This past summer’s Archives and Construction Workshop, organized by Education Manager Taylor Morgan, carried a strong theme of history, preservation, and revitalization. Both workshop teams centered their focus on some of the oldest structures within an area known as “Camp.”
A Brief History of Camp
Camp’s cube houses and iconic Octagon Community Space. (The Cosanti Foundation Archives)
Soleri’s seminal work Arcology: The City in the Image of Man detailed a theoretical plan of a city based on Arcology in 1968. Only a short while later in 1970, Soleri and a team of staff and volunteers first set up a base camp—hence the name—beside the Agua Fria River to mount the initial construction of this novel urban prototype. It was here at Camp that everyone lived during the day when not working on the construction up the hill.
Left: Volunteers assemble the cubes that would become Camp’s lodging. Right: Panels for cubes were silt-cast in the banks of the Agua Fria. (Photo: The Cosanti Foundation)
Within the first few years, they cast a collection of simple concrete cubes to provide temporary housing and facilities for the people who gave their time, energy, and labor to the monumental effort of building the first arcology.
Left: Camp is located on the banks of the Agua Fria. Right: Volunteers help to transform concrete cubes into a living village. (Credit: The Cosanti Foundation)
Over the years, communal spaces and other structures were added, and the cubes served as housing for workshoppers, volunteers, and residents who desired a more immersive experience in the desert environment. First attempts at growing food blossomed into a full agricultural program, including fields growing Hopi corn and beans and other crops, a food forest, and a Camp greenhouse.
Left: The greenhouses provided residents with plentiful food, even in winter. Right Upper: The original Food Forest and gardens. Right Lower: Greenhouses are later added, along with expansions to agricultural fields. (Credit: The Cosanti Foundation)
Even though Camp provides less insulation from the harshness of the desert, many workshop alumni remember their experience starting out in Camp with great fondness, some even preferring to stay there when they return for a visit.
The Summer 2024 Workshop
Director of Site Management Scott Riley demonstrates how the Arcology’s electric and water usage are monitored. This data helps Arcosanti in its mission to be environmentally responsible. (Photo Credit: Taylor Morgan)
Participants in this summer’s Construction Workshop were guided by Construction and Maintenance Manager Taylor Morganson in working to revitalize structures at Camp as well as working to care for residential and community areas in the main Arcology. They learned how the shifts in climate have affected life in Arcosanti over fifty years and strategized with the Maintenance Team on how to adapt the structures to more extreme weather events.
Left: Construction Workshoppers help pave the way to the future by restoring walkways in Camp. Middle: Workshoppers experience a hands-on welding demo. Right: Workshoppers transport materials down to Camp. (Photos: Bradley Bownman)
The Archives workshop participants worked with the Archives Manager Sue Kirsch to mount a small exhibition of laminated photos of the initial camp construction in a public location. They also sorted, numbered and digitized historical photographs and documents. Sue Kirsch guided Archives workshoppers to use some of the digitized historical media to develop materials, such as booklets and posters, that inspire and educate the work of Arcology on site.
Left: Sue Kirsch leads Workshoppers in utilizing archival photos of Camp’s early years to educate and inspire ongoing site-specific revitalization efforts. (Photo Credit: Jen Thornton) Right: Workshoppers enjoy experiential learning with material rarely seen by the public. Sue Kirsch explains how early bell sales at Cosanti were documented with a hand drawn sketch of each unique bell. (Photo Credit Eddie Martin)
Both groups of workshoppers participated in the hands-on experience of using modern technology to interface with historic works so that this project can continue to survive for future generations to come. As Arcosanti is now over fifty years old, historical preservation of the experimental structures remains just as vital as constructing new buildings to add to the ever-growing Arcology.
Residents of Arcosanti give Workshoppers an inside look of what it’s really like to live inside an Arcology during the Housing Tour. (Photo Credit: Eddie Martin)
We are proud to welcome eight new workshoppers into our global community of alumni!
Summer 2024 Workshoppers receive a graduation ceremony in the Vaults. (Photo Credit: Lance Cope)
Author: Eddie Martin | Layout: Eddie Martin & Jen Thornton | Additional Text: Jen Thornton
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