"Arcology" - Used by famous architect, Soleri Paolo, meaning architecture coherent with ecology. Paolo was an author, visionary and pioneer of new human spaces. He was the first architect to design buildings and communities with keeping our habitat in mind.
His idea was that there is an inherent logic in the structure and nature of organisms that have grown on this planet. Any architecture, any urban design, and any social structure that violates that structure and nature is destructive of itself and of us and inversely, these that are based upon organic principles is valid and will prove its own validity, i.e. it's vailidity to live.
Paolo's conception of Arcology is a visionary of 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.
Why has it taken so long for man to start building communities in this way? Imagine a community where everything was accessible by walking, biking or alternative transportation. A community that shared gardens and grew all the fruits and vegetable they needed. A community with recycling & composting programs and education of sustainability. A community connected with the environment... and why not make this a reality?
Here are some of his quotes I found interesting:
"The photosynthetic veneer, the vegetal world, must not be overlaid by a man-caused opaque veneer."
"The real is the present. The practical is in most cases the past, a frozen imagery of the real not fully becoming. The American dream is the present as practicality rather than the present as real."
If everyone lived the "American dream", it would take over 20 planets to support us...
"That which can be described can become obsolete."
A community in the current era, the first LEED Platinum Community in British Columbia called the Olympic Village:
