The Architecture, Structure and Landscape in the Work of Paolo Soleri in Arizona

This contribution focuses on the figure of architect Paolo Soleri, who dedicated his life to experiments with the new constructive technologies and resulting formal expressions. Having graduated in architecture at Turin Politecnico in 1947 and completing an apprenticeship with F.L. Wright, Soleri left his legacy at Cosanti and Arcosanti in Arizona, where he was able to freely express his ideas on the construction of a healthy habitat capable of optimising the use of resources. Cosanti and Arcosanti combine experimentation with elementary constructive technologies and the search for an original architectural expression, obtained by shaping the space in direct contact with the earth, so that the same earth seems to conform itself in order to accommodate the habitable space. The relationship between formal expression and constructive technology is the stylistic theme of Soleri’s projects, which, over the course of the years, tended to a geometric construction of pure forms.