It's in my book. I have visited Arcosanti many times starting in the
mid-seventies. I've also attended a weekly session with Paolo Soleri at his
Cosanti home in Scottsdale, where they make and sell wind chimes as at
Arcosanti, a smaller production operation but a good retail place for the
project. He is one smart dude. Little bitty guy, probably doesn't weight
110 pounds but he has a huge brain. When he asked my interest and I told
him about homesteading and my book he smiled and looked knowingly at one of
his associates. Our individual homestead model conflicts with his more
sustainable vision--and reality at Arcosanti--of close community sharing
tools and facilities and minimizing vehicular use. Arcosanti is a design we
can all learn from.
One of the first structures at Arcosanti was the foundry, which is shaped
as an apse. They piled up a bodacious amount of soil, put a design into the
surface that would later appear on the underside of the concrete roof,
installed reinforcing steel, poured the concrete shell and after the
concrete cured, dug out the dirt. Magnificent structure that will last
centuries. Catches winter sun and holds the heat, shades from summer sun
and tempers the heat with the great mass. Essentially zero maintenance. It
is a design I consider for a garden house. Built into a hill, earth bermed,
and closed with movable glass, it would be even more temperature steady. I
see it as a greenhouse/nursery/tool storage building.
Arcosanti is well worth a visit for anyone driving Highway 17 between
Flagstaff and Phoenix.