Half a century ago the architect Paolo Soleri promoted the idea of an Arcology, “a highly integrated and compact three-dimensional urban form that is the opposite of urban sprawl with its inherently wasteful consumption of land, energy resources and time, and tendency to isolate people from each other and the community.”
Today there is a new vision that is a direct descendant: the Vertical City. Eighteen months ago TreeHugger wrote about a Kickstarter to produce a book and a video that would describe a building form that “can save energy, support our growing population and preserve our horizontal spaces for food production, nature and recreation.” The book was released recently, and the video premiered in New York City this past Friday.