Today is my last day of the workshop and at Arcosanti.

Last three weeks I was working at the Archives. The Soleri Archives is the department that keeps Paolo Soleri’s history. There are his scrolls, drawings, sketches, photos, books and everything that somehow relates to Paolo Soleri here.
On one of my first days I had a tour with Sue here to see how the Archives system works. Everything has a certain number and special conditions for keeping it. Then Anita showed me how to label the press materials about Paolo Soleri or his works, and how to work with the bibliography database. So I started to work. During my three weeks I was responsible for Today at Arcosanti Blog that was very fun and interesting for me. Then I worked with zoning and planning documents of Arcosanti (dated 1960-1980) and put them into a digital database. And also I added to the database some publications in Russian about Paolo Soleri, Arcosanti and Arcology.

During these weeks Sue and Anita were preparing materials for exhibition and I was surprised about the process, how scrupulous it was. They assessed Paolo Soleri’s scrolls, inch by inch and located damages (measured and drew them). So the museum, insurance company and artwork carrier then would have the whole notion about everything. And David was working with printed materials, so the colors of printed scroll now look like the original one. And they have special boxes for every drawing and special wrappings, and maybe these are usual things but I learned about them for the first time.
I saw an archives work from the inside, and I was really surprised about the scale and importance of what they are doing for keeping the history and knowledge. Thank you!

Let us return to the last couple of weeks of our workshop to talk about preparation and the process of pouring concrete.

During the third week of our workshop we started to prepare the place for a future slab: smoothing the surface, framing the form, and making a proper ground level. On the day of the pour we got up very early to mix the concrete mass. David explained to us what are the proportions and how the process should be done.
We started with putting cement into the mixer, then gravel, sand and water. And in some minutes, when the mass became homogeneous David showed us how to make a slump test. We put some concrete into a special cone and then took the cone off, and measured a height of concrete mass. It was good enough for pouring so Jeff could drive the concrete mixer down to the Construction Site.

On the Construction Site everything was ready for casting. We were divided into small groups, so some of us helped with the concrete mixer, others with smoothing the concrete and checking the proper position of wired mesh in the concrete mass, a couple of people went with a big beam along the frame to make the surface of a slab flat enough. When the concrete mass was poured into the frame and had set a little; we started finishing the surface with trowels.

The last part was spraying the slab with a special liquid to seal moisture into the concrete. The work was completely done before lunch and after that we watched two movies made by ACI about mixers, slump tests and casting.

It was very interesting and important for us to try something by hand, to see the whole process, to understand how material works, because most of us know construction just in theory. And the practical knowledge we can’t get at the universities.

This continues the report from 8/20/10 of workshop participant Marina Sapunova.

One of the most important parts of Arcosanti is a sensible use of solar energy. The Arcosanti location with a lot of sun all year round allows for different experiments with solar panels. There are some different types of them here.

Last week Nathan showed us Arcosanti’s panels and explained the main principles of how they work. There are several PV (Photovoltaic) Systems and a Solar Water Heating System here. And after theory introduction we went around to see how it works in reality.

The Solar Water Heating panels are situated on the ledge of the south-east slope of the hill. As Nathan told us before, the construction consists of many pipes that provide water; connected to a cover panel, which is made in such a way as to accept sunlight to come in, but keeps the sunlight from getting back out and in this way it can reflect many times from an inside surface of the panel. The choice of the proper angle of the panels depends upon what time of the year you mostly use hot water. An advantage of using solar water heating system is that it deals directly with the sun and doesn’t need electricity for heating the water. It means more efficiency.

And there are also several PV panel systems at Arcosanti that generate electricity from the sun energy: at the parking lot, on the roof of the Lab Building, near the Dorms in the East Crescent Complex, and under the glass windows of the Red Room greenhouse. And there are several places with collectors and controllers for these panels. These modules are mostly used for night lighting (along the trails) and partly for dorms lighting. Though it couldn’t now cover all the expenses on regularly used electricity, it’s still a large part of the experience, research and practice of solar panels.

Nowadays it is no more a secret that we have problems with fuel resources and ecology but a lot of people still don’t pay attention to the natural forces resource (sun, wind, water) and Arcosanti could be a good platform for research in this way. And of course what Nathan told us was very important to remind us as architectural, engineering students to think about the future, pollution and limits of natural sources, to be partly responsible for it.

This is the continued report of Workshop participant and architecture student Marina Sapunova from Russia. Marina received a grant from UC Berkeley to come to Arcosanti.

The next evening the Foundry organized a night bronze pouring. We saw it once during the day, but it couldn’t compete with what we saw at night. They poured bronze in total silence with very quiet nice background music. It seems to be impossible to turn such a hard and complicated process into a romantic evening. But they did.

There were also two times during the past weeks when we had a chance to try our talents for creating something by hand. First we had a Silt Cast Workshop, where we did plaster tiles. The process took us no more than an hour but gave us a lot of fun. All we had to do was to create a silt basis with (negative) relief, paint it with colors and then pour plaster on it. When it became dry we washed our tiles and got a funny handmade tile.

And then on Monday Rebecca and Brian taught us how to work with ceramic bells on the Ceramic Bell Carving Workshop. We’ve got two bells, one to try different techniques of carving and then the finished one, which would be fired next week in a kiln. We are excited to see what will come out of it.

That’s one of the most amazing things about Arcosanti, that we always mix work and rest, so the days go very fast and are never the same. But you still have enough time for everything.

Workshop participant and architecture student Marina Sapunova from Russia, received a grant from UC Berkeley to come to Arcosanti. This is part of her report on workshop activities.

Our workshop started three weeks ago. And I can’t remember if since that time we had just one day without any adventures.
The first week was full of lectures and trips. One of the most interesting things was the natural walk with Roger. We went round Arcosanti; and he told us many interesting and funny stories about plants and animals here, about the Indians and cowboys, about the nature and about weather. He told us how people lived here long-long time ago. We hiked to the one of the mesas near Arcosanti and saw the ruins of Indian dwellings.

Besides that each department here in Arcosanti made a presentation about their work; that was a chance for us to see what kind of work people do here and maybe to decide what is more interesting for us.
We saw the Archives, the Ceramics Apse, and the Foundry, Maintenance, the Metal shop, the recycling site and many other departments.

Also we had a nice tour of some of residence's houses here. And by the end of the week we met Paolo Soleri in the Archives to discuss some questions about Archology and Arcosanti.
That was a very important introduction of Arcosanti, because the first time you come here, it’s hard to understand how this whole system works together.

On the first weekend we (some of the workshoppers) decided to go to the Grand Canyon and Montezuma Castle.
It was a very nice trip taking into consideration the fact that during our first week at Arcosanti we got to know a lot about the history of the South and the South-West part of the United States.
We drove to the Grand Canyon and took a walk there from Hermit’s rest point to the Desert View Point, so-called South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
It was still the time of Monsoon season here and the weather was cool with drizzle and fog in the morning; but in a while fog started to disappear and we saw the spectacular views of the Grand Canyon.
That was like an amazing theatrical performance when the wings started to open and you could see the scenery.

Well, the day after we went to Sedona to see the Red Rock Valley and then to the Montezuma Castle. Undoubtedly they all are the very impressive monuments of the South-West so we had a very good time there. Our second week was like an introduction to work. We spent three days on the construction site and then had a two-day Field Trip to Phoenix.
And what about evenings, normally it is our free time. We usually like to watch sunsets and sunrises on the roof of the Vaults or from the nearest mesa, go to the swimming pool, draw, chat to each other, and organize any activities. Here we have very nice library, gym and music room.

During the first week we had a music concert at the Octagon in the camp. Basically it depends upon your preferences how to spend your free time, from playing the piano to watching the stars.
And one evening our Italian participants decided to organize a dinner with pizza. So they cooked five or six original flavor pizzas and that was really one of the liveliest dinners! Thank you!

Marina's report continues on 8/20/10.

[photo: the workshop group tours Cosanti, Ceramics area]

This report was put together by workshop participant Marina Sapunova from Russia. Marina is spending three weeks of her workshop as part of the Soleri Archives team.

The second week of our workshop ended with an amazing two-days Field Trip to Phoenix. The first point was the Dome House in Cave Creek, designed by Paolo Soleri in 1950. The house is made like a unified interconnected space with passive heating (in winter) and cooling (in summer). Mary Hoadley told us that in the 1950's it was just a naked desert around and nobody wanted to live here, but now this area is much inhabited, but it’s still easy to see this house from a long way off because of its notable dome roof.

[photo: the workshop group tours Cosanti, pool]

The next stop was the pedestrian bridge in Scottsdale, where we had a tour on its building site and Mary with Rodger told us some information about this project, constructions, next steps of design; and they showed us principal points of the future structure. Now they are working on finishing fence walls and preparing bases for two huge pipes.

[photo: Taliesin]

After that we went to Taliesin, The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation ...

[photo: the workshop group at Taliesin]

... and got a wonderful tour with Frank there. He told us many interesting things about Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture, about history of Taliesin and its surroundings, about Paolo Soleri’s work there; we went through the main buildings, saw the planning office, concert hall, personal rooms; and then Frank showed us some of their student’s shelters, which are solitary situated around Taliesin.

[photo: Cosanti, breakfast at Mary and Rogers residence, the earthhouse]

Then we spent a night at Cosanti. This place is much more different than Arcosanti. All those curved structures seem to be more private and detailed; all the spaces are situated closer to each other and have very precise design. Sometimes you can hardly define borders between interior and exterior spaces. And by simply following the trail you enjoy the always changing environment.
The next morning we had a tour with Rodger round Cosanti, with lots of very interesting stories about constructions, buildings, history, projects and Paolo Soleri. He knows everything there. Well, first we had breakfast in the Earth House, where Mary and Rodger live, so it was both breakfast and our tour starting point.
Then we saw the Cosanti gallery, apses with the foundry and ceramics, the office building, where there is the huge attractive model of Arcosanti 1969, bridge models and many other models.


After that we met Paolo Soleri at the Cat-Cast House and could ask him any questions. I guess everybody was glad to have such an informal dialog with Paolo Soleri.

By the end of the day Mary drove us to see the Biltmore Hotel in Scottsdale and the new Phoenix Library.
It could hardly be described as interesting as it really was, but we spent two days, saturated with a lot of information and impressions.

For some years now discussions and plans have come and gone, have been revived and changed, about a new Highway interchange at Cordes Junction.
Some of the later part of the discussions and exploration have included an invitation to Paolo Soleri to design some of the planned bridge abutments and bridge panels.
And it looks like things are finally happening, construction is schedule to start in January – February 2011.

Last week, an 'Arcosanti Aesthetics meeting' was called by VASTCO/SUNDT, the construction company that has been awarded the contract of constructing the new interchange of Highway 17 [Phoenix to Flagstaff] and Hwy 69 [Cordes Junction to Prescott] at Cordes Junction.
The meeting took place at Arcosanti with Paolo Soleri and Cosanti Foundation staff Roger Tomalty, Mary Hoadley and Tomiaki Tamura, with a second meeting scheduled at Cosanti. Under discussion is possible silt work with Soleri designs.
Tomiaki Tamura reports, that among other things, seven bridges are planned, as well as the lowering of part of the freeway by 10 feet.

Participants at the meeting were
Greg Gentsch, ADOT – Prescott District Engineer
Alvin Stump, ADOT – Precott District
George Wallace, ADOT – Project Manager
Jermaine Hannon, FHWA
Lee Busenbark, HDR – Roadway Design
Jim Christensen – HDR – Consultaqnt Project Manager
Hedy Bagherpour – Vastco/Sundt
Brent Freeman - Vastco/Sundt
Steve Schmitt - Vastco/Sundt
Ed Van Beek - Vastco/Sundt
Joseph Saledad – ADOT – Roads IDF

We will continue this report when news warrants it.

The latest group of ECOSA students visited Arcosanti last week. Here we see the group in a silt-cast class with Arcosanti sculptor Cliff Hersted.

The ECOSA Institute, located in Prescott, AZ, was founded in 1996 by Arcosanti alumnus Tony Brown.

The unique 16-week certificate programs offer, through field trips, lectures, guest speakers and real world projects, an integrated understanding of sustainable design- from architecture to permaculture, product design to urban and community planning. Client-based, real world design projects serve to teach holistic thinking ''in action" to bring the threads of sustainability together into practical solutions.

Tony Brown's vision for the ECOSA Institute was formulated over a period of years during the 1980’s and 90’s.

His dedication to issues of sustainability and ecological design developed after joining Paolo Soleri’s Cosanti Foundation and working with the Italian architect on his conceptual designs for a new vision of urban settlements.
Brown worked on the resulting urban prototype, Arcosanti, as architect-in-residence supervising both design work and construction.

During his time studying with Soleri, coordinating the Arcosanti project, and teaching the philosophy of the arcology concept to workshop participants, Brown began to cultivate his own vision of an ecological future and the new approach to design education he saw as necessary to achieve it. “It became clear that only a design education that was comprehensive, interactive, and innovative could bring any understanding of a subject as complex as ecological design.”

After leaving the Arcosanti project, Brown began to explore these ideas through a series of classes he developed and taught at Prescott College, a four-year college focused on the liberal arts and the environment. This opportunity to experiment with teaching methods convinced him that experiential education was the best way to reach students and to personalize learning.

“What I realized was there were two approaches to sustainable design: one, teach environmentalists to be designers or two, teach designers to be environmentalists. For both, a strong foundation in design is key, as is developing a commitment to sustainability. The challenge was to find a new educational methodology that encompassed both at once.”

In 1996 Brown formally founded the ECOSA Institute in Prescott, Arizona, and in 1998 the organization was granted 501(C)3 status. The goal for the institute is to bring innovative thinking, new pedagogical models and an interdisciplinary approach to a design education which uses nature as its underlying model. “If we are to base our designs on the complexities of nature then it is absurd to educate designers in a compartmentalized, linear setting. To educate designers who can integrate human aspirations and nature’s systems we must model their education on the greatest designer of all – nature itself.”

Antony Brown has over 40 years experience working on sustainable architecture and urban design. He has taught sustainable design and planning at the college level and has lectured at universities around the United States and abroad. As Director of the ECOSA Institute he continues to develop an innovative new approach to educating students and graduates in the role of sustainability in design.

He has attracted a number of leading architects, designers, scientists and writers to the ECOSA Institute to meet with students, review their work and discuss their approach to sustainable issues. Students now come to the ECOSA Institute from around the world to supplement their design education. Mr. Brown has worked as an architect in London, Boston and San Francisco, has been a magazine editor and written numerous articles for magazines for which he has won press club awards.

He has received awards for his book illustrations including illustrations in "Nature Notes" and "The Ecology of the Grand Canyon." He founded an award-winning graphic design company and has an architectural practice where he has promoted concepts of sustainability throughout his career.

See the ecosainstitute.org website for more information.

Our web-masters, Laurence Chave and Frederick Michaud from Switzerland, are nearing the end of their work-visit and have designed a fabulous new website for Arcosanti.

The website launch is still some time away but training for the new users has already started.

Laurence and Frederick presented a training session in content creation and management on Friday, August 6 and will be available for questions for several more days before they leave us.

Laurence and Frederick are alumni, first introduced in the August 4. 2010 entry for today@Arcosanti, and attended the April 12. 2009 workshop.

Thank you Laurence and Frederick!

Meeting participants [from left] Anita Baker [Soleri archives], Laurence Chave and Frederick Michaud, Mark Pearce [web master], Travis Neal [network administrator] and in the foreground Tomiaki Tamura [Cosanti Foundation Director], also Sue Kirsch, taking the photo [Soleri archives].

Soleri Archives is preparing for an upcoming exhibition at the SMOCA Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. The exhibition will feature a collection of Soleri Bridge drawings and models, as well as two scrolls. One of the scrolls has never been exhibited and was only recently photographed for the first time in its entirety.

Two staff members from ART SOLUTION Art Handlers, Michael King and Joerael Eliott, arrived to pack and transport the first batch of works to be framed for the exhibit.

Each item was carefully scrutinized and individual condition reports established.

The exhibition will open on October 9. 2010 and continue until January 23. 2011.
We will report more about this exhibition in future.

Welcome back to alumni and excellent web-masters Laurence Chave and Frederick Michaud from Switzerland.
They returned to Arcosanti for a few weeks during their summer break, to work with Tomiaki Tamura on a new and more accessible Arcosanti web-site.
Laurence and Frederick attended the April 12. 2009 workshop.

GROUP MOTION has arrived for a one-week workshop.
Led by Manfred Fischbeck and Brigitta Herrmann, Group Motion workshops combine structures of improvisation, movement meditations, and contact dance.
This company has come to Arcosanti for week-long workshops almost every year since 1991.

The Group Motion Company observes and expresses the human experience through movement. Each dance becomes a world of its own, transforming the stage into a ritual space to explore life's mysteries and journeys. Group Motion finds inspriation in universal sources - from myth, nature, and social issues to relationships and everyday adventures.

Group Motion was originally founded in 1962 as Gruppe Motion Berlin, a chamber dance company evolving from the Mary Wigman School of Dance. In 1968, under the direction of Brigitte Herrmann, Helmut Gottschield, and Manfred Fischbeck, the company relocated to Philadelphia and was quick to receive critical success. Group Motion came under the sole artistic and executive direction of Manfred Fishbeck in 1989 and has continued to develop within the forefront of contemporary dance, working with nationally and internationally known choreographers and artists.