Paolo Soleri - architecture, ahead of its time.

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Italian-American architect Paolo Soleri (21 June 1919 – 9 April 2013) made his name as a countercultural icon and urban visionary, best known for his theory of “arcology” – a combination of architecture and ecology – and for Arcosanti, the prototype town in the Arizona desert which embodied his ideals and became his life’s work, which he founded in 1970 and continued to work on right up until his death in 2013.

Born in Turin, Italy, Soleri gained his master’s degree from the Turin Polytechnic in 1946. During his time in school, he gained a strong familiarity with Le Corbusier and his works. He praises Corbusier’s aesthetic sense and style. Of all his works, Soleri claimed that the Chandigarh appeals to him the most, “I don’t know if it really worked, but I like the interplay of volumes, the proportions, the spaces, the solids.”

Shortly after he attained his degree, he travelled to the US to apprentice under Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin West. Upon arriving in Taliesin, Soleri, who did not speak much English and was still trying to wrap his head around the American culture, and was assigned to mainly garden work and waiting tables. Although he was assigned work that seemed unconnected to architecture, it pushed him to see the continuous motion between outside and inside, between enclosed spaces and the landscapes. “He absorbed it all: reciprocal relationships, the building-land dialectic, vitalizing fluidity, the role of light, the space used and lived in by mobile man, and the pragmatic and spiritual aspects of the Taliesin fellowship,” Lima elaborated.

In 1948, Soleri gained international recognition after his design for the “Beast Bridge” was included in Elizabeth Mock’s book “The Architecture of Bridges,” published by the Museum of Modern Art. This marked the beginning of the disagreement that led to Soleri’s dismissal from Taliesin. As a former apprentice, Elizabeth Mock returned to Taliesin and asked Wright to contribute a bridge design. At the same time, she met Soleri and intuitively sensed his potential, so she commissioned Soleri to design a bridge as well. Soleri’s bridge “The Beast,” was published alongside Wrights and gained a stronger response from critics. This was the first negative experience between the two of them. Shortly after, another conflict was generated by what Soleri terms his “lack of psychological and critical subtlety. Being there, impassioned and excited about the idea of a community, I started to think of establishing something similar in Italy. Wright seemed to be interested and in favour of the idea, But his feelings changed when three senior apprentices said they wanted to come with me.” In September 1948, a letter requested that Soleri leave Taliesin. Soleri still regards his time there as a rewarding experience.

Upon his dismissal from Taliesin, he returned to Italy where he reconnected a little with Europe. On his return, he received commission for the Solimene factory, a ceramics factory, where he adopted the use of the “desert-wall technique,” something he had learnt over the duration of his time with Wright. During his time in Italy, Soleri hoped it would be a launching pad for him, but to his dismay, it was not as he had hoped for. There was a flood, a dramatic situation in fact and he could no longer work to support his family. At this point, he returned to the United States to join his wife in 1954.

Following the severe flooding in Italy in 1954, Soleri moved back to Arizona. He settled in Paradise Valley, just outside Phoenix, a city that for Soleri would become a negative example of what happens when urban sprawl continues unchecked and degrades the life of its inhabitant. Living in the desert lot with his wife, he continued his artisanal work, something he had started back in Italy, and over time began to think, design, investigate and build ceramic and bronze objects, including faintly Asian wind bells that would make his name before architecture did.

Paolo Soleri developed himself as an architect a philosopher during the American modernist era. The modernist movement was a trend of philosophical though arising from the widespread changes in culture and society in the age of modernity. American modernism stemmed from a rejection of enlightenment thinking, seeking to better represent reality in a new, more industrialized world. The United States played a great role in the architecture modernist movement concerning new advanced building and construction technologies. Among construction innovations there are such materials as iron, steel and reinforced concrete. The likes of Frank Lloyd Wright absorbed the German romantic tradition of organic architecture. He developed a new and original approach to residential design, which became known as the “prairie style.” It combined open planning principles with horizontal emphasis, asymmetrical façade elections, and broad, sheltering roofs. In his works, Wright moved closer and closer to an earth-bound sense of natural form. As a result of Soleri’s brief stint with Wright, similarities can be drawn between their seminal works.

Along with the growth in the modernist movement, was a growing movement toward environmentalism, which were not limited to the US alone. More developed countries were also suffering from pollutants created by industrialization, and lesser developed countries were falling victim to destructive exploitation of their natural resources. Some environmental issues of the time included pollution from factories and power plants, oil spills, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeway construction, and loss of wilderness and biodiversity. Increasing need and number of factories and power plants caused a number of problems including air pollution and damaging run-off. In 1966, air pollution in New York City caused the deaths of 168 people during a weather inversion that lasted only four days. The 1970s also saw an increase in urban to rural migration. Poor urban planning in the United States resulted in sprawl and poor long-distance public transportation. Urban sprawl resulted in an increased dependence on foreign oil. Oil transportation and oil tanker congestion and its effects on the health of the oceans became a concern.

Paolo Soleri, motivated by the environmental crisis started exploring the pairing of architecture and urban design in the development of “Cosanti,” a response to the desert climate and landscape. He began with the construction of the first earth houses in 1956 and continued for about twenty years. As its foundation, cosanti was the synergistic interweaving or art and science; “it was an experimental center supporting the search for an alternative habitat that saw architecture as ecology. The name Cosanti expresses the foundation’s antimaterialistic attitude by putting the prefix “anti” with the Italian work “cosa”, meaning thing.” According to Lima, Cosanti is a “synergistic collection of laboratories, offices, and residences that came to life in an indescribable atmosphere.” The structures at cosanti include the original “Earth House” (which is partially underground), student dormitories, outdoor studios, performance space, swimming pool, gift shop, and Soleri’s residence. All set amidst courtyards, terraces, and garden paths.

Looking out from America to the world, Soleri analyzed and debated the source of man’s degradation: “spiritual misery, useless waste, the folly of war and militarization that sinks so deep into society that guns seem a necessity, urban sprawl and loneliness, disintegration of the family, all under an umbrella of vulgar respectability and puritanism.” He saw the risks of unlimited expansion from the population explosion to rampant consumerism, and with all the growth of the computer industry and the internet. Soleri began to investigate the changes in scale that were affecting the life of city residents and therefore the communications structure that transmits more information in shorter periods of time, resulting in increasing complexity. His ongoing research focused on this subject and on the city that gave it physical form. With Arcology: The City in the Image of Man, published in 1969, Soleri gave insight to his research and experimentation on alternative habitats. The 223-page book has a theoretical background and is structured around the graphic representation of thirty ecologies. Each designed for a specific number of inhabitants, ranging from 1,500 to 6,000,000; with the occupied area, density, and height also specified. Each arcology is described through methodological diagrams and explanatory texts. Lima’s description of the book is that “it explores many abstract and concrete elements, specific details, and relationships on which the city’s vitality and the creation of an aesthetic phenomenon depend: miniaturization, equity, harmony, centralization, chance, structure and performance, complexity compactness, three-dimensionality, life expectancy, frugality, compassion, anguish, culture, the sacred, but also sizes, distances, natural resources, industries, free time, medical assistance, recreation, mobility, social integration, shared use rather than ownership, pollution avoidance, technology in service of the aesthetic, expenses, obsolescence, and so on.” In response to the awareness of the degradation and pollution increasingly affecting the environment, Soleri looked into what he calls “Cosmic Potential: sun, wind, water, and the energy they can provide, as well as the way which their beneficial dialectic with man can be preserved.” He studied the sunlight, thinking not so much about its effects on hollow architectural space, but rather about the inherent cosmic energy that could be channelled into a habitat to support environmental quality and fight pollution and waste. Located in central Arizona, on flatland used for agriculture, Arcosanti aspires to be a living organism striving for the aesthetic and having the ability to generate an intense and spiritual urban effect. Soleri proposed a structural discipline founded on moderation. He pinpointed the most efficient and least expensive way to reduce destruction, pollution, waste, and time required for recycling, as well as its cost. Everything from garbage to water is recycled at Arcosanti. Such practices encourage us to turn our backs on consumerism and return to cultivating the spirit, which gives birth to artistic creation. The goal of Arcosanti was to combine the social interaction and accessibility of an urban environment with sound environmental principles, such as minimal resource use and access to the natural environment. Construction on the project began in 1970 and has continued at a varying pace till present. Many features are particular to the design and construction of Arcosanti. Tilt-up concrete panels are cast in a bed of silt acquired from the surrounding area; giving the concrete a unique texture and color that helps it blend with the landscape. In response to the modernism movement, many panels were cast with embedded art.

Soleri sought a redefinition or architecture by linking it to environmental consciousness and the responsibility that man has to it. In the course of his experimentation at Cosanti, he examined the potential of the apse, a large semicircular recess, arched or with a domed roof, while exploring its inherent relationship to the climate, sun, energy, and light. The apse can concentrate and light objects and people with a movement similar to that of sound. When open to the south, the apse serves as a solar collector, providing warmth during the winter months and shade during the warm summer. It sets up a stimulating setting every activity, such as; working, playing, resting, and socializing. Soleri incorporates the form of the apse in the built structure that shelters the bronze-casting at Arcosanti. The layout of all the buildings at Arcosanti is intricate and organic, rather than the grid typical of most US cities, with the goals of maximum accessibility to all elements, a combination of increased social interaction and bonds, together with privacy for the residents. Originally designed to house 5,000 people, Arcosanti has never grown large enough to accommodate more than a few hundred people at a time. Soleri’s mind was far beyond his years. While other architects and philosophers were theorizing, Soleri went out into the desert and actually built his vision with his own hands.

With environmental Armageddon back on the agenda on again now, there might be a viable future for Arcosanti and Soleri’s principles of arcology after all. “Materialism is, by definition, the antithesis of green,” he told Lima. “We have this unstoppable, energetic, self-righteous drive that’s innate in us, but which has been reoriented by limitless consumption. Per se, it doesn’t have anything evil about it. It’s a hindrance. But multiply that hindrance by billions, and you’ve got catastrophe.