Where do I sign up? That’s what I’m thinking from the moment I veer towards this hidden haven. An “Urban Laboratory”, Arcosanti was founded in 1970 by architect Paolo Soleri and his wife, Colly. You can read all about that here. People joined the Soleris to build and create sustainable community based on principles of conservation, urban planning, and environmental stewardship. Some have stayed, more have left, many have come to be part of this lifestyle.
I wandered the long path from parking lot to the concrete visitor center, where there is a cafe, gift shop, and a throughway to the hiking path. Paolo Soleri studied architecture under Frank Lloyd Wright, and that influence is apparent throughout the development’s construction. Geometric repetition, circles, windows, angles, artistic utility.
Because I left Scottsdale later than planned, it was lunchtime. The friendly, unassuming cafe staff provided a variety of sandwich and salad options, as well as information about the tours and sights. As usual I sat alone, then decided strangers would be better company. I moved to a table where three other women were sitting.
Three woman welcomed me to their table and shared stories of previous visits, RV journeys, and desert life. All three encouraged me regarding my solo travels and new lifestyle. I was doing what they each had done in the past, though with their respective husbands – living, traveling, roaming, wandering, wondering. We ate and chatted for maybe half an hour. Two of the women were sisters – one on a trip from her home in Ohio. She gave me her phone number in case I was ever in her area and needed a safe driveway spot. The third lived in a nearby town in Arizona. Like so many people in the US she lives on very little, and gets help as needed for medication, rent, and survival. People tell me things.
Upstairs in the gift shop are books and bells – fabulous bells. I wanted every one. I wanted to learn to make them. Art has that affect on me – stirring creative thoughts, ideas of projects and creations that are lost before becoming real. Some of the residents make and sell bells to help fund the ongoing experiment. Others make pottery. Others cook. Some teach, some provide tours. Everyone contributes to the economic existence of Arcosanti, though our tour guide said their model has morphed over the years.
Visitors have to be with a tour guide, an Arcosanti resident, in order to see more than the initial building so I contributed as well to their existence by joining the tour group that gathered. We first watched an inspiring, though dated, video about the Soleris, arcotecture, and how this place grew into its current incarnation. An articulate young woman led us down pathways lined with the natural plant life and geology of the high desert. Unlike other developments, nature comes first, and the architecture is built around and between it, preserving earth. We had the honor of strolling by partially underground homes, residential apartments and common areas, where people were working, meditating, playing with children. We stopped in front of a quarter of a sphere, half of a dome, where ceramics and bells are produced by artisans.
Nearby are a couple of arches that demonstrate more of Soleri’s arcology, colored adobe-like embellishments adorning thick concrete walls. Voices and footsteps echo, children’s sing-song exclamations exaggerated. Each arch is different, demonstrating lessons learned from the first build to the second. Other rooms lie beyond the round porthole windows. Everything here is integrated – life, art, work, community, aspirations. There’s an amphitheater and a music hall nearby as well, surrounded by apartments and gardens. Bells hang on trees. Metal flowers reside aside new growth that hasn’t yet bloomed.
I am in awe. I am delighted. I am filled with wonder. I dream of someday being part of a community like this – why have I not sought this out yet in my half-century on the planet? “What are we here for,” my mental chatterer inquires. Achievement, acquisition, collaboration, rugged individualism, creation, progress – what is success? The Arcosanti experiment demonstrates that other paradigms are possible, would have been possible, is available in enclaves apart from what we like to call “the real world”.
Since then a couple of months have passed. New Mexico and Colorado are both under shelter-in-place orders due to a pandemic which is revealing weaknesses some of us have been warning about for years. Decades. I am fortunate to work and safely exist in a tiny desert town with a few friends and my girl-dogs. Other friends are far away, though technology bridges the gap. Somewhat. A different paradigm. Conscious community. Intentional collaboration. Shared spaces (once the plague subsides, of course). What can we all build?
Explore, Create, Inquire, Seek, Share, Learn 
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