Flemming Funch: Good old Doctress Neutopia is proposing that New Orleans should be turned into the world's first arcology. If you don't know what an arcology is, see here. It is basically building a sustainable city in one big unit, one huge building, instead of letting it spread haphazardly. And if you don't know who Doctress Neutopia is, her name is also Libby Hubbard. She was an Internet celebrity in the early 90s attracting quite a following, and an anti-following too. Her vision of the "lovolution" and her fiery temper made her a tempting target for a bunch of folks who called themselves the Monster Truck Neutopians, celebrating everything that she was against, and hanging out and irritating her at every chance they had. But she's pretty unstoppable. She was also hanging out in NCN for a couple of years. I haven't spoken with her for several years. Anyway, I don't know how practical the New Orleans Arcology thing is, but it is a valiant endavor. What I found most interesting on her site there is the story of the Yaquii Village she adopted, and the description there of old examples of arcology-like buildings in the American south-west.

%gray%To think in terms of building a sustainable village, like the Anasazi dwellings, we have to think of designing not a house, but a village. We can not longer afford to think in terms of single family dwellings, but think about what is good for the entire community. When one thinks of all the refugees throughout the world as well as the one's who became refugees through environmental disasters like what happened to New Orleans or the millions of homeless people in the United States, we need to think in terms of building villages within villages, an arcology for millions of people.

%gray%What I am visualizing is a mass exodus occurring from our dying civilization to a more evolved, holistic developmental pattern that allows us to have individual freedom along side of the responsibility of the collective. I'm seeing the labor force of the world turning around and moving in a new direction that brings us back in balance with nature by building a network of arcologies.

%gray%I'm excited with the idea of arcology as a center of culture, a place where arts are not on the side lines of civilization but are the life blood of the people. Such a vision gives the children of the world a future of human dignity, a future where they can enjoy the revival of now-threatened plant and animal species, and have the time and resources to pursue the adventures of the mind and heart, producing great art, advancing miraculous science, and living with the beauty of star light forever.

FranzNahrada By the way we tried so time ago to host the Arcology community here and offer them an ArcologyWiki. It has been dead for some time but I think the Arcology theme is very valid. What I tried to bring up again and again was the fact that arcologies can be conceptualized much smaller (mini-arcologies), still being an immense tool of global frugality.