Editing Arcology (section)

==Development==
{{Original research section|date=August 2023}}
An arcology is distinguished from a merely large building in that it is designed to lessen the [[Human impact on the environment|impact of human habitation]] on any given [[ecosystem]]. It could be self-sustainable, employing all or most of its own available resources for a comfortable life: power, climate control, food production, air and water conservation and purification, sewage treatment, etc. An arcology is designed to make it possible to supply those items for a large population. An arcology would supply and maintain its own municipal or urban infrastructures in order to operate and connect with other urban environments apart from its own.

Arcologies were proposed in order to reduce human impact on natural resources. Arcology designs might apply conventional building and civil engineering techniques in very large, but practical projects in order to achieve pedestrian [[economies of scale]] that have proven, post-automobile, to be difficult to achieve in other ways.

[[Frank Lloyd Wright]] proposed an early version<ref>Wright, Frank Lloyd, "An Organic Architecture"</ref> called [[Broadacre City]] although, in contrast to an arcology, his idea is comparatively two-dimensional and depends on a road network. Wright's plan described transportation, agriculture, and commerce systems that would support an economy. Critics said that Wright's solution failed to account for population growth, and assumed a more rigid democracy than the US actually has.

[[File:R. Buckminster Fuller with his domed city design.jpg|thumb|Buckminster Fuller with a drawing of his domed city proposal]]
[[Buckminster Fuller]] proposed the [[Old Man River's City project]], a domed city with a capacity of 125,000, as a solution to the housing problems in [[East St. Louis, Illinois]].

Paolo Soleri proposed later solutions, and coined the term "arcology".<ref>Soleri, Paolo, "Arcology: The City in the Image of Man"</ref> Soleri describes ways of compacting city structures in three dimensions to combat two-dimensional [[urban sprawl]], to economize on transportation and other energy uses. Like Wright, Soleri proposed changes in transportation, agriculture, and commerce. Soleri explored reductions in [[resource consumption]] and duplication, land reclamation; he also proposed to eliminate most private transportation. He advocated for greater "frugality" and favored greater use of shared social resources, including public transit (and public libraries).