Arcology

Arcology (from Architecture and Ecology) is a term coined by architect Paolo Soleri for a self contained high density constructed enviroment able to fulfill most of the functionality of a city with a minimal impact on the surrounding ecology. A massive structure which encompasses the functions of a city including not only residential spaces but also commercial, services (schools, police, healthcare, etc), economic and even agricultural spaces.

Arcologies in Speculative Fiction

Soleri was a Utopian futurist, though many Arcologies in fiction are on the other side of the spectrum.

Warhammer 40k, Because Warhammer Always Comes First On This Wiki

Hives in Warhammer 40,000 are described as Arcologies in that they house a large volume of people in an extremely high density situation. Even so, while they have the shape of an arcology they don't meet it's goals. Rather than minimizing human impact on the environment Hive Cities act as anti-terraformers and their design is fairly random and haphazard, with Hab-Blocks and manufactoria stacked on top of each other. They are also typically dependant on other worlds for food, raw materials and supplies. In Varangantua there are structures which are explicitly described as Arcologies which were designed to be self-contained communities but these are the exception rather than the norm and they are also older structures from better days, now falling into disrepair. The game Necromunda also takes place on one of the more prominent Hive worlds in the Imperium of Man, from the heretical underbellies, to shinier Hive spires, to the wastes that lie in between the hives.

There are, However, more traditional arcologies outside the Imperium of Man. The Kin of the Leagues of Votann often live in their usually enclosed Holds, which are a combination of fortification, city, and industrial complex. Holds come in many different shapes, sizes, and types, from rows of domes, to fortified void stations, to hold ships, to city covered hold worlds. Being a cluster of societies that directly descend from Dark Age of Technology civilizations, which were created specifically to survive in the dangerous core, the Holds of the Kin are naturally generally self sufficient. Their self sufficiency is in fact one of the reasons why the Kin endured the age of strife, and survived and thrived into the 42nd Millennium. Each hold generally provides four critical pieces of infrastructure that satisfies the Holds needs, which are the crucibles, the forge, the hearth, and the fane (all of which you can learn on the other page). While the Leagues do infact have trade, Holds generally only require raw materials acquired from outside. Overall, The Holds stay, for the most, true to the idea of Arcologies, and remain prime examples of what daot humanity could achieve.

There were (and probably still are) other examples of Human and abhuman Arcologies in 40k such as the ones of the formerly existent interex, and quite a few worlds discovered during the Great Crusade also had their own variety. And don't be surprised if there are even more functions and even well kept Arcologies within the Imperium. After all, they did miss House Van Saar with their Standard Template Construct core hidden right under them, along with misidentifying the Squats. Who knows what they missed hidden within their own borders.

Moving on to more Xenos examples, we have the prominent Craftworld from the eldar. These are essentially moon-sized to planet-sized arcology space yachts. These big, beautiful, arks of the eldar race are generally in many ways more sophisticated than the Hive cities, and Arcologies of Man and abman. Unlike Humanity, the Eldar are more reliant on the immaterium than than the materium, as they use psychic energies and powers to make everything they need and want. Even the craftworld's themselves are made out of crystallized psychic energy called wraithbone. Thanks to the wraithbone, which is psycho-conductive, the ship not only has a self refilling reservoir of psychic energy, it also makes the craftworld function in a similar vein to a living creature. Said psychic power can also be expended as light and energy, and is also outputted by a wireless psychic power grid that many aeldari technologies could not function without. Craftworlds were also equipped with webway gates, allowing travel into the webway itself. Each craftworld contains a multitude of environments and urban centers, often populated with different wildlife and technologies. Many of the craftworlds remain uninhabited due to the Eldar's current afterlife crisis, and their lack of Spirit stone. This is an aspect that the Kin actually kinda equal Eldar on. The Kin have the Votann, while the Eldar have the Infinity Circuit. The infinity circuit (which is available on all craftworlds by the way), can always be used to safely store one's soul without incident as long as they have a spirit stone (made from crystallized eldar remains). This ends up causing a population cap should one wish to not have future eldar generations soul's not eaten by daemons in the warp while also having a limited supply of spirit stones. The Kin, meanwhile, can chuck as many souls as they want into the Votann, removing the population cap until the Votann probably gets overloaded by the amount of souls, and crashes and devolves into nothing, leaving its Kindreds and holds destabilized. The Eldar have an edge with stability, while the Kin have an edge on quantity. Anyways, the Eldar Craftworlds originally got their start as merchant ships during the time of the Eldar empire. They were much smallers, and essentially served as the self sufficient communities for what are basically Amish space elves. When the Fall of the Eldar came after many years of decadence and depravity, the craftworld Eldar took as much shit as they could, and ran into the depths of the galaxy, where their ships eventually grew into the sizes they are in the modern 41st and 42nd Millennium.

You also had the Webway and the cities and communities contained within. The Webway itself also acted in a similar vein to a living creature like the Craftworlds. Commorragh itself is a complicated, and questionable example. On the one, much of the realm probably does meet the qualifications to be considered an arcology. On the other hand, it also shares many qualities with the Hive cities of Man.

Moving on to another xenos example, you have Jokaero, an advanced yet seemingly simple species that are capable of making food synthesizers, miniature versions of known technologies, and advanced ships that look unlike any other in the galaxy. It's no doubt that they have capabilities to create self sufficient Arcologies, and their vessels they travel on are most certainly examples.

Non-Warhammer shit

Multiple Media:

• Both Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk 2077 have multiple examples of Arcologies, although the megabuildings of 2077 are certainly more Grimdark than the Pacifica Arcology and the New Harbor Mallplex from 2020.
• Judge Dredd of course has it's Mega-Blocks, home to the bored, stupid, unemployed masses of the mega cities. Said blocks have pretty much everything it's inhabitants could ever need and want, from shopping malls, to parks, to food growth labs, basically allowing them to live their entire lives in a single block. Generally, Blocks are also capable of withstanding nuclear attacks. In comparison to Hive cities, one might even dare call them pleasant, (Block Wars notwithstanding). Crime rates are absolutely abysmal though, and corruption is through the roof.
• Star Wars of course has quite a few examples of Arcologies, with on being the bio cubes and domes of mandalore. There is also the world of Plazir-15, which also utilizes bio domes along with automated labour.
• Star Trek itself of course has arcologies in the setting. Multiple biome modules connected to the web of worlds contain arcologies, and many urban centers on earth are made up of arcologies.
• Shadowrun has a very notable example, being the the Renraku arcology. The setting also has multiple offshore types of arcologies, including the Yamatetsu Saotome AquaDomes, and the Proteus AG arkoblocks.
• BattleTech has them as well on many worlds. You can even smash some with your mech in the 2018 video game (so long as you have the urban warfare dlc).

Vidya:

• The Vaults from Fallout would qualify as Arcologies, as would the Silos in Hugh Howey's Silo books. Both are Self Contained structures designed to accommodate large numbers of people internally for decades or centuries. Or at least that's what they're advertised as. In actuality, only around less than a dozen of these were control vaults, which served their intended purpose. The rest were experimental vaults, which were mostly used to conduct experiments for the creation of an enclave generation (although there were vaults created just for the evulz thanks to the evil bastards at Vault-Tec). Some of these experimental vaults weren't even close to the adverts, as for example vault 111 could be considered more of a cryogenic storage facility than a actual arcology. For many vault inhabitants, they met grisly and horrible ends, and their vaults either laid abandoned, or turned into habitats for terrible abominations. Only a few of these experimentation vaults came close to the results of the control vaults (and a demonstration vault), and often not without at least a couple of drawbacks.
• Stellaris also contains Arcologies on Ecumenopolis planets, along with self contained space habitats, Organic Sanctuaries and Organic Paradises for rogue servitors, and fallen empire Sky Domes.
• Theoretically, you could make a arcology in Dwarf Fortress.
• The factions of Alpha Centauri have enclosed colonies and bases, with a multitude of facilities for production, entertainment, and defense. And for good reasons besides not being able to breath, as the planet is a death world, the ecology itself wishes to end your existence for trespassing, and your rival factions are cooking up all kinds of weapons of mass destruction and techno abominations.
• Wolfenstein has the self sufficient Mondbasis Eins and the Venus habitats.
• SimCity 2000 famously had four kinds of them. May have spread the word "arcology" into popular consciousness.
• Thanks to the shit state of the world in Armored Core, humanity was forced into the underground versions of these, under the mercy of corporations.
• Final Fantasy has a example, being the corporate dystopian city of Midgard, owned by Shinra Electric Power Company (who plans to build another more cleaner yet similar city called Neo Midgard). The city, however, shares a similar trait with the Hive city in that it can't help but pollute everything outside its walls.
• In Mass Effect, Arcologies are a common site despite many populations on earth remaining impoverished. The world of Junthor had also contained arcologies created by an ancient civilization.
• Halo has some, although they aren't exactly one of the more prominent parts of the setting. There is the Haven Arcology though, which was struck by a commercial nuclear bomb by terrorists.

TG Settings that aren't Warhammer:

• The Coalition States in RIFTS has control over multiple arcology fortress cities, including its prominent capital hub of Chi-town (formerly Chicago).
• CthulhuTech and Cthulhu Void Tech have them in the Fortress variety thanks to the The First Arcanotech War. They come in two types, massive fortress-like buildings, with expansive levels and massive arterial transit systems to link them, and armored domes placed onto one or more support arcologies to enclose an existing city and the replacement of surface streets with always-on public transit hubs. Destroyed cities were rebuilt as modern fortresses, and existing cities were domed over, with huge central arcology spires to hold the dome. Each arcology is crowned with a military base, fully prepared to repel an assault from the land or air.
  • Life in the arcologies are pretty familiar to anyone who’s ever lived in a densely-populated major city, to the point that living in them is nearly indistinguishable from living in a “real” city. Most people in the arcology live and work in relatively modest multi-tenant buildings. A arcology’s levels in the setting will usually follow a layout common to that arcology, taking advantage of modular design and reducing maintenance. The public transit systems in these arcologies also operate in all three dimensions, and their parks are manicured by magic and autonomous drones. The arcologies also make use holographic skies and internal weather. In comparison to regular cities, they have a small ecological footprint and consume far fewer resources. Use of flying vehicles is strictly confined to the spaces outside of arcologies, and few residents own vehicles. Those who do are usually also rich enough to own hangar space near the top of the arcology. Residents would also require a visa application and the filing of a travel plan, as well as a customs inspection and security screening when entering. Travel into, out of, and between arcologies is relatively rare, thanks to the dangers outside the arcologies, along with the nation like status of said arcologies. Mortal (that is, Human, Nazzadi, and Xenomix) Tagers can get through a arcology body scan with no trouble. The Stranger races however can’t, as they are too inhuman to pass. This does not however stop them from finding other more sneaky ways in.
    • Not everyone lives in an arcology, of course. Some folks object to the constant governmental intrusion living in an arcology requires, some literally get “sick building syndrome” and leave, and some prefer a less artificial environment. Despite all the chaos in the world, there are still local governments outside the arcologies, and the New Earth Government still has pull outside its cities, helping lower cults and the Migou activity some areas outside the arcologies. But danger of cults and the Migou is still higher, and the NSC doesn’t provide emergency services outside the arcologies. Local governments may end up picking up the slack, and some are much worse at it than others. Overall, life in the arcologies of CthulhuTech is surprisingly just below average, factoring in the intrusive big brother nature of the New Earth Government, the threatening cults and Migou outside the city walls, and the under regulated corporations that certainly put a damper on living conditions.
• Transhuman Space has quite a bit of information on the arcologies. So much so, that it would be really unreasonable to put it all here, and it would basically need it's own page. Transhuman is very meaty with its details, detailing the types of arcologies, their cultures, how they came to be, their infrastructure, etc. Point is, if you really want a truckload of information about the settings Arcologies and cities, go read cities on the edge.
• The PROMOTIONS filled setting of Carbon Pink has them under the name of hive cities. They're somewhat similar to ones in 40k, except they're less gothic, more corporate, more prone to Slaaneshi cult infiltration, and their residents are more keen on NSFW entertainment. They also occasionally lose them for a variety of reasons. A lot more could be said about these "Hive-cities", but then again, a lot more could also not be said. So, it suggested that you, the reader, go to the other page to learn more if you are interested.
• Alpha Complex from Paranoia certainly rises to the tenets of what a arcology is, despite it being a dementia riddled clusterfuck where entire sections of it go missing, whether by it being walled off by accident, or faulty paper work.
• The Technocracy and other mages of science from Mage: The Ascension sure as shit have them, along with a slew of space colonies and space station communities. In Changeling: The Dreaming, Capecia, the City of Clocks has them on its streets. And in Mage: The Awakening, there is Metropolis of Astral space, which contains every type of city, including arcologies.
• The majority of arcologies In Traveller share quite a few traits with the blocks of Judge Dredd. Most Arcologies in Traveller are not extravagant mega structures, but rather have more in common with city blocks (although there are megascrapers), and take on a more utilitarian appearance. Facilities and other things that other societies would make more private also become shared in these Arcologies. Unlike the Blocks of Judge Dredd however, the arcologies actually do strive for minimal social stratification, a responsive government, equitable (but not fully equal) access, and general efforts to create stable societies, leading to much lower crime rates than mega blocks.
• Quite a few space habitats and stations in Eclipse Phase contain Arcologies.
• Trinity has it's own brand of arcologies.

Literature:

• Biospheres are depicted in The Culture along with the prominnent self sufficient systems vehicles that often sport high population counts into the billions, and are capable of rebuilding the culture civilization from the ground up.
• Xeelee Sequence does in fact have arcologies, including the many arcologies covering Mars, built by humanity during the first expansion.
• The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson (1912)
• The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov

Cursed Settings:

• Chakona Space and Hc Svnt Dracones...hav'em. The other pages will do more than enough to steer you clear to other, more brighter horizons.

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