Arcosanti, Arizona
Paolo Soleri
Architect and urban planner Paolo Soleri first broke ground on the new desert town of Arcosanti in 1970, with the idea of building a sustainable community for 5,000 people. Today, the population typically still hovers around 100, and most of those are visiting students, but Arcosanti has become shorthand for visionary, utopian solutions to the challenges of global development. Like a medieval village, it's designed for everything to be within walking distance, and the thick earth structures are oriented to the sun for heating, cooling, and lighting. As Soleri—who recently won a National Design award for Lifetime Achievement—explains, at Arcosanti, "the built and the living interact as organs would in a highly evolved being."
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