Sustainability and Arcology
It is only sensible that some of us, as we begin to grasp an understanding of the human reality, will struggle to create more effective ways from which to observe reality from a benevolent, compassionate, whole systems approach, minimizing human impacts by concentrating human populations within dense and compact urban areas. One way to do this might be instructing people on how to create alternative economic systems.
Ecological principles and understandings will be front and center within the norms and values of this city/community/habitat and because of a growing human need to minimize the ecological footprint of the modern industrial civilization. I seeArcology at Arcosanti as a form of aspiring ecovillage that is seeks to eventually manifest on a much grander scale becoming a fully featured ecocity.
To advance the goals of the Arcology and/or lean society vision, which center on the need to create a lean (sustainable) society, in the 21st century and beyond, bold new thinking will be required to transform our society into one that is in balance with nature.
Regardless of whether they call themselves Arcologies or not, ecocities and ecovillages will more fully represent the “urban effect,” because they will design themselves to be ecologically and socially consistent–having nearly “total recall” of how their actions affect other peoples, the surrounding environment and the future state of things. They will have embedded within their cultural and organizational identity, a total commitment to integrating energy, efficiency and ecological process within an aesthetic design that expresses an irreverence for life.
The Arcosanti concept despite its flaws and shortcomings is useful because it provides us with a unique vision of what an integrated urban space might begin to look like. Yet in order to persuade the mainstream public of the vital need to change their resource intensive lifestyles, they have to begin to believe that it can actually be done. The development and refinement of the Arcosanti vision might form an important element in the creation of organizations, and corporations--or even better, a vast social movement of people who dedicate their lives to this new paradigm of socioeconomic development-- that would go around the world redeveloping, redesigning as well as building new cities, employing alternative technologies and understandings of reality in a more integrated and holistic way. A large part of this web site’s mission is to create a discussion about what will be the impact and significance of Arcosanti’s and Arcology within the larger human reality.