Paolo Soleri was born in Turin, Italy on June 21, 1919. He studied architecture in Turin (Ph.D., 1946). Soleri's works have been influenced by both Frank Lloyd Wright, with whom he worked, and Antonio Gaudí. He developed an architecture that expresses a functional and organic way of life. Soleri has produced extraordinary designs for vast, high-density, self-sufficient, and multilevel communities built in the desert. These, which he terms arcologies, are proposed alternatives and responses to the increased problems of overpopulation and urban sprawl and decay. Soleri and his students and assistants have been building an arcology, Arcosanti, north of Phoenix, Ariz. since 1970. It was conceived as a prototype to show how cities might be updated, minimizing energy and transportation use while promoting human interaction.

Soleri has received one fellowship from the Graham Foundation and two from the Guggenheim Foundation. He has been awarded three honorary doctorates, the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal for Craftmanship in 1963, the Gold Medal from the World Biennieal of Architecture in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1981, and the Silver Medal of the Academied' Architecture in Paris, 1984. Soleri is a distinguished lecturer in the College of Architecture at Arizona State University.

He has written six books and numerous essays and monographs.