Paolo Soleri Books

In this book Paolo Soleri exposed the ideas he have in the design of Arcosanti. I find the book really interesting although I don't agree 100% with his ideas, Soleri exposed his ideas in an orderly matter. This makes the book really easy to read. With each idea there is also a short paragraph outlining how this could be implemented or applied in Arcosanti. I enjoyed very much the book and also got a chance to understand better Arcosanti. Moreover the books seem more interesting to read because Soleri is not only writing his ideas but he is also building Arcosanti in Arizona. I recommend this book to architects and urban planners that are interested in new ideas and solutions to solve the urban mess that we are currently living.

Who would have thought it? Well, I would never have thought that my favourite future visionary would be SUCH a future visionary. The revelation that Soleri was not only the greatest architect of our century but also a borderline headcase was at first startling. Then he turned my world upside down; quite literally, since everything this book represents is a complete reversal of the thinking process of the vast majority of the human species. One day this book will be as big as any other. Our children will study it at school. At least, they should, because there's more meat here than anything I'm bothering with. Change your world, get this book.

This book is the perfect introduction to the concept of arcologies in general and Arcosanti in particular. It tells just enough about the history of arcologies, background on Paolo Soleri, and the social and ecological roles that arcologies can and should play in our future to whet the appetite for more. (The word arcology is formed from the words architecture and ecology.) The great and plentiful photos help to turn a concept into a real place where readers can imagine-or dream of-living and working. If you have an interest in arcologies, trends in architecture, the future of city design, or ways people can live more harmoniously with nature, this book is a wonderful place to start.

Arcosanti Archetype accomplishes what the author, Marie Wilson, set out to do. That is, provoke thought in people about issues related to urban sprawl. The book features the ideology of Paolo Soleri who has dedicated his life to environmental issues through his innovative project located between Phoenix and the Grand Canyon. Wilson has depicted the project and people through colorful photographs and interviews including quotes from Soleri. Even if you have not visited Arcosanti, you will find that this reasonably priced book is a worthwhile read with facts about the world population, quotes from Aldo Leopold's, A Sand County Almanac, and thoughts from philosopher Teilhard de Chardin on happiness and "our task to turn the physical universe into a divine universe". A great book to give students or teachers interested in architecture and lifestyles.

This is an introduction to one of the very few new urban experiments being performed in the western world. It's an intimate portrait of a great vision that is in the birthing process. The Arcosanti vision attempts to solve the problem of urban sprawl and high consumption of resources, while embracing the fundamental human needs to develop and to be social. Cities have developed in response to these fundamental drives. Urban living allows us to arrange our lives so that we can interact to provide for our mutual needs in efficient ways, to enjoy social activities, and to promote our human inventiveness and creativity. But it has led to urban sprawl, high resource consumption and serious pollution.

Arcosanti is an alternative that appears to have promise. But why has the Arcosanti experiment, in existence for thirty years, not yet created the movement needed to attract the support it needs to be completed, much less be a major force in our society? I liked the book because it examines the personalities that have given the experiment life, and lets us make judgements on how personalities have helped -- and may have hurt -- the promulgation of the vision. It includes a portrait of Paolo Soleri, the reticent genius behind its creation. I wished it probed the visions a little deeper, because all of Soleri's books are out of print. However, the potential of the vision is clear and made goose bumps rise on my arm. It locked the architectural vision in my mind, and has sparked many conversations about it. Hopefully it will open the vision to many more people.

kool book for people who like arcology.com

This book contains amazing illustrations and is highly imaginative. However, I must give it a one-star review because its pretentious author would have readers believe that he singlehandedly divined a set of new-age principles (incomprehensible to any reader, since they're inadequately explained and loaded with neologistic jargon) that he calls arcology (a word that, as its ending -ogy should suggest to any English language speaker, refers to a "study" or set of principles - NOT to structures themselves, which are properly called "hyperstructures").

I have a master of urban and regional planning degree from an accredited program at a major (big 10) university, and please let me tell you that the text of this book is pure "pseudoscience." It is designed to impress people who don't know science, but it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Soleri has some legitimate cultural and designs criticisms (after all, who doesn't?) but he tries to merge these with inscrutable mystical gibberish, and he delights in creating lots of impressive-sounding words as he pretends that these words actually connect with scientific concepts. They do not. If you don't believe me, then just try to find any textbook of psychology, sociology, ecology, biology, etc., etc. that actually fits with his ravings. You will be able to confirm for yourself that Soleri is writing from his own individual mental creation, and that his notions of an organic city are not grounded in any of the research that people have actually done - he's creating from his own mind a set of organic analogies that he imagines will tie into a unified, organic whole. That is all totally in isolation from practical, achievable planning, ecology, etc. and doesn't tie in with any actual research. This book is an exercise in science-fantasy by a wonderful illustrator (who put his architectural background to good use in the wonderful illustrations here). It must not, however, be mistaken for anything else. It is a new age vision, a work of science-fantasy. Apart from a few of the well-known environmental concerns it expresses, the text of the book is basically a work of total fiction, with almost no authentic theoretical grounding whatsoever. For more authentic writings on environmental and early urbanist planning and design, please refer to Ian McHarg's "Design With Nature," and writings/designs of LeCorbusier. Their ideas are actually practical, implementable (Brasilia's design came from LeCorbusier's ideas), and connected with the mainstream. Urban planning is still a pretty young profession and this book is an unfortunate example of pure hubris - although beautifully illustrated and imaginative, its text should be recognized as equivalent to the "circle-squarers" in math, or homeopathic herbal remedies, or any other false-"science" designed to fool and impress those who don't have the training and the guts to call label it publicly as the nonsense that it is. This book is the basis of a utopian cult, and has nothing at all to do with actual science. Soleri's writings should not be treated as those of a prophet. He is a wonderful artist but a highly confused thinker. But that's the sort of thing that a lot of people believe to be a normal part of religion, it seems, and so this book has attracted a religious type of following, in which it is either swallowed (or not) as a matter of faith rather than treated properly as a mere set of ambitious hypothesis to be tested and refined. Instead, many people tend to assume that something that sounds complicated actually makes sense, but then don't want to admit when they themselves can't really get a rational understanding of it (people are afraid to seem ignorant or incorrect) and so the result is that every now and then, someone churns out a bunch of half-baked ideas that people revere instead of question, and then a cult forms. There is definitely a small Soleri cult that has formed around this book. People should recognize that although Soleri was creative, he was also an ultimately irrational thinker. Either that, or, like L. Ron Hubbard, he decided that the way to promote cultural change was to form a new religion. This book clearly goes beyond ecological and design considerations and presents a lengthy statement of a religious perspective, as posited by Soleri in a form he felt could draw from and capitalize on existing cultural concepts (everything from the big bang to the second coming). It's statement of faith is to offer the achievement of utopias of his own design. The problem is, Soleri hasn't a clue about authentic SOCIAL organization and problems (as any authentic text on Urban Planning, Sociology, etc. will be able to point out), and instead he dishes out heaps of mystical, idealized jargon with the idea that it's somehow actually feasible simply because it expresses his own personal ideals. Meaning: he wants it to be true - it's his own personalized utopian vision - and as such it is irrelevant to him that he often employs purely mystical speech to indoctrinate readers into his artificial notions of an organic, holistic, grand unified theory of everything. In the process he redefines and adapts popular phrases from both science and Christianity and creates a boiling stew of visionary gibberish. The time to call this what it is is long overdue. Pretentious hubris. Creative and enjoyable, certainly, but unfortunately a form of narcotic that ensnares the gullible and confuses them about authentic principles of well-grounded authentic research and theory - and planning!

If you can imagine a future where cities cover every bit of earth's available space (think LA everywhere), then you can also imagine an alternative. Whole cities inside massive structures of incredible design, leaving most of our precious land open for us to enjoy and treasure. Paolo Soleri envisioned such cities and his drawings will inspire you and spark your imagination of what could be. Imagine cities that float on the sea or stretch across canyons and you will get the idea. Architecture students or just about anyone with an imagination will be amazed by his designs. I hope to live long enough to see one of his massive structures built.

I saw this book in a store in the late seventies and bought it for myself. As a teenaged reader, I was very impressed with the art, and inspired by the text (nonsensical though some of it seemed). Clearly utopian and attractive, this book will inspire many a young artist or city planner. The fact that it is so far afield of the mainstream is only a plus: it will challenge and stimulate critical thinkers.

Note: with the high cost of building an arcology, and the need for (rather unamerican) centralized control, why haven't one of the arab states tried building one? UAE is certainly spending arcology-scale sums on the construction of the Burj Dubai complex...

A world view so unlike anything ever before conceived. Yes, it is unique. It is also terribly hard to find. Soleri's streams of conciousness and random thoughts are presented in such a manner that bringing it all together is harder than it should be. Do not read this book and expect to work out what Soleri is on about. Read "Omega Seed" or "Technology and Cosmogenesis" instead; they are more together. You WILL, however, be stimulated in ways you never though possible. It's like drinking Vodka straight up; you get drunk faster but that stuff burns something nasty! I stand by my belief that Soleri will one day be seen as a great visionary on par with Da Vinci, Haussman, Emerson and Nietzsche. He will change the way we think and live.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did, because Soleri's spaced out "arcologies" have always appealed to me with their somewhat plastic shapes - a product of their concrete construction methods - and somewhat appropriate appearance in certain settings - such as the Arizona desert. The book's many drawings and photos are welcome documentation of Soleri's life works and mostly unrealized dreams...

Alas, what rubbed me the wrong way was the whole text. Soleri, or at least the author of this retrospective, seems to have indulged in an excessive amount of self-consciously "profound", yet terribly vapid, even sophomoric theorizing, intellectualizing and/or rationalizing every aspect of the designs... It becomes, after a hundred pages or so, quite tedious.

This text seems a virtual caricature of academic BS and group-think, as often encountered in faculty lounges these days as in undergraduate dorms. It comes complete with largely irrelevant but obligatory digs at materialistic "American culture", the old "Star Wars" ABM defense scheme, etc. But what is sadly lacking is much coherent "form follows function" argument, so essential to truly ecological or organic design; instead, one gets the feeling that rationalization followed whim, with precious little regard for function whatsoever.

But hey, dude, maybe it's just me. No doubt the profundity here would have been more apparent had I recently scored some good hash...

Paolo Soleri, an octogenarian architect from Turin, has spent the past half-century in the Arizona desert struggling (with unpaid help from willing disciples) to realize Arcosanti, a prototype settlement for 7000 people. Its ponderous concrete vaults and boxy volumes already resemble an unsightly ruin: the product of an ageing hippy with little to say to the present or future. For the rest, there is a mass of visionary drawings, impassioned polemics, and the ubiquitous sand-cast bells, which are sold alongside beads and hash pipes in "craft" stores. For Soleri's loyal fans, here is a massive, reverent, plentifully illustrated account by a starry-eyed admirer from Palermo. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)

Paolo Soleri has been an important urban theorist for 30 years and a creative architect for over 55 years. This monograph is a long-overdue and well deserved examination of his career and ideas. The text is thorough and interesting. The book's only failing is in it's photography. The author apparently took many of the Arcosanti photos...and it shows. Some of the images are not sharp; others are poorly lit; some are ill-chosen views. Approx. a dozen reveal the long shadow of the photographer! I could not find photos of the Glendale amphitheater or of the Scottsdale bridge models. The photo of the chapel at the Arizona Cancer Center was quite small. However, I am thankful that a book of this scope and ambition (though flawed) has documented the fascinating career of Paolo Soleri.

What is your favorite book?

The Urban Ideal: Conversations with Paolo Soleri is my favorite book in 2006. In a book, paolo suggest an alternative idea to solve problems of nowdays city. There are two main problem that wast resorce like a fossil fuels and destoryed community after urbanization. His idea is applyed eco and compact concept in a city. and he introduce Arcosatnti place for learn how can we make futher city? I have been to arcosanti one time. I wanted to learn idea of him by experience only not from book. If you interasting Eco city or Compact city, try read this book.

Having been to Arcosanti a few times, I wanted to learn a bit more about the man behind the small city. Paulo seems like a very amazing guy. He certainly believes stongly in community.

Although this book isn't an in-depth work, it will give you a taste of the ideals at work in Soleri's architectural work and can act as an introduction to any of his massive volumes.

Would suggest this book to anyone.

This book, while extraordinarily facinating, is really only for those who possess many of Soleri's other books and are already familiar with his unique work. Non-collectors will be unable to make head from tail with this book.

For the collectors and lovers, I do recommend this fantastic glimpse into the concious stream of thought that runs through the inner mind of Soleri. If you spent hours staring in wonderment at the designs in "Arcology: City in the Image of Man" then you will spend twice as long with this book, pouring over the oft times incoherent notes and picking apart the spidery sketches in an attempt to work out just what makes this great man tick. If you stare long enough, and look close enough, you can see the vision as clear as the nose on your face. And it's simply breath-taking.