- So dry out here. Hi, I'm Garrett.
- And I'm Niki. - We're fascinated by
how other people live. - [Niki] So we're gonna try and find some really interesting living situations. - [Garrett] And live there, experiencing a totally different lifestyle. - [Niki] To see which ones
will bring us closer together. - [Garrett] Or push us further apart. - This week, we're living in Arcosanti. - It's really hard to explain. But you're gonna get the gist of it. (upbeat music) - [Niki] Hello.
- [All] Hi! - [Niki] I'm Niki.
- Hi Niki, nice to meet you. - Hi, Garrett.
- Shannon. - Nice to meet you, Shannon.
- Nice to meet you, Shannon. - [Garrett] Thank you for having us at. - Absolutely.
- Arcosanti. - [Shannon] Absolutely.
- Which is. (record scratch) - Arcosanti, what is it?
- [Garrett] I don't know. - [Jeff] Arcosanti is trying to demonstrate something,
how to build a city as a totally integrated, single structure. - In the early 50's,
60's, 70's, there were a lot of people who tried to start like, idealized societies and this is that. - [Shannon] Essentially, we are proving that you can live a rich life without necessarily being rich and without living in a development that is negatively impactful on the earth. These are the vaulted arches. So this is essentially our city center. We meet here every morning
during the week as a community. - They've really thought very practically about how to live in a
community in a space. - The notion of community is
one that we have temporarily lost in America and it's one that we hope Arcosanti can serve as kindof a trigger for recovering. - [Shannon] The entire
structure here was built by the people who live here. There is a fluctuating population. Around 60 to 80 people depending on how big our workshops are. - I think it's like a work live situation where everybody lives there also works and maybe helps build it
or tends to the plants or makes bells. - [Shannon] This one in
particular is our ceramic studio where we make the famous
ceramic soleri wind bells. The structure behind us is an apt shape for it's passive solar heating
and cooling techniques. The sun, during the winter,
will pass much lower in the sky so this
entire concrete structure will be filled with
sunlight, heating the air inside the structure
as much as 15 degrees. - Whoa. - So the bells fund the architecture which supports more manufacturing which sortof, so it's like
this independent little city. - A little bit, yeah, to take
part in the Arcosanti project, you participate in a five week workshop which takes you through
the history of Arcosanti and then for the last three
weeks of your workshop, you come back here and you participate in one of the departments
within the foundation. Typically, people go into construction which if you guys are up for it, we'll have you work in
construction tomorrow. - Awesome, here's the thing,
I have a masters degree in sustainable design and construction that I don't do anything with but it will be interesting to see sortof what's going on in that field and what these people are doing. - The desert just seems
like a scary place to die. It seems like one of those places where humans should
not be, but if we learn to live in the desert,
maybe that will be better. - So these are housing in here, these are houses in here. - [Niki] That's housing?
- That's housing. That's housing.
- [Garrett] Can I ask how much like one of the spaces would rent is? - It's $300 a month. - What?
- $300 a month? - Yep.
- Wow. I don't think Niki's going to like this. Niki doesn't like meeting new people like at all so I think she's
gonna probably be running away from that experience
to a more familiar one which is me so I think it's going to push us closer together. - Garrett will be the one person that I do know and the one person that I feel comfortable with so you know, if he and I stick together, it'll be fine. - You're staying in different places. - From each other?
- Yes. - Oh.
- Oh. - On the second floor of this structure, we have three cohousing units. One that you're going to be living in. Come on in. - [Niki] Ah.
- [Garrett] Oh my goodness. This is like very modern architecture. - [Niki] This is very big.
- [Garrett] Yeah, this is so much bigger than I
thought it was going to be. - [Niki] Same lifestyle,
just a little more efficient. - [Garrett] Yeah.
- This is one of our cohousing units, it
has five people living in it. - [Garrett] Okay. - [Shannon] Two of which are married. It has two living spaces, a large kitchen and two bathrooms. - [Garrett] Great, this is
actually a very big shower. - Will be tall enough. - Yeah, it's fine, no shower
in the world's tall enough. - I'm worried that this is
one of those living situations where I'm just living with Garrett, I'm living with a lot of other people. - And you have your own space. - Bam! - And this is Niki's room.
(door squeaks) - Oh, oh, this is great. Very cozy. - [Garrett] You got file cabinets for all your files.
(Shannon laughs) - [Niki] Yes.
- [Garrett] A closet. - [Niki] Ladders. Okay. Oh wow, look at that.
- [Garrett] Yeah. - [Niki] I get my own bathroom. - You think this is gonna work for you? - Yeah, definitely, this is great. - I think we're ready. - Great, have a wonderful evening. - Thank you.
- Have fun in your brand new spaces. Feel free to roam around and tomorrow, you will be starting construction at 7 am in the solar classroom. (record scratch)
- 7 am? - [Shannon] 7 am.
- Oh. Alright.
- Alright. - Two chairs for visitors. - This is a very nice room. - [Garrett] This is in Italian. (loud groan) Architectural Digest. - Yes.
- Yes. Okay, alright. It's actually a great height. - This is my bedroom
and we're on the roof. This is the view. This is a gorgeous place, I know I said I was kinda scared of the desert and I still am, like this is literally the view from my window
and that's pretty amazing. I'm kindof overwhelmed with information that I don't really know
how to reflect on this. - So we're doing this right after the RV. Which was a tough journey (laughs). - Garrett and I are on okay terms. I think we're fine but
it's definitely good that I have my own space. - I'm sortof immersed in it
and I get to meet new people and listen to their stories. - I watched the football game tonight with a few people and that was like, a great way to get to know some people over like, something
that we all like to do. It's like easy for me
to talk about football with people I don't know. - Here's all our friends. That Niki's cheering on with football. Tomorrow we're gonna be working, so, like actually working,
like pouring concrete which I'm really excited about, like I said, like I
studied concrete design and steel design stuff like that but I never actually got to like do it. - 7 am. (guitar plays) - There's not really anybody else here. We're gonna be ready for
construction in 25 minutes. - It's dark and cold. (light music) - [Niki] Construction
is not really my thing. And I think that's okay. All I see in here are
ways I can hurt myself. Makes me very nervous. - These are some of those finished panels. That I showed you for east
housing, we're gonna sand. - I've sanded before. - [Garrett] Yeah, when? - [Niki] Kelsey made our coffee table. - [Garrett] Really?
- [Niki] Yeah. (saw whirring) (scratching) (upbeat music) - The cement truck is
here and I'm terrified. - Truck's gonna do most of the work, we're just gonna guide the concrete into the friendship trench. (upbeat music) - [Niki] Garrett seems to enjoy himself. I think he liked it a lot today. I think he was like, very excited to get his hands in that cement. - So much fun, it's like violent and like you're wrestling with the thing. - I don't have work boots,
everyone's got work boots. I'm wearing sneakers. - It's going alright, they're doing good, they're getting in there. (light rock music) - Niki, how do you pick
it up without it like. - [Niki] You kinda just
scrape it off the edge. - We just finished construction. It was so much fun, look, my pants. My pants are ruined. - [Niki] He looked like a little kid who was like seeing his, like,
grown up dreams fulfilled. - [Garrett] She was like
a great sport at it. It was cool, like we did this thing and it's gonna be a
permanent part of this place. Post concrete pour, rations, nutrients. - For a hard day's work.
- Sustenance, rib sticking. - We're working men, now.
- Yeah. - We're working boys, big strong ones. - Welcome to the archives.
- Thank you. It was really cool seeing
the archives, today, because understanding the history of Arcosanti helps you understand the future of Arcosanti,
I think is the point. - It's about reorganizing
a city three dimensionally. - Everything here seems so intentional and so like well thought out. - I learned that my
heated floors this morning that I thought were just
like a weird surprise. My floor is very warm. Was like an intentionally built in thing through architecture and science (laughs) so stuff like that is like
stuff I never think about. And it's something that I
got to experience today. Got a little bit of free
time and I'm pretty wiped out from all that work this morning so came back to my room, just
to kinda regroup a little bit before dinner, feel like
I've already been up for a really long time (laughs). - I'm hanging out, Niki
gets to rest alone, perfect. I played dinky links today. It was like fun, you get to see sortof the community come
together outside of work. (all shouting) - [Niki] We're leaving tomorrow and Garrett and I haven't spent a whole lot of time together just us so maybe we'll hang out tonight or maybe we'll hang out tomorrow morning. - We haven't seen much of
each other outside of work but she loves video games and
I bought a Nintendo Switch a couple days ago. Hey Niki, wanna play video games? - Ooh, yep. (light music) It's morning of day three. My floor's are warm again. I got dressed, I got ready,
I made myself some coffee. And I'm like sitting on my couch. This is my ideal morning, I'm sure Garrett is up and about already. - We're gonna see the foundry today. Niki and I had a good time here. She got to have her
privacy when she wanted. I got to join in with the hooligans and the community when I wanted. - We did like hang out
a little bit last night, which I think was that one on one time that we both enjoy so it was great that we could fit that in as well as like participate in a
larger community together. - I had so many cool experiences here. I got to join a construction crew for a day, I got to
talk about architecture with a lot of people
that are conversations that I don't usually get to have. - [Niki] Arcosanti is kindof
like a futuristic city in the fact that like,
people that come through here will be thinking about how
they live in the future because of what they do here. I think both Garrett and I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we came here but I'm walking away with a lot that I'm thinking
about after being here. - Okay bye Arcosanti. - [Niki] Bye Arcosanti. - Let's go. - I would love to steal a
bell, I won't steal a bell, I'll buy a bell, is there
a place we can buy a bell, those bells are cool, they're everywhere. You can hear them right now. (light music) Next week
- [Garrett] On Home Buddies. (shouts) - Ranches sound like hard work. - [Niki] We cooked dinner in the dark. - [Garrett] This feels
like the late 1800's. - [Niki] I'm half covered in poop, I feel like my body's falling apart. - [Garrett] It's so hard to live out here. Get out of here, leave me alone. (light music)
