Soleri doodled with and designed many arcology shapes, each one tailored for different physical sites.  But, for someone who dreamt of building Future Cities – or influencing the design of them – he never appeared to settle on a particularly favoured template for his futuristic cities. Most surprisingly, he never advocated pyramids as the ideal physical form for an Arcology, considering that the sloping profile is ideal for solar and water collecting.  Considering his concern with sustainability, he didn’t say much about renewable energy, maybe because solar and wind power technology were in their infancy in the ’70’s and not commercially viable.  But why not water harvesting and re-cycling, especially as he himself lived in a desert environment..?  

One thing Soleri didn’t think important was the enjoyment of a comfortable relaxing lifestyle, like relaxing on a patio with panoramic views. Or a good social lifestyle with bars, cafes, restaurants, etc.  All of which will flourish in OA-Cities, especially as nobody will have to drive home..! 

He seemed overly obsessed with “miniaturisation” which, in Arcosanti, meant “tiny mostly windowless apartments” (an Australian TV reporter described them as “monks cells”), plus hard-work and the need to adopt his own frugal lifestyle.  Needless to say, ascetism does not sell..!

Oasis-Cities will popularise pyramids as the logical – and most ideal – shape for Cities to Come..!     

China and Dubai seem to have been on a “mine-is-bigger-than-yours” competition to build the biggest buildings on the planet.  But these are mostly skyscrapers – tall and narrow buildings with relatively small bases. Very large “footprint” buildings, like the Pentagon, are quite rare.  Pyramids to live in are even rarer – almost unique in fact.  Oasis-Cities may soon change this.  

Heathrow Terminal 5 (7 hectares)

Millennium Dome aka O2 Arena (10.5 hectares)

THE PENTAGON (1945) – 12 hectares including its central courtyard

New Century Global Centre, Chengdu

Interior of the New Century Global Centre

Luxor Hotel, Las Vegas (1993) – still the only large “live-in” pyramid

Deltapolis would neatly fit into the iconic river-bend site wasted on London’s ill-conceived “circus tent” O2 arena.  Unlike that “white elephant”, it would serve a VERY USEFUL EDUCATIONAL PURPOSE as an Eco “Show City” in which people could live, work, shop, and play in a sustainable car-free and carefree community.  Such a building would certainly be a much bigger tourist drawcard than the O2.

Oasis-Cities the Garden Cities of the near future

“Oasis-Cities” will occupy far less land than conventional car-dependent “new towns” or the mooted “Garden Cities”. Each OA-City module would be entirely surrounded by a “green belt” of lush parkland with beautiful trees and woodland trails meandering alongside pretty ornamental lakes with rustic bridges leading to perhaps a cosy “country pub”.   Oasis-Cities will not only prevent vast areas of countryside from being obliterated by ugly sprawl development – they will also BEAUTIFY it.  Those sylvan domains will be a wonderfully safe habitat for the birds and small wildlife that would otherwise be decimated by road-traffic. 

The OA-City template can easily be adapted for all countries and climates and any building site – green-field, brown-field, tropics, desert, or even mudflats in shallow waters like the Thames Estuary or The Wash.   A typical OA-City module (like Deltapolis) will comfortably accommodate about 7,500 in a building of just 10 hectares (25 acres) and surrounded by an equal-sized “domain” of gardens, parks and woodlands.   They could either be single-module stand-alone structures or a number of them would comprise a modular eco-city.  

Oasis Cities will inspire co-operation, friendliness, self-respect, trustworthiness, new concepts of self-government, and generally improve almost every facet of life.  OA-Cities will come to epitomise a harmonious, sustainable, and secure society.  But such goals can only be achieved if the insidious “rights before responsibilities” trend of recent history is reversed so that civic responsibilities once again take precedence over “rights”.  Its sad that something as clearly beneficial to a healthy society – civic responsibility – tends nowadays to be associated with authoritarianism.  This only goes to show how far western society has travelled down the wrong road.  

Oasis-Cities will come to symbolise not just a new type of city but a NEW WAY OF LIFE, as important a step in our societal evolution as were the first cities of 6000 years ago.  

For financial, cultural, and ecological reasons Oasis-Cities are mainly intended for “1st world” countries.  The consumerist, often hedonistic, lifestyles of these countries uses a disproportionate amount of resources and emits most of the GG (greenhouse gases) which are contributing to GW/CC (Global Warming/Climate Change).