Arcology, aportmanteau of "architecture" and "ecology",[2] is a field of creating architectural design principles for very densely populated andecologically low-impact human habitats.
The term was coined in 1969 by architectPaolo Soleri, who believed that a completed arcology would provide space for a variety of residential, commercial, and agricultural facilities while minimizing individual humanenvironmental impact.[3] These structures have been largely hypothetical, as no large-scale arcology has yet been built.
The concept has been promoted by variousscience fiction writers.Larry Niven andJerry Pournelle provided a detailed description of an arcology in their 1981 novelOath of Fealty.William Gibson popularized the term in his seminal 1984cyberpunk novelNeuromancer, where each corporation has its own self-contained city known as an arcology. More recently, authors such asPeter Hamilton inNeutronium Alchemist andPaolo Bacigalupi inThe Water Knife explicitly used arcologies as part of their scenarios. They are often portrayed as self-contained oreconomically self-sufficient.
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An arcology is distinguished from a merely large building in that it is designed to lessen theimpact of human habitation on any givenecosystem. It could be self-sustainable, employing all or most of its own available resources for a comfortable life: power, climate control, food production, air and water conservation and purification, sewage treatment, etc. An arcology is designed to make it possible to supply those items for a large population. An arcology would supply and maintain its own municipal or urban infrastructures in order to operate and connect with other urban environments apart from its own.
Arcologies were proposed in order to reduce human impact on natural resources. Arcology designs might apply conventional building and civil engineering techniques in very large, but practical projects in order to achieve pedestrianeconomies of scale that have proven, post-automobile, to be difficult to achieve in other ways.
Frank Lloyd Wright proposed an early version[4] calledBroadacre City although, in contrast to an arcology, his idea is comparatively two-dimensional and depends on a road network. Wright's plan described transportation, agriculture, and commerce systems that would support an economy. Critics said that Wright's solution failed to account for population growth, and assumed a more rigid democracy than the US actually has.
Buckminster Fuller proposed theOld Man River's City project, a domed city with a capacity of 125,000, as a solution to the housing problems inEast St. Louis, Illinois.
Paolo Soleri proposed later solutions, and coined the term "arcology".[5] Soleri describes ways of compacting city structures in three dimensions to combat two-dimensionalurban sprawl, to economize on transportation and other energy uses. Like Wright, Soleri proposed changes in transportation, agriculture, and commerce. Soleri explored reductions inresource consumption and duplication, land reclamation; he also proposed to eliminate most private transportation. He advocated for greater "frugality" and favored greater use of shared social resources, including public transit (and public libraries).
Arcosanti is an experimental "arcology prototype", a demonstration project under construction in centralArizona since 1970. Designed byPaolo Soleri, its primary purpose is to demonstrate Soleri's personal designs, his application of principles of arcology to create a pedestrian-friendly urban form.
Many cities in the world have proposed projects adhering to the design principles of the arcology concept, likeTokyo, andDongtan nearShanghai.[6] The Dongtan project may have collapsed, and it failed to open for theShanghai World Expo in 2010.[7] TheIhme-Zentrum inHanover was an attempt to build a "city within a city".
McMurdo Station of theUnited States Antarctic Program and other scientific research stations onAntarctica resemble the popular conception of an arcology as a technologically advanced, relatively self-sufficient human community. The Antarctic research base provides living and entertainment amenities for roughly 3,000 staff who visit each year. Its remoteness and the measures needed to protect its population from the harsh environment give it an insular character. The station is not self-sufficient – the U.S. military delivers 30,000,000 liters (8,000,000 US gal) of fuel and 5 kilotonnes (11 million pounds) of supplies and equipment yearly through itsOperation Deep Freeze resupply effort[8] – but it is isolated from conventional support networks. Underinternational treaty, it must avoid damage to the surrounding ecosystem.
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Begich Towers operates like a small-scale arcology encompassing nearly all of the population ofWhittier, Alaska. The building contains residential housing as well as a police station, grocery, and municipal offices.[9][dead link]
The Line was planned as a 170 kilometres (110 mi) long and 200 metres (660 ft) widelinearsmart city inSaudi Arabia inNeom,Tabuk Province, designed to have no cars, streets orcarbon emissions.[10][11][12][13] The Line is planned to be the first development inNeom, a $500 billion project.[14][15] The city's plans anticipated a population of 9 million.[16] Excavation work had started along the entire length of the project by October 2022. However, the project was scaled down in 2024 to 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) long, housing 300,000 people.[17]
Most proposals to build real arcologies have failed due to financial, structural or conceptual shortcomings. Arcologies are therefore found primarily in fictional works.[18][19]
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{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)Further reading
Usage of "arcology" vs. "hyperstructure"
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