Would you live in an Arcology?

Arcology is Paolo Soleri’s concept of cities which embody the fusion of architecture with ecology. The arcology concept proposes a highly integrated and compact three-dimensional urban form that is the opposite of urban sprawl with its inherently wasteful consumption of land, energy and time, tending to isolate people from each other and the community. The complexification and miniaturization of the city enables radical conservation of land, energy and resources.

Paolo Soleri is an architect with radical ideas about architecture and how to design cities in a way that minimizes our carbon footprint. He has a demonstration city, named Arcosanti, in the desert about an hour North of Phoenix.

Would you be willing to live in an Arcology? Could you stand living so close to lots of other people (kind of like being in a space station), but knowing you’d have access to lots of natural space only minutes away? Would you be willing to give up your car, knowing everything you needed was minutes away (like New York City)? Would you do this for the environment? To save money? Have you ever done something like this, or visited Arcosanti? What did you think?