This is Issac Logsdon, one of the 2018 Warren MacKenzie Advancement Award recipients. As a part of my award, I have had the opportunity to travel to Central Arizona to attend a five week workshop at Arcosanti. Just a couple of weeks ago I graduated from the program, which includes learning the philosophies and construction methods behind the experimental urban laboratory, called Arcosanti, started by the architect and theorist Paolo Soleri. As a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, Soleri turned away from a heavy reliance on city planning centered on driving cars, envisioning the cities of the future to be extremely dense and connected, while remaining in touch with the surrounding undeveloped nature. Here at Arcosanti, these philosophies have been put into use by using a minimal amount of land for residential and commercial spaces and leaving the huge majority of land left as natural spaces.
In the 50s, Soleri began slip casting directly into fine silt from riverbeds to make ceramic sculptures, bells, and other wares. This technique was later applied to casting large concrete architectural elements directly in forms carved out of the compacted silt. At Arcosanti, the silt from the Agua Fría riverbed has been used to create vaults, domes, housing, and more.
Soon I will be traveling to Death Valley National Park, CA and Santa Fe, NM to work with adobe with the organization Cornerstones.
No comments:
Post a Comment