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.

Califia Sketchbook Design Competition!

If a truly biophilic society
created a city, what would this city look like? Would nature and our urban environments be one and every roof be green? Would buildings be built like trees and information flow through this living fabric without resistance? If our infrastructure were deeply biomimetic, how would we get our water, our energy, our food, our heat? Can built environments create habitats for lifeforms who need it? Can buildings be net positives to the grid, cities be organic food exporters, and architecture become not just carbon neutral but carbon negative? What would it feel like to live in this green city of tomorrow? What would most capture its slices of life? What are the true limits of how green our cities can be?

September 1 – December 1, 2007

Submit your single page sketch of a slice of life in the green city of tomorrow during the above dates.

The purpose of the Califia Sketchbook Design Competition is to express to a wide variety of people what life will be like in Califia, a proposed next generation eco-city in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, USA. People from around the world are invited to enter a conceptual sketch revealing smarter greener ways of building, powering, maintaining, and inhabiting the urban fabric.

Skyskraper Farms: Visionary Sustaianble Thinking or Pure Fantasy?

Califia has become more well known among Bay Area sustainability circles. Esp since the Digital Be-In Organizers have be the same folks promoting Califia. Scott Fossel’s presentation at the Be-In 15 was definitely compelling as it featured many clever and breathtaking urban city visions.

Based on the Arcology model put forward by Paolo (Soleri) of Arcosanti, Califia offers one possible urban EcoCity model for the Bay Area that has recently been supported by EcoCity Builder’s Richard Register.

Francis Frick’s South China Arcology was inspired by Soleri’s Arcology vision as was featured on the Urban Agriculture website. In a similar vien the Vertical Farm /a> is a very indepth look at some of the design and technology that would go into creating a farm in a dense urban environment claiming to address many of the serious fuel and supply chain issues that threaten to imperil the modern city in an unprecedented way if the worst Peak Oil scenarios come true. The site’s has been getting a lot of buzz lately. Someone recently mentioned seeing it on the BBC News website and I first became aware of it at the gLiving Blog/Ezine.