About Arcosanti
The Arcosanti Project
In 1970, The Cosanti Foundation began building Arcosanti, an experimental town in the high desert of Arizona, 70 miles north of metropolitan Phoenix. An ambitious project envisioned as an experiment in living frugally and with a limited environmental footprint, Arcosanti is an attempt at a prototype arcology, integrating the design of architecture with respect to ecology. Based on a set of four core values that include Frugality and Resourcefulness, Ecological Accountability, Experiential Learning, and Leaving a Limited Footprint. The Cosanti Foundation operates Arcosanti as a counterpoint to mass consumerism, urban sprawl, unchecked consumption of natural resources, and social isolation.
The iconic structures at Arcosanti are designed to be multi-use to extend their utility and usefulness in facilitating the many performances, workshops, and cultural programming that happen year in and year out. Throughout its 50-year history, thousands of volunteers have participated in constructing Arcosanti through intensive six-week-long workshops where they learned by doing and developed a uniquely specialized set of skills. Close to 8,000 people have given their time and talents by taking part in building Arcosanti.
“The problem I am confronting is the present design of cities only a few stories high, stretching outward in unwieldy sprawl for miles. As a result, they literally transform the earth; turning farms into parking lots, wasting enormous amounts of time and energy transporting people, goods, & services over their expanses. My solution is urban implosion rather than explosion.”
–Paolo Soleri, 1977
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“I originally set out to figure out why Soleri’s dream had died, but by the time I left Arcosanti, it was apparent that arcology is far from dead. If anything, the architects of the future are just getting started.”
– Daniel Oberhaus, VICE, 2017
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