Ecosa Institute - History

History

The vision for Ecosa was formulated during the 1980s and 90’s by English architect and educator Antony Brown. His dedication to issues of sustainability and ecological design developed after joining Paolo Soleri's Cosanti Foundation and working with the Italian architect on his conceptual designs for a new vision of urban settlements. Brown worked on the resulting urban prototype, Arcosanti, as architect-in-residence supervising both design work and construction. During his time studying with Soleri and teaching the philosophy of the arcology concept, Brown began to cultivate his own vision of an ecological future and the new approach to design education he saw as necessary to achieve it.

Brown left the Arcosanti project and began to explore his ideas through a series of classes he developed and taught at Prescott College. This opportunity to experiment with teaching methods convinced him that experiential education was the best way to reach students and to personalize learning. At Prescott College, Brown tried turning students who were environmentalists into designers, but later realized teaching designers to become environmentalists may be more effective in reaching his goal. Brown's goal was not to tack on sustainable design to a conventional curriculum, but to restructure the underlying ethos of architectural education and bring a new sensitivity to the practice of architecture.

In 1996 Brown formally founded the Ecosa Institute in Prescott, Arizona, and in 1998 the organization was granted 501(c)(3) status. The Ecosa Institute offered its first semester in sustainable design in 2000. Ecosa Institute merged with Prescott College in 2012.