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PAOLO SOLERI: WHAT IF?, COLLECTED WRITINGS 1986-2000

by Paolo Soleri
©2002 Cosanti Foundation
Design by Lisa Schulz/Elysium, San Francisco

For the many missteps in this book, the blame is on me. For the understanding, the selection, the editing, and the structural coherence, the merit goes to the intelligence and the patience and the dedication if Kathleen Ryan. With gratitude, the book is dedicated to her.
-- Paolo Soleri

Table of Contents:

• Inside Cover
• Foreword by Harry Rand
• Paolo Soleri's What If? by Ron Anastasia
• Editor's Note by Kathleen Ryan
• Preface by Paolo Soleri
• Illustrations
  • What If?, Overview
  • Four Domains
  • Space Hypothesis
  • Space as Reality
• BOOK ONE: SPACE
  • PART 1: Space as Reality, a Hypothesis
    • 1. Crowding, the Life Maker
    • 2. Home Sweet Home
    • 3. To Reinvent the American Dream
    • 4. The Forest as Intent
    • 5. Eight Variations on the Two Suns Arcology
    • 6. Arcosanti: "A Dream Made Reality"?
    • 7. Survival in a Hostile Environment
  • PART 2: The Lean Hypothesis and the Lean Alternative
    • 8. The Superconductivity Initiative
    • 9. The Bering-Rainbow Proposal
    • 10. Ecominutiae: Self-Contained Space Habitats
    • 11. Hiro-Naga and the Ecominutiae
    • 12. Space for Peace
    • 13. The Pinocchio Syndrome
    • 14. Paradox
    • 15. Business as Usual?
    • 16. Arcosanti Is an Urban Laboratory for a Lean Society (AULLS) and Brief Encounters
  • PART 3: Hoppers
  • PART 4: Bubbles
    • Bubble Diagram
• BOOK TWO: ESTHEQUITY AND RELIGION
  • PART 1: Esthequity: A Transecological Project
    • 1. For the Center for Respect of Life and Environment: A Brief Elaboration on a Statement in "Policies"
    • 2. For Venice Biennale: Esthetogenesis
    • 3. In New Hampshire: North Country Chamber Players Summer Concerts
    • 4. For Venice Biennale: Nature and Art
    • 5. For Venice Biennale: Threshold
    • 6. For Venice Biennale: Toward the World Governing the Environment
    • 7. The Eleventh Hour
    • 8. For the Fifth International Architectural Forum: Prague Statement
    • 9. For the Center for Respect of Life and Environment: On the Land Ethic Project
    • 10. Hyper Building
    • 11. The Wheel and the Goddess: Nature and Art
    • 12. The Third Millennium: Necessity and Sufficiency
  • PART 2: Religion
    • 13. Hypothesis 5
    • 14. Rio: An Observer's Snapshot after the UN Conference on the Environment
    • 15. Hannover Expo 2000: The Millennium of the Zebra
    • 16. Expo 2000: The Seville Compromise
    • 17. Tsumari Project: A Preliminary Proposal
    • 18. "Minds Directory" Conferences: A Proposal
    • 19. Minds for History
  • PART 3: Hoppers
  • PART 4: Bubbles
    • Bubble Diagram
• Glossary
• About the Author
• Index