Soleri, Paolo

(born June 21, 1919, Turin, Italy) Italian-born U.S. architect. After receiving a doctorate from Turin Polytechnic, he worked under Frank Lloyd Wright in Arizona (1947–49). In 1959 he began to draw up plans for a series of compact urban centres that would extend vertically into space rather than horizontally along the ground. These megastructures were designed to conserve energy and resources (partly through reliance on solar energy and elimination of automobile use within the city), preserve natural surroundings, and condense human activities within integrated total environments. Soleri coined the term arcology (from “architecture” and “ecology”) to describe his utopian constructions, which he delineated in drawings of great beauty and imagination. In 1970 he began constructing a prototype town called Arcosanti, for a population of 5,000, between Phoenix and Flagstaff, Ariz. The work, by students and volunteers, is still in progress.

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