What is Arcology? Why and How is it Central?

   "Arcology" is a word devised by Italian- born laureate architect Paolo Soleri to describe his idea of melding "architecture" and "ecology." "Architectural ecology" is, according to the online Oxford American Dictionary, 'an ideal integrated city, contained within a massive vertical structure allowing maximum conservation of its surrounding environment.' Wikipedia elaborates on that definition by providing examples of urban places demonstrating arcology's core principle of a bipedal pedestrian economy of scale. Wikipedia also takes note of the popularity of arcology in fiction, especially sci-fi.
   ArcologyCentral, though, is a personal construction, grown of my life; it is an experiential study as much as an existential one, begun journalistically, a recollection as well as an exploration. It's a gate, an entry point into a house of intellectual pursuit, an analytic study of  the ethos of a unique material culture that is experienced in the "urban laboratory" (Thank you, Ada Louise Huxtable) that has grown to be, is growing to become -  Arcosanti.
   Your comments, concerns, criticisms, co-operative spirit, your own experience, assumptions, fantasies, reflections and perceptions are very important in this construction. Do not doubt that your role is essential. You are needed to assure its integrity, its scrupulous embrace of frugality, self-awareness and (I dare to say)  the dream of increasingly conscious evolution.    

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcology