Musings on Arcology and Upcoming Califia Sketchbook Contest

The recent Califia Sketchbook contest got me thinking about my Arcosanti days where I spent many hours talking with those inspired by the place (as well as frustrated by it) and the vision it represented.

Green Century Institute formed to evolve the vision of Arcology for the Bay Area. Thus what better a term to use than that of Califia, representing the idyllic yearning to live in a more compassionate, sustainable and uninhibited world driven by free spirits rather than fear, weapons and/or dollars and cents? This idea of Califia captures what California and the Bay Area mean to many who are attracted to the place.

Getting beyond the Grid
We need to get beyond the grid system and come up with something more free flowing with the natural environment particularly the rivers

1. I see special zones of open space green ways radiating out from the center of cities and esp along the rivers and on the tops of valleys
2. I see any supply lines freeways rail etc as heavily elevated to allow for natural and human flows unimpeded by the infrastructure.
3. Freeways of course will be minimized but pragmatically will include loops around the metro area and some connection to inner city areas
4. Railways will become dominant and be as mentioned above either highly elevated as in what is commonplace in Chicago and NYC and of course SF’s BART or alternatively smaller neighborhood feeder lines what is common now with light rail in San Jose and Denver and the Muni lines in SF
5. Transit oriented development which is now naturally occurring will morph into Arcology themed development.

Embracing Diversity of Density Model: Getting Beyond the Ideology of Planning and Development
Urban areas will embrace diversity of density concept which embraces a mix of densities suitable to natural tendencies for high density in urban core and less in peripheral regions with a slight deviance for regional hub centers in the metro area. the hub centers will provide most consumer and infrastructure services not covered the by neighborhood and distRict centers.

• Urban cores will be super high density with heavy commercial and artistic features 10000-25000 per sq mi (or more ideally the urban core is 25% of total metro pop so in my view a sustainable city would top out at 1 million) and 1-3 mile from center. In the urban core it is almost all super high density with some secondary core mutlifamily and with a goal of 10-25 percent green space to constrast and compensate for the super urban density.
• secondary core 5-10000 and 3-5 mile from core – the urban belt a mix of density multifamily 3-6 story the dominant development
• tertiary 2-5000 and 5-10 miles from core – the urban transition zone to rural: rural suburban and light multi-family the dominant habitat form

Promoting a Arcology Type Thematic
Within this diversity of density might exist core nodes and hubs upon which might constitute an Arcology type thematic where by the structure is not monolithic so much as as prolific with a thriving diversity of buildings with prevailing cultural theme and pattern language as relevant to the history and geographical features of each area, connecting the various layers of the urban core or cores metaphorically if not literally. Elevated transit and buildings with interconnected elevated pedestrian and utility tubes might be some examples of how this connectivity that literally manifest in the urban Arcology core and sub core hub areas.

However in this ultra modern milieu it is important that urban character be preserved and allowed to develop in a way that is both a validation of human spirit as well as innovatively bringing the nature back in to modern urban life.

Revitalizing the nature and our connection with it in the city can come through three forms:

1. seamless urban natural corridors on the ground undeterred by urban forms like roads buildings and trains
2. rooftop green roofs
3. vertical farms in which might be multilevel structures growing food at levels to reduce urban ecofootprints dramatically as noted in a previous post. Indeed Rick Nelson and others are the forerunners in developing the foundation of this technology.

The Major Urban Archotypes
Within this diversity of density would include three main urban archotypes:

1. super urban
2. medium density mutlifamily
3. low density suburban like Ronald puts forward below.

Market Oriented Solutions that Internalize Economics Externalities
The idea is to encourage people to have choices and not force people into a one size fits all mold but however to have real and total ecological and human costs built into the prices of these units. So if the suburban proponents can innovative low density developments that truly minimize the footprint and preserve the local biodiversity (say 10-25 percent of each ecosystem intact and approximate that as within 3,5 or 10 sq mile zone and), minimize car transit and provide social amenities and services and do so at a market competitive rate then more power to them.

Externalities include:

• Social impact of the Car, The Freeway, The TV, The Signage and The Parking lot
• The embodied ecological and economic cost of pipelines roads parking lots and cars, etc
• The ecofootprint needed to sustain those supply lines and systems
• The disruption cause by global climate change to sustain those systems

In Conclusion
I’m confident that in a truly market oriented system that the costs of higher density development will go down dramatically as compared to lesser density sprawl. I do believe Soleri has made a key point in his observation that density and densification (in relation to his CMD hypothesis) is something tied to the evolution of the universe and humanity. Sprawl is really a abberation that is outside the normal evolutionary process. It is a cancerous lesion on the collective body of humanity. And yet the choice we have to make is do we stop people from making low density and unsustainable lifestyle choices or focus on education and systemic reform on a very fundamental level so that all the long terms costs of those choices we make as consumers are incorporated into the “market space.” What’s clear is that the the vested interests benefiting from the unsustainable status quo cannot be allowed to evade those realities of the planet and universe any longer and by their own uncontrollable arrogance and greed, putting the short term profit motive above the long term interests of the nation and humanity itself.