Franz Nahrada is a global leader in the grassroots sustainability and ICT movements. His primary effort has been through a group called the Global Villages. Along the lines of what we called Holistic ICT4D at oneVillage Foundation, he sees the important role that information technologies play in promoting more holistic approaches to development.
He also saw the importance of Arcosanti in promoting this still vague and unformed idea called Arcology. While Paolo Soleri has come up with many designs for Arcology that are very large or mega scale, it makes sense to build something at a most basic level first before doing the larger effort. Nahrada says Arcology is a term for a new and revolutionary building concept developed by Italian architect-philosopher Paolo Soleri in the 50s of the last century. Soleri asked for the total elimination of the car from the city/human habitat and for "efficient density". To prove the viability of his theories and designs, he and his followers starting building Arcosanti, an experimental city in the deserts of Arizona, that after 33 years of construction work is still in the making.
Nahrada notes with frustration about how many ecovillage and permaculture people “neglect the fantastic opportunity Arcosanti constitutes for learning about living densely and light on this planet.” What’s needed is a global network that allows people to more richly experience life both from the virtual and physical realms. To achieve this we need a global network that better links people together with similar mindsets. There are many niches in sustainable development and global transformation and they involve many different perspectives and approaches.
The emergence of global systems that reward and validate diffuse and decentralized nodes of interactivity is important towards validating a diversity of approaches to sustainable development. A “global alliance of places striving towards sustainability, some urban, some rural, some trans-urban like Arcosanti” could constitute a massive and decentralized virtual sustainable university of the future.” He says the European Alliance of Telecottage Associations has an installed base of almost 1000 community learning centers spread all over Eastern Europe.
Content is needed to promote ecologically and socially sustainable shaping of local living spaces. He sees this as taking form as a global "Open Repository of Models and Ideas." This is a opportunity to provide useful content for people who have open minds and who are flexible in relation to change. The viability and relevance of Arcology theory will depend on its acceptance as a practical approach towards "the shaping of local living spaces," reflecting the needs of the people that live in these spaces while also considering environmental impacts. The development of databases along with methodologies can help us to understand how to increase human well being by measuring improvements in how different approaches and technologies can improve human potential while retaining a sense of local identity and culture.