"Paolo Soleri (21 June 1919 ? 9 April 2013)[1] was an Italian-American architect. He established Arcosanti and the educational Cosanti Foundation. Soleri was a lecturer in the College of Architecture at Arizona State University and a National Design Award recipient in 2006. He died at home of natural causes on 9 April 2013 at the age of 93."--Wikipedia.
Conversations with Paolo Soleri, the newest volume in our popular Conversations series, offers timely thinking in response to our global environmental crisis. Drawn from the visionary architect's personal notebooks and sketchbooks, Soleri's most recently (2004-2009) documented ideas respond to contemporary issues such as climate change, oil dependence, suburban sprawl, and overconsumption. Soleri outlines a detailed proposal for urban reformulation and renewal, appealing to architects, urban planners, environmentalists, urban historians, philosophers, ethicists, and anthropologists. Two essays and a new interview covering the breadth of Soleri's career round out this accessible introduction, offering a useful overview of Soleri's work.
"In October 2017, SMoCA will unveil an unprecedented retrospective of seminal American artist and architect Paolo Soleri (1919 - 2013). Over his sixty-year career, Soleri explored thousands of possibilities for the urban built environment in drawings, architectural models, sketchbooks, sculptures, prints and photographs. His pioneering idea "arcology," or the fusion of architecture and ecology, proved prescient in its ties to current issues about sustainable cities, suburban sprawl, climate change, renewable energy and water shortages.The City Is Nature spans the breadth of Soleri's ideas and practice, bringing together elements from his built and unbuilt residences, bridges, dams, cities and transportation systems. In addition to original drawings, models and sketchbooks, the exhibition surveys the artist's earliest ceramic and bronze artisan crafts, as well as fabric designs and silkscreens. This ground-breaking exhibition represents the largest collection of original works by Soleri presented in North America since 1971. Large scroll drawings--some over 30 feet long--will be presented for the first time since their conservation in 2005.The exhibition also investigates Soleri's personal engagement with the art and architecture of his time; the widespread recognition of his work by museums, scholars and curators; his relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright; and his influence on the American counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s. It will also be the first to contextualize the artisan craft program that continues to underwrite the expenses of maintaining Cosanti and Arcosanti--two experimental communities Soleri built in the Arizona desert. In celebration of the exhibition, SMoCA is publishing Repositioning Paolo Soleri: The City Is Nature a large-format, hardcover, illustrated catalog authored by Claire C. Carter with essays by Larry Busbea, Garth Johnson, and Jonathon Keats. It will be available October 13, 2017 at the exhibition's opening reception."
From 2008, for the first time in human history, half of the world’s population now live in cities. Yet despite a wealth of literature on green architecture and planning, there is to date no single book which draws together theory from the full range of disciplines - from architecture, planning and ecology - which we must come to grips with if we are to design future cities which are genuinely sustainable. Paul Downton’s Ecopolis takes a major step along this path. It highlights the urgent need to understand the role of cities as both agents of change and means of survival, at a time when climate change has finally grabbed world attention, and it provides a framework for designing cities that integrates knowledge - both academic and practical - from a range of relevant disciplines. Identifying key theorists, practitioners, places and philosophies, the book provides a solid theoretical context which introduces the concept of urban fractals, and goes on to present a series of design and planning tools for achieving Sustainable Human Ecological Development (SHED). Combining knowledge from diverse fields to present a synthesis of urban ecology, the book will provide a valuable resource for students, researchers and practitioners in architecture, construction, planning, geography and the traditional life sciences.
Conversations with Paolo Soleri, the newest volume in our popular Conversations series, offers timely thinking in response to our global environmental crisis. Drawn from the visionary architect's personal notebooks and sketchbooks, Soleri's most recently (2004–2009) documented ideas respond to contemporary issues such as climate change, oil dependence, suburban sprawl, and overconsumption. Soleri outlines a detailed proposal for urban reformulation and renewal, appealing to architects, urban planners, environmentalists, urban historians, philosophers, ethicists, and anthropologists. Two essays and a new interview covering the breadth of Soleri's career round out this accessible introduction, offering a useful overview of Soleri's work.
The texts presented in Proportion Harmonies and Identities (PHI) - MODERNITY, FRONTIERS AND REVOLUTIONS were compiled with the intent to establish a multidisciplinary platform for the presentation, interaction and dissemination of research. It also aims to foster awareness of and discussion on the topics of Harmony and Proportion with a focus on different visions relevant to Architecture, Arts and Humanities, Design, Engineering, Social and Natural Sciences, and their importance and benefits for the sense of both individual and community identity. The idea of modernity has been a significant driver of development since the Western Early Modern Age. Its theoretical and practical foundations have become the working tools of scientists, philosophers, and artists, who seek strategies and policies to accelerate the development process in different contexts.