I would not want to live in an arcology.

And no, residents are not imprisoned.

I understand that Americans see driving and walking as pretty much the same thing, or walking as something undesirable and to be avoided at all costs, but that’s literally just in your small corner of the world.

Please reread the whole thread.

I'm right now living in those arcology and mostly only use grocery store and sometimes restaurants - but access to mall is still convenient. And better outdoor social area is just on the other side of street with 5 min walk.

However I do use a lot of residential shared cowork place, playground, gym and swimming pool. For swimming pool or gym you don't have to prepare how to dress properly before driving car - you can spontaneously early in the morning take few meters to lift and go there in your swimming or gym clothes. You don't have to worry only about driving but parking, paying for parking, that you forgot to pack some gym or swimming clothes. Undressing and locking everything in the locker - you just take a lift back and shower at your place (if you don't want to use showers in facilities)

There is also much more natural light in shared facilities floor because those residential buildings are towers so they have a lot of area on the edge where the windows are.

Not so at all. Malls are intentionally designed to be hard to navigate, so customers get disoriented, are forced to spend more time there and succumb to impulse buys. Search for ”Gruen Transfer” to learn more.

Cultures are different, so it is a bold assumption that a solution that works for one culture also works for another, different one.

Sign me up, I want to get paid by the CIA's urbanist YIMBY astroturf project, right now I'm just posting for free like a sucker.