We continue our report from 12/28/09.

Most of the ribs for the new greenhouse have been installed.

Here we can see the long beams tied into place to hold the structure together.

View from the level of the greenhouse up the slope on which the connecting heat duct tunnel will be installed.

Now we are at the top of the slope, where the construction crew is working on the next segment of the heat duct tunnel roof.

More on this on 1/4/2010.

We finally continue the report that was started on 11/16/09 and 11/18/09, about the new greenhouse that will connect to the East Crescent heat-duct tunnel [see information on the heat-duct tunnel project starting with 7/13/09 report with intermittent postings up to 11/11/09].

The construction crew started assembly of the ribs for the greenhouse.

At the site for the greenhouse, below the pool, posts have been installed and imbedded in concrete.

And the first ribs have been put into place.
This 20' wide x 48' long greenhouse, more specifically called a "High Tunnel," is an unheated, plastic-covered structure that provides an intermediate level of environmental protection and control compared to open field conditions and heated greenhouses.
This report continues on 12/29/09.

The annual Arcosanti Christmas party took place on December 16. 2009.

This year’s MC, Charlie with the Santa hat, kept up the tradition of lighthearted banter to call each of the Arcosanti staff and volunteers for a Paolo Soleri Christmas hug.

As in previous years, everyone brought appetizers and desserts for a delicious ‘snack’ potluck.

A special treat at the end of the Christmas party was a first pre-viewing of the movie “CARRIED AWAY”, which was partially filmed at Arcosanti, see report from March 9. 2009.

Quite a few extras in this film were from the Arcosanti crew and alumni, and there is a very lovely sequence of foundry activities.
The movie was directed by Tom Huckabee. The movie is to be released to the general public soon, we will let you know.

We send Holiday “Cheers” and Greetings to family and friends far and wide, and thank everyone for their continued support. HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON

This continues our report from December 21. 2009.

During the event “Architetti e Architetture 2009,”
Professor Iolanda Lima presented her latest publication "Soleri. La Formazione Giovanile 1933 - 1946, 808 Disegni Inediti di Architettura", a publication of Soleri drawings from 1933 - 1946.

Available for now only in Italian, it includes over 800 previously unpublished images from Soleri’s high school and university years.

Most of the material used in this book was discovered very recently.
We reported on July 7. 2008, that while cleaning out a little used back closet in the Soleri residence, Soleri’s daughters discovered a whole stack of drawings, books and assorted items of archival interest. The majority of those drawings were from Paolo Soleri's time at the Polytechnico in Torino, Italy, where he received his degree in 1946.

Within this beautiful new book are comments by: Vincenzo Fontana, Guido Montanari, Micaela Viglino, Caterina Franchini, Andrea Bruno Jr., Elena Dellapiana, Antonietta Iolanda Lima, Rossella Grassi, Mario Federico Roggero, Costanza Roggero, Piergiorgio Tosoni, Giuseppe Pagnano, Alessandro Brandino, Maria Antonietta Crippa.

Professor Iolanda Lima is an architect and a professor in the department of architecture at the University of Palermo, Italy.

photo: Paolo Soleri with Mary Hoadley.

On the evening of December 3rd. 2009, Paolo Soleri was honored in his hometown, Torino, Italy, at the event “Architetti e Architetture 2009,” which celebrated his lifetime achievement, along with architect Annibale Fiocchi.

The photos were sent by courtesy of Fondazione dell'Ordine degli Architetti, OAT.
Thank you very much to Cosimo Santoro at OAT!

Mary Hoadley and Paolo Soleri with journalist Beppe Rovera.


In the photo from left: Mary Hoadley, City Councilor Andrea Tronzano, Dean of the Turin Polytechnic's II Architecture Faculty Rocco Curto, Paolo Soleri, journalist Beppe Rovera, Dean of the Palermo Architecture Faculty Angelo Milone.


With journalist Beppe Rovera (left), Architect Massimo Locci (middle), President OATO, Oridne degli Architetti di Torino, Riccardo Bedrone (right).

On December 7. we reported that Paolo Soleri and Mary Hoadley visited Torino, Italy, on their way back from China.

One of the major events during the two-day visit was that the City of Torino officially awarded Paolo Soleri with honorary citizenship of the city of his birth.


The ceremony took place on December 3. 2009, in this beautiful council chamber at CITTA DI TORINO – Presidenza del Consiglio Comunale [Torino City Hall].

Video of the Torino events is available here.


The following four photos arrived via e-mail just this morning.

Thank you very much to Raffaella Lecchi at Libero - Italy for sending the images. The photographer is Sala Rossa.


We will add names of personages present when we receive them.


Paolo Soleri


Paolo Soleri and Mary Hoadley.

Report about the Torino visit continues on Monday, Dec. 21. 2009.

Congratulations to the November 8. 2009 workshop participants upon their graduation!

[back from left]: Barbara Matusky, Chris O'Leary, Evan Sachs and Keiko Nakamura.
[front]: Susanne McMillen

[image: Computer rendering of NUDGING SPACE Arcology].

This continues our report from 12/11/09.

excerpt from Soleri paper “Two Suns Arcology: Nudging Space, 2001.” [“ “]

THE APSEDRA
(APSE-EXEDRA) EFFECT.
“An apse is a quarter spherical concave form in upright position found in cathedrals and mosques. A truncated apse when of large size becomes an exedral geometry. Apsedra is a combination of apse and exedra.”

[image: 3D rendering of NUDGING SPACE Arcology].

“In a crude similarity of composition and of formal relationships the closer analogy to the apsedra is the artichoke. Cut 1/3 of the top off, split the staple in half, carve off the fluffy core and more, then open to a degree the half you chose so that there is some separation between the leaf blades.
All blades are rooted to the lower center. Each leaf blade is analogous to an apsedra, and each blade is a double skin defining the interior of it: residences, work spaces, public spaces, etc.
The space-volumes between blades is the environment moderating the outdoor climate by way of controlling the impact of the sun and air.

A cautionary note: The artichoke analogy is purely meant as a visual aid for the reader and not a concession to organic architecture nor an endorsement for its founder’s (F.L.Wright) far more sophisticated meaning.”

[image: 3D rendering of NUDGING SPACE Arcology].

APSEDRA.
“Sphericity: As the most common body in space at least the cooling down size of space, sphericity is in our consciousness and it is formative of it. A sphere conceived by intellection and saturated by intellection, the human life inhabiting it, can only be a pseduo-spherical environ and an ephemeralized one. The circular and radial combination is critical in both functions and the logistics necessary to their effectiveness.”

[image: 3D rendering of NUDGING SPACE Arcology].

“If it were not for the askewed presence of the sun and for the positively and pregnantly askewed presence of man the vicarious, convivial, fantasizing, inventive, unsettled persona, Homo faber full of howness (and the techne howness is the implementation of), the sphericity of Nudging Space could be soundly objected to.”

[image: 3D rendering of NUDGING SPACE Arcology].

"The askewedness of the earth-sun relationship is the cause of night-day, seasons, and all that those characters have done to the planet, life being one of them. A non-askewed relationship, let's say the sun or equivalent at the center of the earth, would have made for a dull and probably dead planet even if its surface where to be a steady even and balmy 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

The apsedra is solar-garment architecture and the population-institution density makes it into an urban effect center. The apsedra is a town or a city depending on its size and performance. Maglev technology of logistics is both horizontal and vertical (and/or inclined). Maglev trains (passenger and freight) are connecting with local, regional, continental, transcontinental places.

There are two principal garments: the warm season garments: the sun rays are intercepted by shade membranes. The cold season garments: the sun rays are passing through transparent membranes that also trap the inside warmed air.

To the looseness of the shade garments corresponds the tightness of the transparent garment trapping the air warmed by the sun. Spring and fall are served by intermediate membranes: the sun-shade costume fit mix suggested by climate and temperature. The synchrony of the specific membrane with the seasonal variations are one of the singular aspects of architecture-ecology: arcology. An open city by choice. This synchronization can be an occasion for celebrations, festivities: the four season polyphony."

THE PHYSICO-CLIMATIC AND THE PSYCHOSOMATIC ASPECTS OF THE APSEDRA.
"As pointed out, the form of the multi-exedra is generated by the intent of putting the sun to work in producing large volumes of space that are tamed versions of the open space. They are tamed in terms of temperature, air movement, and light, thus the physico-climatic side of the apsedra.

The psychosomatic side is revealed by the influence the curved space has on our relationship with things and people. The apsedra encourages conviviality by offering a focusing convergence (its center or centers) where awareness and dialoguing are enhanced. This in a way goes three-dimensional in the apse side of the apsedra, the semi-spherical curvature of it is a reminder of very large parasol. That means that the embracing of the exedra is reinforced by the sheltering of the apse."

This completes this sequence of reports on the Lean Linear City / Nudging Space model at the 2009/2010 Beijing exhibition.

[image: 3D rendering of Lean Linear City approach to NUDGING SPACE Arcology].

This continues our report from 12/09/09.

Nudging Space is an Arcology (ARChitecture / ecOLOGY), Paolo Soleri’s concept of cities that impinge minimally on their natural surroundings while trying to maximize the cultural, educational and economic benefits of urbanity.

[image: Soleri original sketch of NUDGING SPACE Arcology, 2001].

The design characteristic of the Nudging Space arcology is the APSEDRA (the tall center cluster of structures.)
Their shape is reminiscent of an artichoke whose upper part and choke have been removed. Its blades are largely separated but remain attached at the base.

[image: NUDGING SPACE Arcology model, built in 2000 by planning intern Estefania Villamizar].

The overall form of Nudging Space is intended to create various micro-climatic environments within the building envelopes. To do this Soleri utilizes the concept of “garment architecture” to moderate thermal and lighting conditions. The hot season garment is opaque, providing shade while the cold season garment is transparent and transmits the solar energy and traps the heated air. Furthermore, its curved space offers a focusing convergence that may encourage positive human interaction.

[image: NUDGING SPACE Arcology, part of LLC model, built in 2009 by Beijing Center of the Arts, photographed at the exhibition].

excerpt from Soleri paper “Two Suns Arcology: Nudging Space, 2000.” [“ “]

NUDGING SPACE
“The name is in reference to the hypothesis that reality is made of metamorphosizing space, the becoming, and of the registration in full of such metamorphosis which the past is, the being.
Nudging space refers to any event or sequence of events that even infinitesimally make being inch closer to its own resolution in the space-less conclusive singularity of duration, i.e. total recall, i.e. the self-revelation of reality.”

[image: Computer rendering of NUDGING SPACE Arcology].

“The fact that architecture is so full of space makes for nice but pure accidental resonance. Everything is space in constant self-reconfiguration, be it a sub-particle, a super nova, a chicken egg, a person, a passion . . . evolution, the condition of man, the imagined, the factual . . . man’s body-brain.”

[image: Computer rendering of NUDGING SPACE Arcology].

“Space is the minimalism (non-reductionistic) hypothesis, the lean hypothesis. It disposes of time, future, dualism, animism. Disposing of dualism and animism means dropping the creator-creature, body-soul, brain-mind, matter-spirit, means-ends dualities.
Each disposal and each drop adds to the prodigiousness intrinsic to the becoming: the primeval elementarity of reality developing into a potential and (perhaps) eventual graceful conclusion.”

We continue this report on 12/14/09.

[image: Computer rendering for the Lean Linear City model]

This continues the report from 12/7/09.

The Lean Linear City model includes a large MULTI-FUNCTIONAL DAM and BRIDGE. For this, Youngsoo Kim chose Veladiga - Dam site Arcology design from Paolo Soleri’s 1970 publication “Arcology – City in the Image of Man”.

Soleri designed this Dam Arcology for a Population of 15,000 with Population Density of 309/hectare; 125/acre. The Height to be 250 meters with Surface covered 48 hectare; 120 acres.

[image: Computer rendering for the Lean Linear City model]

Excerpts from Paolo Soleri’s text for this design [from “Arcology - City in the Image of Man”, first published in 1970: [“ “]
“The order that man puts or imposes on nature, nature herself has self-imposed for countless centuries. Sudden upheaval or gradual phenomena have created rivers and watersheds, changed the course of rivers, reversed watersheds throughout the life of the earth. Purposeless as the process might have been itself, the results were and are portentously part of, and definers of, what man has done with himself and his species. We, the latecomers, are then part and result of this geocosmic phenomenon. Coherence to nature and man demands then that geocosmic action be enriched by man into a geocosmic-reflective intervention.”

[image: elevation of VELADIGA. from “Arcology - City in the Image of Man”, page 92 of the 2006 edition]

“To be abrupt: our dams are geocosmic dwarfs and reflective abortions. They may well feed cities and industries with power, irrigate lands and fields, swell the pride of corporate images of technicians and contractors. What they do not do is to project themselves, as they should, as living and awesome organisms.
The “success” of the obscure, mineral plant, earth, is and will be measured by the substance of the civilizations enveloping it, this substance given in turn by the measure of wholeness (congruence) each undertaking carries with it. “

[image: isometric plan of VELADIGA. from “Arcology - City in the Image of Man”, page 90 of the 2006 edition]

On the geocosmic scale in which a dam can act, the right speck in the right crack and its apparent out-of-proportion effects, one cannot but wish a proportionate degree of liveliness and participation of man himself, directly and immanently.
The focal point and energetic center of such a scale seems to warrant a limitless variety of occasions for a rich, intense life, if one adds the colossal masonry, the concentration of facilities, the site, one has all the premises for a fully displayed metropolitan life.

In a dam one has more than an instrument, one has a phenomenon cutting its way into the ecological balance of vast areas. A dam is as large as the transformations it produces.
The sense of focality and useful coercion that springs from it needs to be lived by man because they are essentially transfigurative.
What else in construction beside bridges and other water-retaining structures can compare in forcefulness, size, purpose, grandeur?
Certainly not our offices, palaces, theatres, libraries—why should not those characters be lived by society and take, whenever possible, the place of petty redundance or diffused chaos?

We continue this report on 12/11/09, about the LEAN LINEAR CITY model displayed at the "3 Dimensional City: Future China" exhibition, presently at the Beijing Center of the Arts, Beijing, China. Next segment will be on the NUDGING SPACE Arcology part of the model.

Last Friday, Dec. 4. 2009, Paolo Soleri and Mary Hoadley returned from China with a stop in Torino, Italy. Soleri was honored by the city of his birth and also attended an event to introduce a new book, written by Professor Iolanda Lima, about Soleri's early work.
We hope to have a full report later.

We continue our report from 12/4/2009 about the “3 DIMENSIONAL CITY: FUTURE CHINA” exhibition at BEIJING CENTER FOR THE ARTS, Beijing, China.

[photo: close-up of Lean Linear City (LLC) model]

Continuation of statement by Paolo Soleri for this exhibition. [" "]



From WHAT IF?
QUADERNO 9
SOLARE: LEAN LINEAR CITY

REFORMULATION
"The ever-delusional effort to combine the exurban diaspora with an efficient public transit system has been and will “forever” be a naïve notion bordering on dementia."

[image: isometric view of and node and a module of Lean Linear City (LLC)]

"In the lean construct of an organism, each cell of the body is fed and cleansed by symmetrically astounding networks of arteries and veins. Trillions of cells are kept living and working by the gossamer reticulum of an inimitable delivery-retrieval system."

[image: computer rendering for the model of Lean Linear City]

"Our monstrous multitudes of automobiles, soon over six billion (American Dream), will never achieve even a pale approximation of the logistical perfection of any organism."

[image: computer rendering for the model of Lean Linear City]

"Furthermore, a culture based on the automobile leads to the diaspora of habitat, inevitably segregating people and stifling true novelty, the synergies of culture and civilization."

[image: computer rendering of LLC features, such as Photovolteic Ribbons, Wind Turbines, Greenhouse and Energy Apron, Elevated Parks, Inner Parks, Inner Park Stream, Light Rail and Local Train, Streams and MULTI-FUNCTIONAL DAM and BRIDGE]

"The triumphal technological march of Homo faber is overloading the poorly designed “arterial and venous” networks we naïvely have embraced. The suburban logistical network is sclerotic, and worse, doomed. In order to remain marginally viable, the life of the “organism” becomes grotesque.

An aerial view of exurban diaspora evidences that grotesque, monotonous, shallow, delusional life. It is un-civil-ized, i.e., deprived of civitas (the city), but serves well the production, consumption, segregation, waste, and pollution cycles of raw capitalism. The survival of the fittest is its rule, while its very livelihood rests in the obscurantism of materialism.

For 1.3 billion Chinese people, the Arcadian utopia conjured by the automobile is a make-believe the planet can’t stomach, much less serve. The hyper-consumption now charming nations does not call forcefully enough for the coherence and idealism now necessary to prevent Homo faber suicide (animism and theology should satisfy our idolatries enough).

Our indifference toward the sun and its climatic rage taxes our fragile presence. How to best harness a fraction of the sun’s energy, now that fossil fuels are beginning to show signs of exhaustion, is essential to the structural and functional morphology of the proposed urban ribbon. Its predisposition toward a clean and lean nature includes harvesting solar energy on the spot and paying attention to the logistics of contemporary consumers.

We have been de-coupling the urban from the logistical (transportation) and as long as we stay in hyper-consumption mode and persist in automobile supremacy, the conflict has no solution. It is a simple fact of physics (transportation) and hyper-physics (the Urban Effect).

SOLARE [LLC] channels both the physical and the hyper-physical (civilization-culture) presence in self-contained complexes and intense urban ribbons capable of lining the continent in the leanest possible mode. The variations available for the single module (200 meters in length) to “clone” itself are unlimited, given the ingenuity and the resolve of the planners, designers, and populations involved.

For us ignorant Westerners, it is almost like witnessing not the rebirth of a nation, but a brand new branch of the human genome falling from the heavens. The suddenness of the metamorphosis, the size of things, and the massive population involved is jolting. One fourth of the planet’s population is taking off! It’s breathtaking. For where it will end up is pure guesswork."

This completes the Palo Soleri statement for the present "3 Dimensional City: Future China" exhibition in Beijing, China.

We will continue this report on Wednesday, 12/9/2009 with additional images of The Lean Linear City, report concentrates on MULTI-FUNCTIONAL DAM and BRIDGE part of the LLC.

We continue our report from 12/2/2009 about the “3 DIMENSIONAL CITY: FUTURE CHINA” exhibition at BEIJING CENTER FOR THE ARTS, Beijing, China.

Tomiaki Tamura, 2009:
LLC proposes a continuous urban ribbon of twenty or more stories high, extending for many kilometers. Two main, parallel structures are built in modules measuring 200 meters in length. Each module accommodates about 3,200 residents and spaces for commercial, industrial, educational, cultural, recreational, and health maintenance activities.

Statement by Paolo Soleri for this exhibition. [" "]

From WHAT IF?
QUADERNO 9
SOLARE: LEAN LINEAR CITY

REFORMULATION
"China, on the border of a new era, has the enviable chance to leap beyond existing techno-social culture and land in a quasi-pristine environment with a post-Western formula."

[photo: Lean Linear City (LLC) model]

"The Western formula is showing signs of hitting the zenith of unconditional materialism, heralded by what the American Dream is turning out to be."

[image: plan and elevation of Lean Linear City]

"Logistical paralysis is just one of the afflictions of the American landscape, imposed on the population by anti-urban diaspora. To reform this landscape is an exercise in too little too late."

[image: computer rendering for the model of Lean Linear City]

"Reform will not effect sufficient transformation, because it works at improving the wrong thing and thus moves toward a predictable dead end. What is needed is a total reformulation, and China is a land optimally positioned for such. The core of this reformulation is the city in its more promising transformation."

[photo: The model shows Nudging Space Arcology in the foreground, connected to many segments of Lean Linear City, connected to an existing city right next to the mirror, doubling the impression of the model]

"Life, inventiveness, and culture are more and more in the thick of things, in accordance with the “teaching” of nature: the creation of willful organisms, and with Homo sapiens, the creation of hyper-organisms, or the urban context."

[photo: close-up of Lean Linear City (LLC) model.]

"The need to entwine the thick of things of the city with fluid performance and logistics is one of the tasks addressed by LEAN LINEAR CITY."

We will continue this report on Monday, 12/7/2009 with additional images and Soleri text of LLC.

We continue our report about the “3 DIMENSIONAL CITY: FUTURE CHINA” exhibition opening from Nov. 28. 2009 at BEIJING CENTER FOR THE ARTS, Beijing, China.

Tomiaki Tamura composed four separate digital loop presentations, projected onto the walls of the Paolo Soleri exhibition.

One of the digital presentations is about Arcosanti, another about Arcology, the third about Lean Linear City and a keynote presentation of a collection of sketchbook pages from the late 1950’s to present time. The keynote presentation gives the effect of gently turning the pages. The selected pages are of sketches with reference to the Linear City effect and Arcology designs.

Also displayed at this exhibition is part 3 of Paolo Soleri sketchbook #10, forty pages of original drawings and text.

Paolo Soleri’s original scroll drawing from the TWO SUNS series is placed against the wall, where a large mirror projects double size.
33 feet of this 67 feet long scroll are displayed in a case identically sized to the model case.

[photo: part of the C115 Two Suns scroll]
Excerpts from the 2 Suns brochure, 1976:
The 2 Suns Arcology encompasses a number of variations on the concept of small and large settlements showing an integration of five effects: The Urban Effect, Horticulture Effect, Greenhouse Effect, Chimney Effect and Apse Effect.
The aim of this integration is a more effective habitat, more responsive to the needs of society and more sensitive to the environmental, ecological, energetic boundaries within which we operate on this earth. The key to all of this is the Urban Effect, the fundamental drive of life. The “evolution of the city is viewed as the process which first of all causes the “non-living” to become alive, and then the living to become inventive, conscious, anticipatory, thinking, creational.

[photo: The LEAN LINEAR CITY model]
For background text or images on the Lean Linear City concept, please view the Flash presentation on our home page, or view Today@Arcosanti postings on 8/05, 8/07, 8/10, 8/12 and 8/14/2009.
We will continue this report on Friday, 12/4/2009 with additional images of the model.