Sprawl defines the lay of the land of most big cities, with suburban borders clashing and farmland, forests and wetlands gobbled up by roads, malls, townhouses and corporate entities. Of all the subjects raised at the first United Nations-sponsored Habitat conference in Vancouver, Canada, sprawl has received the least attention. Roads, highways, single-family residences, parking lots, commercial and recreational centers have spread people apart. The automobile shapes architecture more than life and people. Grids made for pre-computer age land designs occupy imaginations over the great potentials humans can create by utilizing telecommunications and computers.
Participatory architecture awaits the application of current technology.
Since it is generally accepted that people want a sustainable future, that we desire living things around us and that natural diversity should be conserved, the means to these ends should become a major point of discussion. That same year, Soleri founded a school and urban laboratory called Arcosanti, in central Arizona. His writing and dreams attracted thousands of volunteers who by 1976 had built most of the structures now comprising Arcosanti. The two were paired up for their structural genius and were admired by Canadian architect Moishe Safdie of Montreal Expo fame. A lineage can be seen in the ideals of Wright, Fuller, Soleri and Safdie.