Arcology

The Try2004 Arcology or Megacity as featured on the Discovery Channel's Extreme Engineering programs.

An arcology is a habitat or settlement maintaining an extremely high human population density. The term was invented by architect Paolo Soleri, as a portmanteau of architecture and ecology. So far these constructs exist only conceptually with experiments taking place at Arcosanti in central Arizona, USA. Popular in science fiction, arcologies are generally advocated as solutions to the problems of overpopulation and environmental degradation, as they reduce the ecological footprint of cities. Most cities spread across the Earth's surface horizontally — covering more and more land and reducing arable farmland. Arcologies, on the other hand, are more three-dimensional.

Contents

1 Development of the arcology idea
2 Real-life visions
3 Arcology in popular culture
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

Development of the arcology idea

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According to Soleri, the basic idea of an arcology stems from the idea that urbanization is claiming an excessive amount of space on Earth and that an elegant, but little practiced option, is simply to use what land we have more wisely. In "Arcology: The City in the Image of Man," Soleri describes ways of compacting our city structures in three dimensions to combat two-dimensional urban sprawl. While this led to many science fiction interpretations of domed cities, Soleri's ideas aren't just the "human beehive" model popular in science fiction. They also encompass vast differences in societal thinking regarding some of the same things that Frank Lloyd Wright touched upon in transport, agriculture and commerce. Soleri deepened Wright's ideas of what might specifically need to be done by exploring resource consumption and duplication, land reclamation, elimination of most private transport in favor of public transport and greater use of social resources like public libraries. This concept also emphasizes, in a broader scale, more efficient use of resources and compacting of urban space to preserve the environment.

Some experts speculate that arcologies will become common in the information age. Construction methods for arcologies are being tested at Arcosanti. Otherwise, arcologies are restricted to paper proposals and fictional depictions, such as Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Oath of Fealty or as elements in computer and video games, such as SimCity 2000, Escape Velocity Nova, and .

The first arcology to be described in fiction was probably "The Last Redoubt" from The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson, first published in 1912. It is a complete example of an arcology, including full artificial ecology, agriculture, and public transport by mobile roadways.

Real-life visions

Many cities in the world have had proposed or desired arcologies that never went far. Tokyo has had many, which are listed [here].

Apparently, a new "eco-city" or self-sustaining urban centre the size of a large western capital is to be built at Dongtan near Shanghai [link]. The first phase is on target to open by 2010 and to be "completed" by 2040.

Co-op City in New York City could be considered a proto-arcology, with many services provided on-site. A telecommuter might never need to leave Co-Op City, which is one of the features of an arcology.

Arcology in popular culture

Arcologies are featured in SimCity 2000

William Hope Hodgson's extraordinary 1912 novel The Night Land features the first example of what we now would call arcology, though the future Earthlings depicted - millions of years into the future, in fact - have different reasons for building their metallic pyramid.http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10662

In the table-top strategy game Warhammer 40,000, arcologies are extremely common and are the main method of housing large populations. Arcologies are so widespread, that at least one planet, Holy Terra, is essentially one massive arcology.

The computer game SimCity 2000 allows the construction of four different types of arcologies. The most primitive model holds relatively few people and produces considerable pollution, while more advanced models are clean and efficient. With the exception of one landmark called the Braun Llama (Lamia?) Dome, arcologies are the tallest structures in the game. Incidentally, when a number of these more advanced models (see picture) were built in sufficient number, the entire collection lifted off the ground and flew out of the game entirely (presumably to space). This reinforces the idea of arcologies as a futuristic, slightly odd idea, and not a practical idea of the present

A level of the computer game posits a futuristic arcology on the edge of an ancient medina in Cairo.

Arcologies are common elements in futuristic anime and manga titles. An example would be the post-apocalyptic/cyberpunk series Appleseed by Masamune Shirow, in which arcologies dominate the skyline of the city Olympus.

In the 1982 cyberpunk film Blade Runner by Ridley Scott, the main offices of the fictional Tyrell Corporation are located in an arcology; The Genom Tower arcologies (among other things) in the anime Bubblegum Crisis were partially inspired by the Tyrell arcology.

The underground civilization depicted in George Lucas' first film THX-1138 can be seen as a "dysfunctional" arcology.

In Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's collaboration Oath of Fealty, much of the action is set in and around Todos Santos, an arcology built in a burnt-out section of Los Angeles that has evolved a separate culture from the city around it.

In the Judge Dredd comic stories, originally published in 2000 AD comic, the megalopolis of Mega-City One consists of many hundreds, if not thousands, of City Blocks, in which a citizen can be born, grow, live and die without ever leaving, perhaps a perfect example of an Arcology.

In the RPG Shadowrun, a number of arcologies exist by 2050, most of which are mega-corporate controlled. A major theme to these is the desire of the big corporation to control every aspect of their employees' lives. A major meta-plot element was the sealing off of one in Seattle when the advanced computer control system awakened into a self-aware AI which sought to protect itself.

In the RPG Trinity, a number of arcologies exist, with the largest being that of the New New York Arcology run by the Psi-Order Orgotek.

In the novel The World Inside by Robert Silverberg, everyone lived in 'Urban Monads' which were self-contained three kilometer high arcologies. People hardly ever departed.

In the season four finale of the science fiction show Andromeda a large battle takes place in space around an antiquated space arcology known simply as 'Arcology'.

In Isaac Asimov's Robot Series, Earth's population lives in large arcologies just called Cities.

Corporate arcologies are mentioned in William Gibson's Novel Neuromancer.

All the remaining cities of the Earth are arcologies in Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy.

In the computer game Afterlife, the player controlling Heaven and/or Hell can eventually purchase Love Domes or Ombibolges. Functioning similarly to arcologies, these structures are the remnants of transcended/destroyed Heaven/Hells that are able to hold billions of souls.

References

External links

[Arcosanti.org] – Official Webpage for a prototype arcology in Arizona
[Arcology.com] – Useful links
[The Yahoo Group]
[The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson] (Full text online)
[Victory City]
[A discussion of arcology concepts]