If renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright was a madman for order, Paolo Soleri was just plainly a madman. Although his reputation was tarnished by posthumous allegations of sexual abuse, his work remains an important part of design history. (Wright was no Boy Scout either, BTW.)
The Italian architect came to Wright’s Arizona workshop Taliesin West in 1946 to study among Wright’s apprentices. But his wild nature, manic energy and boundary-pushing designs didn’t mesh with Wright’s monastic environment. Soleri was also challenging Wright on the national stage, winning exhibitions in New York and attracting attention in important architectural circles.
In 1956, Soleri returned to Arizona and established his own rival workshop, Cosanti.
Where Taliesin West is all right angles, Cosanti is wild and organic. Soleri pioneered a technique of mounding desert silt, covering it in concrete and digging the dirt back out, leaving domed structures that inspired George Lucas’ design of Skywalker Ranch in the opening scenes of Star Wars.
Cosanti remains a working studio where artisans cast its famous bronze and ceramic windbells. Guided tours explore Soleri’s buildings, and weekday visitors can often see a bronze pour.
Soleri coined “arcology”—architecture plus ecology—to describe dense cities that consumed less land than the sprawl swallowing the desert. Construction began at Arcosanti in 1970, and for decades students, artists and assorted true believers came to study Soleri’s ideas and help build his experimental city.
Those workshops are currently paused, but people still live and work here. Visitors can tour the architecture, see the working bronze foundry and ceramics studio and even stay overnight.
Arcosanti | arcosanti.org
