ARCOSANTI IN SANTA FE. Cosanti Foundation President Jeff Stein has returned from a speaking trip to the Santa Fe Institute, America's center for theoretical physics and research into complex adaptive systems. (Santa Fe, of course, is also home to one of Paolo Soleri’s first large architectural commissions, the Paolo Soleri Amphitheatre, still standing.) Invited there for research collaboration by Institute Distinguished Professor Geoffrey West, Stein’s presentation described the following:
“Abstract: Cities, and over half the world’s population living in and around them, are now clearly an integral part of earth’s ecology. Arcosanti, the urban experiment founded 40 years ago by architect Paolo Soleri in the Arizona desert, would place cities at the very center of that ecology, at the very center of the web of life on earth.
[photo: the seminar room at SFI]
[photo & text: Jeff Stein]
“While those who can afford it continue to trade nature for buildings and their energy needs, Soleri and his Cosanti Foundation have been investigating something very different for more than a generation. That exploration – and its accompanying construction work – continues to promote and develop an urban form (Arcology: Architecture and Ecology) that could foster interdependence and social and ecological well-being through density, frugality and a profound awareness of place. Meant to embody a holistic understanding of the city as a scalable organism, Arcosanti’s intent is to focus the twin evolutionary forces of miniaturization and complexity on the problem of urban design.”At the Santa Fe Institute Stein engaged in discussions with SFI President Jerry Sabloff, spent time with West’s team of post-doctoral fellows working on the physics of the growth of cities – “Cities, Scaling, and Sustainability” - and spoke with Nobel Laureate Murray Gell-mann, discoverer of the Quark, who participated in the Arcosanti Minds for History conference back in 1989.
Several architects from the Santa Fe area also attended Stein’s seminar, including Ed Mazria, executive director of Architecture 2030, the global organization working toward reducing fossil fuel use in new buildings to carbon neutrality by 2030.
[photos: Murray Gell-Mann's famous book and Jeff Stein]
[photo & text: Jeff Stein]
Posted by sue on January 25, 2012 9:15:12 AM MST
[photo: Paolo Soleri and Jeff Stein on October 19. 2011] 
On October 5. 2011, Arcosanti residents Matteo DiMichele and YoungSoo Kim visited the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to present the Arcology Theory as part of the ongoing evening lectures series hosted at the Harry Reid Center.
The lecture was called “Renaissance in the Desert: Paolo Soleri’s Arcology” and included an overview of Paolo Soleri’s main architectural projects, the Lean Alternative and the urban laboratory of Arcosanti.
The lecture was fallowed by Q&A session, which promoted an interesting debate on the negative effects of urban sprawl and hyper-consumption and on the possible application of the Arcology theory to cities such as Las Vegas.
Matteo DiMichele, Yangosoo Kim and UNLV Professor Giuseppe Natale, who invited Matteo and Youngsoo to present Paolo Soleri's work in this lecture series.
The 24th World Congress of Architecture organized by the Union of International Architects (UIA) has opened this weekend in Tokyo.
Prof. Itonaga, Nihon University, invited us to be a part of this event. The contents of the display materials (video and description board) were provided by Tomiaki Tamura, project coordinator.
Paolo Soleri's latest project "Lean Linear City: Arterial Arcology" is featured in one of the display kiosks in the Earth Catalogue section.
We continue the reports from 9/12 to 9/19/2011.
By doing so, protected land works as natural environment in the vicinity of urban environment to which inhabitants of Lean Linear City have access.
Compared to conventional city development, this proximity of nature is an advantage of the Lean Linear design. By just observing the nearby natural environment, people can experience the natural changes within urban environment, for instance, the change of seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
This experience of nature in movement is culminated by an urban park located in the middle of Lean Linear City as seen in the renderings. The color of the city will be following the color of trees and flowers in the urban park while different social activities could also be encouraged by each season.