"This volume brings together the essays of Paolo Soleri in which he sets forth his philosophy of arcology (architecture ecology) and pleads for a new stage in the evolution of human society -- a move toward compactness, or miniaturization, of our cities. To do so we must build solids rather than veneers; we must flee from a 'flat' cityscape that debilitates and suppresses the individual. Arcologies, three dimensional macrostructures, are for populations of thousands or of millions.
"Starting with a look at the United States as it approaches its bicentennial, Soleri develops his ideas and methodology for a viable city of the future -- the Civitate Dei, 'the city of god' in which total communication exists by way of the urban institution between man and man and between man and nature. This city of the spirit can be accomplished only through the methodology Soleri proposes as it is the same proposed by the evolutionary process of life's development.
"Soleri's intention is simply the transformation of the cities of today and the obliteration of the alienation we feel not only from other classes of people but from our own families and friends. Some critics call him reactionary, others proclaim him as a revolutionary -- he is in any event controversial and what he says is of vital importance to both groups and to all who wonder where we go from here." [jacket blurb, US pbk, 1973]
