Niagara Escarpment II : Exploring Soleri's Arcology

Abstract

This thesis explores the ecological potential of an Arcology within a utopic and visionary context. Niagara Escarpment II is an adaptation of Paolo Soleri’s Arcology with an Italian hill town aesthetic, using today’s technological systems with an intent to integrate ecology and urban settlements in Niagara Falls to resolve environmental concerns. This is a rejection of the current technologically driven “Green Skyscrapers” and “Eco Towers” and proposes an alternative with an ecological inclination. The exploration of integrating ecological processes back into urban processes is historically a heavily researched theme but rarely discussed within the context of an Arcology. A close examination of Paolo Soleri’s Arcology, engineered systems of megastructures, examination of indigenous architecture of the Mat Buildings, and analysis of the System’s thinking details a niche for this iteration of the Arcology.

This thesis has a pragmatic approach to ecological processes and explores what architectural features work for ecology and what do not. The thesis hypothesizes that a successful Arcology must be designed on a massive scale to integrate fauna, flora, farming, living systems, aquifers, and aquaponics systems into urban settlements to improve air cycles and water cycles within the structure of the Arcology. The goal is to offer a design methodology that shows visible ecological and urban systems on multi-scales through sections within the Arcology. This is achieved by analyzing the design process into Structural organization, Human, and Ecological Processes, and integrating key interactions within the Heat, Water, Waste, and Energy System models integrated within the Arcology. The intention is to provide ecosystem services to the social system by integrating networks with low-tech biological metabolisms. The systems focus on resolving non-linear, dynamic, and cyclic within the structure.

The Niagara Escarpment II is designed for 11‘000 visitors, 11’000 residents where each resident will have approximately, 2 trees, 37 plants, 56 plants for food, and Plants that recycle wastewater to deliver a water cycle of 3-5 days, depending on water use. Arcology is not only developed to improve the quality of life for individuals within but intends to increase the Niagara Escarpment’s expansion and increase naturalization of the city of Niagara Falls along the peripheries by up to 17%. The Arcology in turn must be a massive structure, with substantial carbon-embodied structural systems to hold these systems. The proposal of this Arcology involves an interdisciplinary team to govern these systems within the lifetime of this Arcology and phasing for 16 years from start to finish.

This research offers a deep dive into ecological and social integration and systems analysis within a large-scale Arcology framework.