What a crazy place... crazy, and incredibly interesting. During our two day stay at Arcosanti, we learned about the concept of Arcology, explored the site, and partied all night with the locals.

Paolo Soleri is an Italian architect who was an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright in the late 1940's. Soleri later developed the concept of Arcology, the fusion of architecture and ecology, an alternative urban development form. In 1970 construction began on Arcosanti, a prototype town for 5,000 people (there are currently about 60 residents).

...a highly integrated and compact three-dimensional urban form that is the opposite of urban sprawl with its inherently wasteful consumption of land, energy and time, tending to isolate people from each other and the community.

Link: Arcosanti
Link: Cosanti Originals
Article: ASU Web Devil - In your own backyard: No roads, no conservatives (via The Dirt)

Arcosanti is a living urban laboratory and work continues, if slowly, to this day.

While Paolo Soleri is certainly known in academic circles for his theories, he is most widely known for his bronze and ceramic windbells. The bells, along with other items, are produced at Arcosanti and Costanti (Soleri's residence and studio in Paradise Valley) and are a source of funding for Arcosanti.

The original final design for Arcosanti (for scale reference, the arched shell shown in the picture at top right is the size of one of the small arc forms along the bottom of this drawing)

Arcology advocates cities designed to maximize the interaction and accessibility associated with an urban environment; minimize the use of energy, raw materials and land, reducing waste and environmental pollution; and allow interaction with the surrounding natural environment.