Can cities be built not only to be harmonious with their environment, but to outperform traditional architecture? The residents of Arcosanti, Arizona, which is profiled in this video excerpt from the Atlantic, seem to think so. Part campus, part permanent dwelling, Arcosanti embraces the concept of "arcology," or the blending of ecology and architecture, to create a holistic, tightly engineered mini-metropolis:
The City of the Future
1 Comment
It sounds cool "our architecture works harder than your architecture" but its not clear what its actually practically and substantively stating about Arcosanti as compared with mainstream architecture.
This wording is something either Jeff Stein came up with in his effort to promote Arcosanti or what the staff of Archinect put together to try to describe Arcosanti in relation the video by The Atlantic?
As someone who lived and worked at Arcosanti for six years I don't feel the term resonates with me at all.
From my perspective an architecture that "works hard" is one that does a lot for very little cost and without sacrificing quality or a high quality experience on the part of the user.
This includes the idea that form vs function need not be either or but a fusion and coming together of both the idealistic and practical aspects of architecture and engineering in the building design.
Now when you consider the "meta-architecture" of a complex of buildings (such as which Arcosanti and the larger Arcology vision implies), larger issues arise in relation to planning a community or campus experience for residents, workers, visitors, citizens and for leisure experiences as well. Its not just about one or the other but a combination of factors in a multi-functional, mixed use built environment. Possibly in that way it could be said that at some level Arcosanti's architecture works harder than in conventional architecture?
However, I still feel that terminology implies a high standard of design and execution - world class - and that while Arcosanti did consider the challenges of a multi-use built environment and created a very unique aesthetic experience, it did not create a truly revolutionary process of building sustainable cities on a mass global scale that could be seen as highly integrative and holistic. In terms of Green Architecture, Green Design or Ecological Design that is what I could see a "hard working architecture" as doing; meaning that it is putting forward the idea on a practical level of incorporating cutting edge designs, practices and technologies to develop a compact habitat for living sustainably on this planet. Not just hard working architecture as a buzz word but looking seriously into how do we can do more in lives and live high quality, very successful lives with less stuff and resources per capita than we do now!
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