Abstract Body

With the coronavirus slowing down the global economy, and the 1.9 T stimulus plan starting programs to help people, now is the time for us to build something new. President Biden’s slogan, “build back better,” needs to be put into motion at lightning speed. Arcology is a car-free architectural concept brought forth by the last architect Dr. Paolo Soleri. Using a whole-systems-design/science revolutionary approach to build both is an external shell and its social interior space, arcology could be a container for us to survive abrupt climate changes on Earth. It might also serve as an urban laboratory to test how we might live in new worlds. Arcology focused on a whole-of-government approach to its building methods could provide us with a way to both mitigate and adapt to extreme weather events our new climate normal in the Anthropocene.

Even though Soleri attempted to build a prototype arcology in the Arizona desert, it failed to reach his critical mass goal of 5,000 residents. It’s time now to make arcology for, let’s say, one million arcology pioneers using a superpower public/private partnership funding strategy that enacts the Defense Production Act. An experiment in circular economic practices, it’s a prototype in regenerative urban agriculture, green energy, AI-run infrastructure that could be modeled around the world. Using 3D printing and robotic automation, arcologies could be manufactured with unprecedented speed to reach our goal of building zero carbon emissions, solar-powered civilization by the year 2050.

Such an approach is necessary to reach our target since, as Bill Gates says in his climate change master plan about the demand for new construction, “we are effectively adding a New York City to the planet every month for the next 40 years. From greener materials to cleaner industrial processes, we must find ways to build and use buildings without emitting carbon.” If we want to build back better, we must connect all the brainpower of the university and research centers around the world together using a blueprint of supranational Arcology Now.