Surviving Arcosanti

This road trip will include visits to many of the UNESCO World Heritage sites in the USA, so that I can look for similarities between cultures that developed in North America compared to those I learned about in central and South America. (More about this in a later post.) One aspect of indigenous life in the Americas is a community and living structure that is more in harmony with nature. Arcosanti is a 1970s-era experiment in ecologically responsible living, and seemed like a logical first stop on my way to the Anasazi ruins in the Four Corners region. Besides, it's only an hour north of Phoenix.

"Arcology is a term coined by Paolo Soleri to describe the concept of architecture and ecology working together as one integral process to produce urban habitats. Arcosanti... is a Soleri-designed prototype arcology under construction that, when completed will house 5000 people by combining compact urban structure with large-scale solar greenhouses on 25 acres of a 4000 acre preserve."

Arcosanti hosts music festivals, sells Soleri-designed wind bells, and offers seminars, conferences and workshops for students and professionals interested in Arcology. During a tour ($10 donation) we watched a bronze pour in the bell-making smelter area, and learned about the history and future plans for the site.

It seems like a great Utopian ideal, but I have the sense that Soleri's ideas have been expanded upon by later visionaries incorporating newer materials for a more efficient and livable community. How many people really want to live in the desert in spartan 8'x8'x8' cement cubes with shared utilities and no air-conditioning? Nonetheless, the community has ~100 full-time residents devoted to the dream and new people continuously revolving through their residential programs. I met a cute 9-year-old named Angela who moved there with her father in June; s she told me they would be living on site "for 10 years, maybe longer. Daddy is here working on the heat tunnel." The guide said the place can't really take off and become a viable community until they have ~250 permanent residents. That will provide sufficient population for a school retail stores, and the other services that make a town into a town. After nearly 40 years, I wonder if that will ever happen. My overall impression of the place is a colony of artisans carrying out a 40-year-old experiment that should have ended 20 years ago.

Rather than breeze through in a hurry I decided to take my time with the visit and checked into their inexpensive no-frills guest accommodations for the night. For $30 I had a bedroom (shared bath, no air conditioning) with an amazing view of the valley. After a yummy buffet dinner in the communal cafe ($8.95) Max and I explored the grounds a bit and returned to the room just after dark in time to enjoy a spectacular thunder-and-lightening storm that blew through the valley. I can't remember the last time I saw a proper thunderstorm. It was GREAT. And Max was mesmerized by the whole experience. He's fearless!

(Link to slides of Arcosanti)

At around 2:30 AM, I woke up with this thing on my head. According to my Facebook research assistants, it's a giant black-headed centipede (Scolopendra heros arizonensis). It crawled over my neck into the hair over my ear. At first I thought my kitten was being snuggly, but then Max pounced on my head to "save me" from the critter. Not knowing at the time what the thing was, I separated Max from his new toy, snapped a few photos and removed the nine-inch (?) beast from my room. Ewwwwww. My creep-out sensors are still on alert after several days. A stray hair on my arm makes me twitch, and any time I see Max wresting with one of his toys or chasing his tail I first assume it's another giant bug. Especially when he's wrestling with... whatever... on the bed next to me at night.