ArcologyIntroduction

Arcology Home Page

**1. Background:**

Arcology is a concept that was developed by Paolo Soleri. Arcology is an integrated set of architectural and ecological design principles that aims at creating a city inhabiting a higher population in only about 2% of the land that they would have normally occupied. Arcology cities are portrayed as self-sustaining. The city is designed to be highly compact and integrated. One of the main requirements of the design is the elimination of wasteful consumption of energy, land and time. Furthermore, the concept aims at building a tightly knit community with the people living on it.

In arcology, automobiles are eliminated from the city to minimize unnecessary space, to reduce production of harmful emissions and to reduce dependency on non-renewable energy sources such as gas. Hence, the design of arcology aims at placing living, working and public spaces within easy reach from each other and walking would be the main transportation method in the city. Some existing designs of arcology will be described in the next section.

**1.1. Existing Arcology Designs** **1.1.1 Arcosanti Project** The Arcosanti project is one of the pioneers in arcology as it is initiated by Paolo Soleri. Arcosanti is located in the high desert of central Arizona. The project began in the 1970's and is still in progress right now. Arcosanti is intended to house 5000 people in the future. The main focus of Arcosanti is the tight knit community. The plan for layout of the Arcosanti is shown in figure 1. Some of the buildings that are built in the Arcosanti are: More information about Arcosanti can be found on: [] . Mo
 * Crafts III
 * Ceramic Apse
 * Foundry
 * East & West Housing
 * Vaults
 * Lab Building
 * Sky Suite and etc



Figure 1 Layout for Arcosanti 5000 **1.1.2. Masdar City** Masdar city is an arcology project that is being built in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Masdar city is being built on an area of 6 km2 and is planned to house 45,000-50,000 people and 1,500 businesses. Furthermore, it is expected to have more than 60,000 worked that will commute to the city daily. Unlike the Arcosanti, Masdar city plans to flourish businesses and innovation. However, Masdar city still strives to meet the requirements of arcology by trying to achieve the highest quality living and working environment with the lowest possible ecological footprint. Figure 2 shows an image of te Masdar Institute facade. The Masdar Institute is one of the first buildings that are completed in Masdar City as a model of sustainability. The institute uses less than half the cooling demand of the UAE average and 30% of its power demand is met by a 1MW rooftop PV array that can also provide shades to the building and the streets below. More information about Masdar City can be found on: []

Figure 2 Center Courtyard and windtower at the Masdar Institute Today's big cities have been one of the sources of pollution as high demands of living calls for more technology that still depends on non-renewable energy. The goal of our project is to design a new city that has unique features using the arcology principles to promote sustainability. The design requirements are as follows:
 * 1.2. Problem Definition**
 * Maximize use of land area available
 * Use only renewable sources of energy
 * Eliminate or minimize waste production where possible
 * Eliminate harmful emissions
 * Have a sustainable mode of transportation
 * Have an intact community
 * High quality of living
 * Availability of resources

**1.3. Design Strategy**

The group brainstormed on the concept of arcology as a whole. We looked at examples of existing arcology projects. We have prepared decision matrices to help us evaluate the pros and cons of various options in different aspects of our design such as energy source and etc. Some assumptions are made to simplify the design process. Each aspect of the city is then divided to each member as related to our individual interests and knowledge. Various group meetings are held to discuss our individual progress. Each part is then compiled in order to have a holistic view of our city and make sure that each aspect fits with each other. Some sketches and diagrams are provided where available. Following diagram shows the number of various activities accomplished by people in the city.

Fig:3 People's Activities Model in Eutopia City

**1.4. Assumptions**

**1.4.1. Population** The majority of the population will be composed of families of about 4-6 members (2 parents and 2-4 kids) which will make up 60% of the overall population. Families usually 4-6 people (2 parents and 2-4 kids). Some couples and some singles would also be around. Age demographics can be assumed such that majority of the population will be families of 4-6. Furthermore, there is a high possibility that the island can attract some retirees due to the overall ambience of the location that will be relaxing.

**1.4.2. Land Size** 10,000,000 sq. m

**1.4.3. Location**

**Table 1 Weighted Decision Matrix for Choice of Location for the City**
 * Note: Masdar City is used as a reference since it is being built already. Island is the chosen location.

Table 1 is constructed in order to decide the location of the city. The candidate locations are from different climate areas which are: southern Canada, a desert in the middle of United States, an island in Oceania region and a floating structure in Atlantic Ocean. 5 criteria were chosen for these locations which are: energy reliability, disaster-proneness, resources availability, topography and size. Energy reliability and disaster-proneness are the most important factor for deciding the location, so each one weighted as 0.25. Topography and size have the lowest importance, so each one weighted as 0.15. The importance of resources availability is listed as average which is 0.2.The ranking scale for this table is a linear, symmetrical scale is between -2, greatly inferior compared to the alternatives, and 2, greatly superior in compared to the alternatives. Masdar city was chosen as the reference which provides baseline for the comparison. Masdar city is a zero-carbon and zero-waste project in Abu Dhabi, UAE, which relies entirely on renewable energies. Since Masdar city is the reference point, all of its criteria weights are listed as zero. A desert in the middle of United States has the same situation as Masdar city except its size which could be greater than Masdar city. The energy reliability in the island is the most, 2, since it can get advantage of the land and ocean energy resources. South Canada energy reliability listed as 1 since it cannot use the ocean energy sources. The floating structure has the worst energy reliability, -1, since it is very inconvenient to build wind tower, geothermal plant, and etc. Since the oceans are more likely to come across storm, flood and etc, the island and floating structure are listed as -1 in d isaster-proneness. Since Southern Canada does not experience sand storm, it has slightly better situation than Masdar city and listed as 0.5. Southern Canada and an island in Oceania are very rich in resources availability such as rich soil, water, lakes and rivers, so it is marked as 2. The natural resources in the floating structure at Atlantic Ocean is listed as 1, slightly lower than the southern Canada and the island. The topography is based on the surface shape and features of the location which were assumed to be 1 for island, 0 for the floating structure and -1 for the Southern Canada. It was assumed that the All of the listed location has the potential for different size cities, so all of them listed as 1.

**1.4.4. Energy sources**

**Table 2. Weighted Decision Matrix for Choice of Energy Source**
 * Note: Four sources of energy will be used in the city which are Tidal, Solar, Wind and Geothermal which are all renewable sources.

Table 2 is constructed in order to decide the energy sources. The candidate energy sources are: solar, nuclear, wind, waste incineration and geothermal. 5 criteria were chosen for these energy sources which are: accessibility, easiness to build, efficiency of energy produced, renewable and damage to the environment. Accessibility is the most important factor for deciding the energy sources, so it was weighted as 0.30. The renewable and efficiency of energy produced are listed as second and third importance by 0.25 and 0.20 respectively. Damage to the environment and easiness to build are the least important factors which are listed as 0.15 and 0.10 respectively. The ranking scale for this table exactly similar to table 1 and scaled from -2, greatly inferior compared to the alternatives, to 2, greatly superior in compared to the alternatives. Hydro/Tidal was chosen as the reference which provides baseline for comparison. Since hydro/Tidal is the reference point, all of its criteria weights are listed as zero. The accessibility of the solar and geothermal is the most, 1.5, since they easily can find in any location. Nuclear is listed as the least accessible,-1, and waste incineration is listed as average, 0. Wind accessibility is average, 0, since in some areas the wind speed is not enough to generate electricity. Waste incineration is not as easy as solar power and not as difficult as nuclear plant, so it was listed as average, 0. Solar and wind farms are the easiest energy sources to build, 1 and 0.5 respectively. Nuclear and geothermal have high efficiency of energy produced, but they are expensive and difficult to build. They both are listed as -1 because for easiness to build, since they are very complicated plants and require many investigations prior to the construction initiation. As already explained efficiency of energy produced of nuclear and geothermal is high and listed as 2 and 1 respectively. Solar and waste incinerations have the lowest efficiency by listing as -1 and wind efficiency is average, 0. Nuclear is the only source which is listed to be less renewable than hydro/tidal, -1. Solar, wind and geothermal are the best renewable sources which are listed as 2. Waste incineration is a good renewable energy, but it also required some fossil fuel to produce energy from the waste, so it is listed slightly lower than other renewable energies, 1. Wind and geothermal energies does not impact the environment, so they are listed as 1 in the table. Solar energy is placed after wind and geothermal as the most environmental friendly source, 0.5. Nuclear and waste management obviously have some waste which harms the environment, so they are listed as -1 in the table.