Documenta; the Paolo Soleri retrospective, commentary and graphics by Donald Wall
This mysterious 10″x10″x11″ box is covered in a collage of text; look closer and you’ll find pieces of a manifesto. Sealed in 1970, the box contains 16 tightly-rolled paper scrolls and an accompanying book. Each scroll is printed with blue-grey sketches of utopian eco-cities designed by architect Paolo Soleri. Soleri’s work draws together architecture and environmentalism, and provides a glimpse into one way artists were addressing environmental degradation 50 years ago.
Soleri was born in 1919 in Italy and came to the United States in 1947 to apprentice under Frank Lloyd Wright. During those years, he developed his theory of “Arcology,” in which he envisioned a fusion between architecture and ecology. Soleri believed nature had evolved increasingly dense and complex systems, and he proposed urban development should mirror nature’s model. In that vein, Soleri designed self-sufficient high-density cities that would minimize human impact on the earth. In his sketches, the proposed structures appear as futuristic skyscrapers that barely touch the ground, where machines are intended to approximate all of nature’s functions (air recycling, sewage, food...). Soleri even designed cities that would actually float above the planet’s surface, completely eliminating human impact on Earth.
Regardless of whether the projects were ever built, architectural designs like Soleri’s can serve as windows into understanding past conceptions of nature and environmentalism. In the 1970’s many Western scientists were awakening to the reality that Earth’s resources were finite, and they predicted resources would run out sometime in the 21st century. They began articulating the need for social systems that limited growth and environmental destruction. Paolo Soleri took the message to the extreme. If humans were seeking a new way of living in which they would have the smallest impact on the planet, the logical conclusion would be... to move them off the Earth.
These plans are from Solaria’s Arcology: the city in the image of man in Art Special Collections. Just ask for it at the Circulation Desk but you may want to make an appointment.
Other scientists and architects like Gerard O’Neil and Buckminster Fuller, contemporaries of Soleri, were exploring urban design along similar lines. And while media coverage today still features stories of Mars colonies and the like, the majority of the architectural response to climate change has swung the other way. Moving beyond “green” design checklists and technological solutions, many contemporary artists and environmental activists are seeking to remind people that humans, too, are part of the earth. They are collaborating with architects to explore ways of living on earth that cause the least harm. As people come to recognize their interdependence with the natural world, sustainable architecture is taking on new forms.
For more books about Soleri’s designs, click here.
Sail House - resilience can be both beautiful and tactical!
David Hertz Architects, Studio of Environmental Architecture dedicated to the design and construction of sustainable and restorative places, designs the Sail house in the Caribbean islands, a dappled array of structures, named for their nautical-inspired tensile roofs. Check it out here… https://bit.ly/DavidHertzArchitecture-IAnD
Photographs from Dwell magazine’s premiere edition, displaying Lisa Sette and Peter Shikany’s 'House of Earth and Light’ in Phoenix designed by Marwan Al-Sayed 1998-2003
