Arcosanti alumnus Tony Brown formally founded the Ecosa Institute in 1996. The goal he defined for the Institute was to bring innovative thinking, new pedagogical models and a complexity to design education that used nature as its underlying model. The vision for the Ecosa Institute was formulated over a period of years by the English architect/educator. His dedication to issues of sustainability and ecological design developed after joining Paolo Soleris Cosanti Foundation where he worked for thirteen years on conceptual designs for a new vision of urban settlements. These concepts led to work on constructing an urban prototype Arcosanti. He worked with Soleri as architect in residence supervising both design work and construction. While learning from Soleri, discussing his philosophy, and coordinating the Arcosanti project he began developing his own vision of an ecological future. He taught the arcology concept to workshop participants which began to formulate an approach to design education.
Tony brings his present class to Arcosanti for a day tour. The class visits the Soleri Archives.[PhotoYuki Yanagimoto & text: sa]
Soleri Archives houses the collection of Paolo Soleri's work. Archive staff and interns are in the process of cataloging and digitizing the work of Soleri, as well as the construction history of Cosanti and Arcosanti. Staff member Sue Anaya unrolls one of Soleri's dramatic scroll drawings. The collection includes over 200 scrolls of length from 5 feet to about 170 feet.
[PhotoYuki Yanagimoto & text: sa]