Arcology
An arcology is from a single mating building complex designed city , which is a unit of architecture and ecology forms. The suitcase word “Arkologie” was formed from these two terms .
History of the arcology
- 1958: The Italian-American architect Paolo Soleri starts planning the Mesa City project . This project describes a city of 2 million people. The project never came to fruition. However, all later works on arcologies are based on this project, which attracted the public's attention through many exhibitions.
- 1969: The results of research on the Mesa City project are published in Paolo Soleri's book Arcology: The City in the Image of Man . With this book, Soleri also coined the term arcology .
- 1970: Paolo Soleri starts building the first Arcosanti arcology . This experimental city in Arizona is still being developed today. In the years that followed, the concept was continually adapted to new findings and developments.
- 1993: The term arcology becomes known to broad sections of the population through the computer game SimCity 2000 .
Properties of an arcology
- The basic needs of the population are covered regardless of the surrounding area. Things like food and electricity are produced within the city.
- The city is built from an ecological point of view. This means, for example, that wastewater is processed within the city, waste is separated and reused as centrally as possible. In addition, hardly any natural land is destroyed due to the high population density.
- The city is car-free . Due to the extremely narrow development, all important things can be reached on foot.
Arcologies in media representation
Arcologies - besides all failed attempts to realize them in real life - have established a permanent place in ( science fiction ) video games. In the first person shooter Deus Ex - Invisible War, for example, there is an arcology in Egypt , which divides the city of Cairo , which is contaminated in the game, into a clean, disease-free zone (the arcology) and a contaminated part (medina). This portrayal is connected with a gloomy future vision in which only wealthy people are able to secure a place in the arcology and thus their survival. In the science fiction treatise by Mass Effect , modern cities made from arkological skyscrapers from the beginning of the 22nd century onwards help to reduce pollution on earth , better protect people from environmental disasters and thereby noticeably improve the quality of life. In the game SimCity 2000 it is possible to build arcologies from the last era.
In the science fiction film Judge Dredd , the devastated earth only offers shelter to a few people in so-called megacities , huge arcologies. An exile, as experienced by the protagonist Judge Dredd , is equivalent to a death sentence in Diegesia. The film The Fifth Element also features a form of arcology, the model of which is recognized as the “Cité Puits”, the shaft city. This is a frequent setting in the works of Moebius and Alejandro Jodorowsky in their urban visions of the future (e.g. John Difool ). Likewise, the US film Die Insel portrays a society that lives in a strictly regulated arcology after being contaminated by nuclear power. Similarly, in the film Escape to the 23rd Century from 1977, a society living in a domed city is described in order to protect itself against the supposedly hostile outside world and to enforce internal strict rules for population control.
The presentation of arcologies in the media usually has negative features and is often associated with a dystopia .
Arcologies in literature and in role-playing games
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Larry Niven , Jerry Pournelle : Todos Santos . Heyne, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-453-31036-5 . Original edition: Oath of Fealty , 1981.
(The arcology 'Todos Santos' is being built near Los Angeles, among other things to gather information on the construction of a generational spaceship .) -
Greg Bear : The power of stones . Heyne, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-453-10947-3 . Original edition: Strength of Stones , 1981.
(Autarkic arcologies get rid of their residents because they are in the way of the AI of the cities.) -
Peter F. Hamilton : The Night's Dawn Trilogy : The Reality Dysfunction (1996), The Neutronium Alchemist (1997), The Naked God (1999).
English: The Armageddon cycle .
(The inhabitants of the earth live in arcologies: huge cities that stretch over hundreds of square kilometers and function independently. They also protect people from the weather of a completely destroyed ecosystem.)
Role play
- In Cyberpunk - Fantasy role-playing game Shadowrun , the "Renraku arcology" is in Seattle the 2060er years the scene of some stories. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of other arcologies as well. However, some of them are so-called “mini arcologies”, which are not only significantly smaller than complete arcologies, but also only fulfill some aspects of such. In addition, a company called Proteus operates so-called "Arkoblocks". These are obelisk-shaped arcologies that she erected in several places around the world off the coasts in the sea. The largest of them, measured from the sea floor, are 1.7 kilometers high and could theoretically accommodate 500,000 people. Furthermore, several companies operate so-called "aquacologies", which are arcologies that are located at the bottom of the sea. Another group operates the so-called "Artemis Lunar Arcology" on the moon .
- Even before Shadowrun there was a source book “Chicago Arcology” in the role-playing game “Cyberspace” by ICE.
- In the Nintendo DS game Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Mauville City is an arcology.
