So as part of the Washington Street foundation we visited the Cosanti Foundation grounds up in Paradise Valley. Cosanti and Arcosanti are both “ideally formed” communities that Italian architect Paolo Solari has been dreaming up in Arizona over the past 50 some odd years.
We were given a guided tour through the community by a middle-aged and starry eyed academic from Austin. He spoke in an incredibly esoteric manner, wore suspenders to hold up his sagging pants, and was an absolute evangelist for the building philosophies of Solari. The community itself looked like something that hobbits would have created should they have ever left the green, rolling hills of the shire for the Sonoran desert.
Evidently Solari was a prized pupil of the famed Frank Lloyd Wright. He believes that people and their building initiatives should be in harmony in nature. He is a strong opponent of the sprawl that we see in Phoenix and his Arcosanti community, 60 miles north of Phoenix, was developed to draw people closer together and drive cars out of communities. (http://www.arcosanti.org/) The word cosanti is derived from two Italian words- cosa, meaning thing; and anti, meaning before.
The community is maintained by a group of free thinking academics much like what you would have seen in the Berkeley area in the 1960’s. A lot of its operating revenue is generated by the sale of custom made bronze and ceramic bells that are made on site. They showed us how a kiln worked and walked us through the smelting process. I enjoyed myself and got wrapped in a couple of conversations regarding “arcology”, which is Soleri’s theory on how architecture and ecology should coexist.
Meanwhile the kids……wait, there are kids…….
Meanwhile the grandiose and idealized views espoused by our guide were completely lost on the 10 kids in the group. To their credit they quietly fidgeted and tried to pay attention. The guide didn’t even try to speak to the kids and help them understand the concepts. At least they got some lunch and got to swim afterwards.
We were given a guided tour through the community by a middle-aged and starry eyed academic from Austin. He spoke in an incredibly esoteric manner, wore suspenders to hold up his sagging pants, and was an absolute evangelist for the building philosophies of Solari. The community itself looked like something that hobbits would have created should they have ever left the green, rolling hills of the shire for the Sonoran desert.
Evidently Solari was a prized pupil of the famed Frank Lloyd Wright. He believes that people and their building initiatives should be in harmony in nature. He is a strong opponent of the sprawl that we see in Phoenix and his Arcosanti community, 60 miles north of Phoenix, was developed to draw people closer together and drive cars out of communities. (http://www.arcosanti.org/) The word cosanti is derived from two Italian words- cosa, meaning thing; and anti, meaning before.
The community is maintained by a group of free thinking academics much like what you would have seen in the Berkeley area in the 1960’s. A lot of its operating revenue is generated by the sale of custom made bronze and ceramic bells that are made on site. They showed us how a kiln worked and walked us through the smelting process. I enjoyed myself and got wrapped in a couple of conversations regarding “arcology”, which is Soleri’s theory on how architecture and ecology should coexist.
Meanwhile the kids……wait, there are kids…….
Meanwhile the grandiose and idealized views espoused by our guide were completely lost on the 10 kids in the group. To their credit they quietly fidgeted and tried to pay attention. The guide didn’t even try to speak to the kids and help them understand the concepts. At least they got some lunch and got to swim afterwards.
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