Cersaie - A tribute to Paolo Soleri, the creator of Arcology

On Tuesday 24 September, the International Exhibition of Ceramic Tile and Bathroom Furnishings will be hosting an event in honour of the architect, who died recently. The programme includes a documentary and an open floor discussion on the life and the artistic and cultural achievements of Paolo Soleri.

A city of 5,000 people, where cars are not permitted and distances are measured in minutes of walking time. A compact, independent urban structure employing clean technologies, where life, work and play all take place under one roof. This is Arcosanti, the prototypical experimental city conceived in Arizona by Paolo Soleri, the Italian architect, artist, writer, sculptor and urban designer, who died on 9 April this year, famous for having been the first to discuss the concept of “arcology”, a discipline which integrates ecology with architecture.

Cersaie is dedicating the event A vision is indeed reality: a tribute to Paolo Soleri to his life and his cultural and artistic achievements, to be held on Tuesday 24 September at the International Exhibition of Ceramics, Bologna Fiere. The event is divided into two sections. In the first part, the documentary “Paolo Soleri: Beyond Form” by independent film maker Aimee Madsen will be shown. Filmed in a verité style, it is a portrait of the legendary architect and philosopher who, with his frugal approach, has influenced the theories of urban design and art, inspiring hundreds of people, and focussing on the characteristics which made him a green long before sustainability and the green economy became commonplaces.

The second part will be an open floor discussion with the film maker and Roger Tomalty, director of the Cosanti Foundation, the school/architectural project founded in in Arizona by Soleri in 1961. Architect Michael P. Johnson will join the discussion, and architecture historian and journalist Chiara Baglione will moderate.

The event will discuss the work of Soleri in depth, starting from the participants’ close relationships with him. In particular, in making her film, Aimee Madsen established a close relationship with Soleri, a unique experience that lasted five years. Tomalty, on the other hand, worked side by side with Soleri from 1970 onwards in his work as designer and builder. Johnson's relationship with Soleri, finally, started in the early Sixties and continued to his death fifty years later. But the event will also be an occasion for discussing the future of the Cosanti Foundation and Arcosanti after its founder's death.

Paolo Soleri

Born in Turin in 1919, Paolo Soleri moved to the USA in 1947, immediately after completing his architectural studies. In 1955 he moved to Arizona with his family and set up the Cosanti Foundation, a school/project where, with students from the University of Arizona, he started experiments in communal living in which the ceramic crafts financed the enterprise and hence the creation - with his own hands - of an ecological environment. The Arcosanti prototype city was born in 1971, as a way for Soleri to apply the concepts of arcology in practice.

Source: Cersaie

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