Preliminary Exploration Of Paolo Soleri's ARCOLOGY

Modern movements speed up city expansion of developed countries. Highly developed industrial productions enrich the life of people, however, the ignorance of the necessary attention to the environment results in global climate problems. Especially that the Americans are chasing the "American dream", which is, each has a comfortable life with an individual residence and a car. This phenomenon increases energy waste and air pollution. In 1960s, a group of pioneer architects and urban planners have been aware of this point. They devote themselves to the theory reformation, in order to make architecture and urban city in harmony with nature. Paolo Soleri was one of them. He consider both of the architecture and urban planning, and put forward a number of the ideal city concepts which optimize living condition and natural environment. Paolo Soleri named his idea city "Arcology", which is also translated as "ecology architecture" in Chinese. With the concept of C.M.D. (Complexity-Miniaturization-Duration) the theory can help the conservation of urban land use, energy consumption and the pollution reduction, to achieve the sustainable. After a series design of the ideal city based on the concept of Arcology, he made one of them to come true which named Arcosanti, and started construction of the city in 1971 in the Arizona desert. Paolo Soleri takes the city as a "urban laboratory", which can give beneficial references for the future urban construction and development through the construction and the study of Arcosanti.Based on the investigation of Arcosanti, this paper is about the analysis of the ecology methods used in the project and the ecological concepts it takes. By comparing with other historical and contemporary idea city theories and practices, We try to find its own uniqueness, advantages and disadvantages, and the method and possibility of using it in practices.