Some years ago, I had an idea for a story set in a vast, modular arcology. I remember only two story points:

1. The educational system had advanced to the point that there were no schools, only test prep centers.

2. Several of the characters were werewolves.

Yep, that's it.

Friends don't let friends play too much White Wolf.

It's a pity that I don't remember more of the plot. With the success of Snakes on a Plane, I could call it Werewolves in an Arcology. People would buy it just for the buh factor.

That, and the venom cocks, because if there's nothing else the literary world has taught us this year, it's that venom cocks sell. Werewolves, venom cocks, arcologies, Mary Sue heroine(s). Long descriptions of the wind singing as it swept over the empty fields of steel girders on the outskirts of the arcology. Probably vampires, because vampires also sell, and are possibly venomous. Pirates, because pirates are cool. A rocket, because any story that contains a rocket is automatically cool. Fields of vegetable sheep. Barnacle ducks swaying in the tide. (The pirates could farm the barnacle ducks on their ship! How cool would that be? Sustainable piracy.) Angst, though how one can angst in the presence of vegetable sheep is beyond me.

Betcha there are neodryads in the steel girders.

Okay, have worked too hard, possibly overdosed on coffee. Am off to see Paolo "Baron of the Unreal" Soleri with skyborne fields of vegetable sheep baaing fluffily in my head.

"There's a lecture Friday at the Boston Architectural Center," stormsdotter said casually.

"Oh yeah? Can outsiders come?"

"Probably, if you want to sit in the back and hear Random Italian Architect #18 talk about his work."

I'm all for random Italian architects, so I asked her for more info. She sent me the name of the architect: Paolo Soleri.

PAOLO fucking SOLERI.

You don't know who Paolo Soleri is? Let me tell you who Paolo Soleri is. He invented the arcology--an entire city in a building. All those futuristic cityscapes you see in sci-fi movies look that way because of Paolo Soleri. All those plans to rebuild Tokyo owe their genesis to Paolo Soleri. Those things you get in Sim City when you reach 100,000 pop are what they are because of Paolo Soleri.

He's more of a visionary than an architect--his ideas are more about reshaping the way we live and use resources and land than about reworking the way we think about the lintel--but he's built several buildings, including Arcosanti, a tiny neoarcology in the Arizona desert. Arcosanti is only about 1% done and may never be finished, but it's incredibly pleasant to visit and very well-designed. Pretty, too, with curves and good proportions and artistic touches, nothing like the cold, inhuman places people think of when they think "arcology." Soleri seems to have done the opposite of what most successful visionary architects do. Rather than creating a place that matches his ideas of scale but fails to bring about his more human ideals, he's created a place that brings about his more human ideals but fails to match his scale. That's the right way to hit-and-miss.

( I'm going to waffle about how I discovered Soleri now. )

And now I get to see the man himself. Paolo Soleri. 87 years old and still giving lectures. Whoof. Are we allowed to throw flowers at the end?


ETA: The lecture is tonight. Tomorrow is a chance to sit around with him and ask questions. Whoof.

2006 Cascieri Lectureship: Paolo Soleri

Architect Philospher Paolo Soleri will deliver the 2006 Cascieri Lecture in the Humanities: The Architecture of Place, The Place of Architecture on Thursday, April 20, 2006 at 7:30 pm in Cascieri Hall. Public welcome, space limited. (Read more.)