What is Arcology? How and Why is it Central?

   Arcology, the word devised by Italian-born laureate architect Paolo Soleri to describe his idea of melding architecture and ecology, is defined in the online Oxford American Dictionary. "Arcology" (architectural ecology) is "an ideal integrated city, contained within a massive vertical structure allowing maximum conservation of its surrounding environment." 
   That definition is elaborated on Wikipedia with examples of urban places that demonstrate arcology's core principle: a bipedal, pedestrian economy of scale, Note is taken of the popularity of arcology in fiction, especially sci-fi.
   ArcologyCentral.net is my personal construction, grown out of my own life, experientially and existentially. My journalism, observation, recollection, notebook-as-exploration rolled into one, a gated entry point into a WiFi'd puzzle-house of my own pursuits. It serves as a way to develop an analytic study which I feel is deserved by the ethos of the unique material culture of the so-called "urban laboratory" (cf: Ada Louise Huxtable) that's been growing into becoming  known as - Arcosanti.
   Your comments, concerns, criticisms, co-operative spirit, your own experience, assumptions, fantasies, reflections, and perceptions are important to me. They are essential to assure the integrity of maintaining our most constructive relationships with "frugality" as an economic imperative. 
   Experience of Arcosanti offers, I believe, an opportunity for a way to increase self-awareness in a 'dream-context'  which all the world deserves. To increase consciousness of evolution, I feel, is worth our while if the future of the planet depends, as it seems to, upon the effort of each/every sentient being  to take no task for granted. We are all here as interdependent beings bound with the forces that contain us. Rediscovery is not less important than discovery, since what we forget may be just as important as what we remember. 
    Paradox will be one of humanity's greatest opportunities, as the Chinese symbol for "Crisis" demonstrates by combining two roots:  

                         "DANGER"  + "OPPORTUNITY"

Ay we take heed of our dangers, become aware of our opportunities.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/english/arcology