“The city is the necessary instrument for the evolution of humankind.” —Paolo Soleri

You’ve heard of architecture, you’ve heard of ecology … but what happens when you smoosh those words together? You get “arcology,” a concept coined by Italian-American architect Paolo Soleri, out of which sprouted his ongoing experimental town in central Arizona called “Acrosanti.” Earlier this year, your #1 Tertiary host (Heaven-Leigh, obviously) paid said town a visit and brought a fistful of questions and ideas home with her.

For this week’s Sidequest, Justin and Heaven-Leigh finally tackle the topic they’re both secretly obsessed with: Urban design. What would it look like to build a city around the natural environment? What happens when your relationship to “work” becomes less about making money and more about building community? We get into it—and we can’t wait to hear what you think about all of it.

Follow us on Instagram, send us an email at tertpod@gmail.com or fill out our Google Form to submit a question that we’ll answer in a future episode. We want to hear from you!

Assigned Reading:

• Explore the Acrosanti project’s website (here)
• Read Paolo Soleri’s “Arcology Concept” (here)

Our intro and outro music comes from “Cloud Dancer” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.