Towards sustainable urbanism: The arcology and organic compact urban formation as the approach of sustainable urban design- A comparative study

Arcology is a new vision of urban design for densely populated settlements. It is referred to as the urban formation aimed at achieving the highest level of utilization in the least area of land to reduce human impact on the environment. Moreover, the integration of this formation with the environment will work to reduce energy consumption, and achieve an economy that is characterized by adaptation and self-sufficiency, leading towards sustainable urbanism. The current study deals with this new concept in sustainable urban design, in an attempt to investigate its impact on traditional urban formation and to make a comparison between them. The lack of a clear conception of the term 'arcology' and comparing it with the organic compact urban formation as a significant concepts of sustainable urban design, constitutes the main research problem. The current study aims to uncover this concept to extract the 'arcology' parameters and compare them with the organic compact urban formation, as an approach that can be adopted in sustainable urban design to reduce the human impact on the environment. To get to the aforementioned goal, it's required to figure out the theoretical framework and apply it onto two selected study areas: Arcosanti and Bab al-Sheikh (an area within the historical centre of Baghdad) to test its validity using the comparative analysis and space syntax methodology. The research concluded that the organic fabric corresponds to the 'arcology' parameters and indicators, highlighting the importance of its employment in urban planning and design to reduce the negative impact of the urban structure on the urban ecosystem.