1975-1977 was key point of the Two Suns Arcosanti/Arcology development. Xerox Corporation had sponsored a major supporter of Soleri's work at the time and this had included a Soleri exhibition, featuring a series of new Arcology designs that promoted the concept of a sustainable urban habitat and renewable energy.
The project was called Two Suns Arcology: The Cities Energized by the Sun.
During this time, the Arcosanti Master Plan went through a major overhaul to reflect this new methodology which included upping the proposed completed population to 5,000.
In 1979 a Technology Review corespondent spent 4 months at Arcosanti and wrote the following report that helps us to understand the context upon which the Two Suns concept was developed:
Arcosanti, the first “arcology” (Soleri’s word), is now six buildings and several arches that grace a desert mesa 70 miles north of Phoenix. This will be shadowed by a second design, the Two Suns Arcology. …
The plans for the Two Suns Arcology, completed about three years ago, show that it will take greater advantage of new developments in solar energy than the first, cathedral-like model. Two Suns will be “energized by the sun,” grow its own food, recycle its waste for agricultural nutrients, and have its own, largely self-contained economic system. While Arcosanti would employ some sophisticated hardware, Soleri emphasizes that “the application of the technology will be very different.” The hemispheric-shaped building will face south … its roof and structural overhangs tilted like two “blades” which will act as huge, passive solar collectors during the winter months when the sun is low in the sky and as providers of shade during the summer months of high sun. …
Electrical energy will be provided by whatever solar-cell technology is available at the time of major construction. The specifics of Two Suns’ transportation network have not been worked out; but as an outspoken critic of the “asphalt nightmare,” Soleri has designed a miniaturized city that does not include cars, in which rapid vertical transportation will tie things closely together. …
Though Soleri’s holistic approach suggests intriguing possibilities, designing and building the main structure of the arcology awaits massive funding.
The funding has yet to materialize, and today the project remains unfinished, with only a few dozen full-time residents. Yet the site draws thousands of tourists and volunteers who invest their time, effort, and money in the project for weeks or months at a time. Soleri, who received the National Design Museum’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006, is still an active presence at Arcosanti. But even in 1979, he was resigned to the fact that he would not live to see his dream fulfilled.
At age 60, Soleri has begun to acknowledge that his city-in-the-sky may not be completed in his lifetime. But his vision of a human environment that produces its own resources, rather than eating up someone else’s, is in our future. It is Soleri’s insistence that man must evolve cities that give new life to the land and to the people in them.
References:
Two Suns Arcology A Concept for Future Cities : [exhibition] Xerox Square Exhibit Center http://books.google.com/books/about/Two_Suns_Arcology.html?id=B8-hHAAACAAJ
Arcosanti Wikipedia Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcosanti
In 1979 a Technology Review corespondent spent 4 months at Arcosanti http://www.technologyreview.com/yearsago/412217/a-dream-in-the-desert/