of other beliefs. I don’t know much about IQ tests and all that, but I would guess his IQ is around 190, 200.”

Deborah Heath, president of Blue Sky design and remodeling in St. Paul, Minn., came here hoping to find others who share her belief in eco-friendly design. “I do see Americans moving in this direction,” she said, “becoming self-sufficient, of using available science to get the most out of resources and at the same time improving the life of animals and humans. These are not hard, terrible choices. I think people will have to live with less, but their lives will be more meaningful.”

... more frugality, less polluting, less wastefulness and less segregation.’