Pictures: Arco Santi Vol. 2

This is Arcosanti a quasi failed urban laboratory/ experimental town. It was created in 1970 as a way to revolutionize society and its creator Paolo Soleri hoped it would house 5,000 people.

Almost 40 years later, 90 people live here and they have only built about 10 percent of their intended community.

The part outlined in red has been built and the rest is set to be built one day. Arcosanti has no hard dates for anything mainly because they have very little money/organization/motivation. Their chief export is wind chimes.

The wind chimes are made at a slow clip here.
They have some pretty arches.

They have cutting-edge technology.

And they have these cool cement structures.

There is a lot more silliness about Arcosanti that I have since forgotten. I probably should blogged this stuff after I went there two months ago. Our tour leader was a young, skinny kid from New Jersey who got so lost in life that he had been living in Arcosanti for the past two years. He wore a purple bandanna around his head and had facial here similar to Hulk Hogan, except that he was not a professional wrestler, he was a citizen of Arcosanti.

The tour guide explained that Arcosanti's goal is to become a sustainable, car-free community where people can get anything they want within the community. The ultimate plan is for the community to be built of pods, some having stores, some being living spaces. Basically he described what any dense metropolitan city is, except Arcosanti is in the middle of the Arizona desert.

I still really do not understand Arcosanti and I am not sure anyone does. But it was interesting and if you ever end up lost in the greater Phoenix area it's worth checking out.