USA Arizona: ArcoSanti - mini documentary (Paolo Soleri)

[knifeofspaghetti]

>Small in its being

That actually looks pretty fucking big.

[jagbbk]

does anyone knows the background music?

[lizismestupid]

@jagbbk The song is called What a Difference a Day Makes. There's a playlist with different artists singing it, so you could probably listen to figure out who did this version.

[Ceckis]

It was a bit disappointing...so much concrete which works fine for the summer, but poor isolation during winter? It is a very romantic idea, and as a concept Soleri's proposal on the linear cities is of my preference, but in US...where they worship their individuality, this idea will never depart.

[Abraham009100]

Paolo Soleri is a great dreamer,Poet and a Philosopher of Architecture !

[notmybelly]

Hippies!

[hobo8675309]

@notmybelly not hippies, hipsters.

[UKNOWTHEIROUTTHEIR]

arcology

[palttrog2]

AMMMAAAAZZZZIIIINNNNGGGG!!!!

[Spacedancer42]

Arco does have to be experienced to be understood. I did the work exchange program and I plan on moving back for a long time. One of the most beautiful things about this place is that there are no deadlines as with corporate Arch. This architecture grows with human hands at human scale, in an artistic way that makes you want to celebrate each day of your life. When I'm there I feel there is a good reason behind my work. Arco allows me to let go of anxiety and just be happy and healthy.

[Homecountry]

@Spacedancer42 Bro thats all well and good but my question is this - if this is such a great place and a great idea why is it only 3% complete (97% INCOMPLETE) after over 30 years? Why does this video only have 14K views when it should have millions? Because Paolo does not understand the phrase "gradual progress" and that it can only happen with ideas that are FEASIBLE. What?! Yes, feasible. He could've done a lot of good but instead did nothing at all (3%?), which seems like a tremendous waste.

[Spacedancer42]

@Homecountry

Perhaps progress is a relative term? True, only 3% of the project is built, however modern machinery and mass consumption has made the planet polluted, over- populated, and blighted. Perhaps progress is to slow down and not incorporate corporate sponsorship in order to earn fast cash to sell an idea- ahem change an idea. The idea of using less, and enjoying life instead of competing for profit is a new for North America- I call it progress. I believe in Paolo, That's what I can do.

[rbresca]

The bronze appears out of nowhere, of course. What a joke.

[Steelweaver52]

I loved this comment from the narrator: "The population is constantly changing, which gives the inhabitants a chance to meet lots of different people." In other words, even the most idealistic of the greens can only stand to live there for short periods of time.

This model of an environmentally-sensitive community is a place where few want to be, not even hardcore environmentalists. The upside: it's a valuable peek into our future when the grand vision of the greens becomes realized.

[Spacedancer42]

This is the only place in the world I want to live and I have traveled to the other side of it. I work in a great paying arch. job and it does not give me the pleasure that volunteering at Arco does. Yes people leave, but many come back to visit. It's not a question of if they want to stay- sometimes its a question on if they can stay. Sometimes student loans can pull you out of a country real quick

[Homecountry]

@Steelweaver52 its a valuable peek into economic ruin and failed dreams (3% complete? more like 97% incomplete...). Its what happens when you let idealism get in the way of rational decision making - rather than an executable plan, a time frame for success, and solid investors, you have a 30 year old ruin with nothing to show for it. How do they expect arcology - an otherwise ingenious concept - to be taken seriously by the rest of the world?

[mikejackson4ever]

Hi, everyone. Conservative Libertarian capitalist individualist here. I've read extensively on this, and "New Urbanization", and though they tend to be liberal ideas, here's the thing. I LOVE THIS! I think it's really cool. The only thing we differ on is this: LET this new paradigm shift in city planning and living happen- don't MAKE it happen. Like myself, there are many far-right types who would willingly buy into and live in this sort of setting- just don't make it illegal not to.

[mikejackson4ever]

With that said, how would I go about finding a way to try living at Arcosanti for a period of time? I would love to try it out. And, because I'm a libertarian, this (if allowed to be participated in VOLUNTARILY) would fit in perfectly with my classical liberal, Jeffersonian ideals of individual, agrarian property ownership and autonomy- I mean, self-sufficient living, in which individuals provide all their own utilities, grow their own food, and do not need the government to take care of them.

[mikejackson4ever]

People talk about Americans not having an endemic culture of their own, as a result of us not living off of and becoming imbued with our native lands, and I would say, first of all- before farm subsidies and Roosevelt's land-seizing, destruction of private property rights, and the industrial revolution driving us off our farms and packing us into tight little cities and suburbs- we did have an endemic soil-based culture. We could restore that, and many would start to, willingly...

[mikejackson4ever]

... and what I'd suggest would create a conducive environment which would ALLOW this to happen (and I would caution you progressive, social engineering obsessed, collectivist, centralized government, marxist/socialist/and/or/commu­nist leftist liberal democrats that it CANNOT BE FORCED ON AMERICANS) would be the elimination of taxes but sales tax, deregulation of private property usage, re-appropriation of government lands BACK TO we the people, and scrapping of eminent domain laws. Do this...

[mikejackson4ever]

... and you will see an organic, grassroots revolution in the way we the people of the United States of America live. You will see a solid, genuine new era American culture take root and develop. I mean one in which we Americans raise our families, live and die, on our own property parcels, growing our own food, perhaps eventually spawning entirely original AMERICAN CUISINE, decreased driving and gas-consumption, decreased "McLiving", in short something we haven't seen in a very long time.

[mikejackson4ever]

Remember, we on the right side of the political spectrum are the ones you make fun of for building cabins out in the woods, learning to hunt, shoot, fish, grow our own food, live off the land, homeschool- you know, the things for which you stigmatize us as "Ted Kazinsky's", "Ruby Ridgers", "Branch Davidians", etc- you liberals think you're the party of stopping the break-neck merry-go-round of strip-mall consumption- think about it, though, we want Jeffersonian agrarian living. Make it possible.

[mikejackson4ever]

All of a sudden, the bill of rights will make a lot more sense. When people rarely ever have to leave their own acreage, the sentiment of "Do whatever you want to do, as long as you hurt no one else"- the spirit of the bill of rights- will be in its natural habitat. Gun rights make a lot more sense when you're out on an acreage, whereas firing a gun in a tightly packed neighborhood or city is likely to result in collateral damage. Or do liberals not like people to never have to leave their land?

[mikejackson4ever]

My understanding of the liberal approach to New Urbanization is to structure zoning and building regulations so tightly it will force people to live in and build the "pre-automobile" style cities (the idea being that of European cities, where everything can be walked to within the community, due to them being built before cars stretched us apart), well, implement it through the free market by ALLOWING it to happen. Don't implement it at gunpoint, or it WILL fail. People (conservatives) want this

[davalprof]

arcosanti is the laboratory most representative of siglo xx, but now is a great oportunity of knowledge for the siglo XXI....it's great...

[reefrunner9]

It probably won't hurt too much, turn off the T.V. and indeed, go outside, wait the Sundown and look Skyward.....

[daddyleon]

Is this spoken by a Dutchman?

[moty34]

god forbid!!

[daddyleon]

lol, but it sounds 'a bit' like it.

[GoopyProduction]

sounds colombian

[gijsveerhoek]

hehe yes :-). Could you hear it?

cheers,

'the voice' haha

[candyazz28]

I think that if the world is going to go green like they say that they want to, then they would take a good look at this place. These people have been here for a long time living the green life and the world could get a few good ideas on how communities could live to respect each other and the planet.

[bentley78]

I experienced it and i dont understand...just seemed like a place for a bunch of new age and burnt out hippies to commune together while they dream about ideas that wont work for the amount of people on this planet.....LAME

[mikejackson4ever]

Read my extensive entry above for how this could be implemented through the elimination of all taxes, but sales tax, through the free market, through the deregulation of our every day lives. What the hippies want is to tax people into poverty as a way to cripple the ability for urban sprawl (the leap-frog game suburbanites play trying to live at the edge of ever-expanding cities, to get away from crime) and force us into these communities. BTW, this would work, even with the current population.

[iszite]

i went here last summer, it was AWESOME

[sts3234]

Do they grow their own veggies?

[ArtemisDaFowl]

I've just got back from this place. I had the pleasure of experiencing their Star Theator. You sit at the top of the stage dome and gaze at a sky completely devoid of light pollution, while the inhabitants also put on a light show on the face of the neighboring cliff face. Great alternative to TV. :)

[naviztirf]

Hughtub: I respectfully disagree with your views on who lives there. It is true that some people there are as you describe, but many aren't, and in fact most are there for short periods of time from all over the world and with differing cultures. A lot are architectural students and thinkers who go there to learn. I even met Francis Coppola there once....

[i742]

the arcology city is more than this. But Arcosanti is a beginning!

[stelz66]

wow, i'm going the next change i get

[SEElovEverywhere]

i am surprised that you wanted to post this as it is very professionally done but not a very positive slant but since you posted it i will share it with my 3960 friends on myspace. i am very impressed with what you do! Namasté, nan

[unrlblefrnd]

hughtub, the reason places like arcosanti are populated by individuals like the ones you denigrate, is because conservative folk (such as yourself perhaps?) are too concerned with appearances to participate in something so marginal. Maybe you're a volunteer of the year, city greener, brilliant engineer, etc.

But my guess is that you are not nearly as involved with radical change in any practical way, as these people are??? They have a solar-powered city- what do you have?

[margenna]

There are no "useless eaters". I can't believe the rubbish that gets put on the web sometimes!

[margenna]

I believe it is very valuable ideas that Arcosanti is based upon. Those people look and sound interesting, well-disposed, of good intentions and sound attitude.

I wish I could visit them at one time or another.

I believe Paolo Soleri is a worthy pupil and follower of Frank Lloyd Wright.

[cjudith465]

why didn't we get a demonstration of the ArcoSanti bells?

[hughtub]

The people living there are NOTHING like what is needed to actually make the ideals of a city with environmentally friendly architecture. They're just hippy idiots doing it cause it's a movement to join. Piercings and dyed hair. His goal can only be achieved with a more radical decrease in useless eaters and homogenous population. The Japanese and 1950s America could do it, but not multicultural America.

[johnnyecho]

:) i was just there - thats what i was thinking....