coLAB studio is…
a dual-laboratory for art and architectural practice which works in collaboration with individuals and companies to study and amplify nature and culture in the built environment. We work on residential and commercial architecture, plus public and studio art. Our projects are widely recognized, published, and awarded. The firm exists at the intersection of analytical, practical, experiential, environmental, and participative practices.
An unusual business model allows the studio to be selective regarding projects we take on by limiting the extent of “employees” to the two founders, Maria and Matthew Salenger, and draw from a freelance cohort of repeat collaborators on a as-needed basis. The studio space built into Matthew & Maria’s home (and home built into the studio) keeps overhead extremely low, allowing generous time dedicated to experimentation, design excellence, and community service.
The cohort includes a poet, visual artists, architects, building science specialists, environmental experts, planners, digital fabricators, builders, developers, builders, and engineers. This enhanced project team has facilitated completion of projects of 85,000 sf and $15 million construction budgets, though much larger is feasible for our studio.
We create projects that adhere to five timeless factors of what makes a project objectively successful and good. These are: Beautiful, Memorable, Well-Loved, Well-Functioning, and Environmentally Balanced. You may read more about these factors here, in our own words.
Our goal is to create a collaborative process for each project that produces a distinctive and cherished outcome.
“In their principles, freshness, embrace of the mundane, and re-envisioning of what architectural practice could be, they are for me, today’s Charles and Ray Eames.”
Our stance on environmentalism:
The problems are enormous; climate change/warming, wildlife habitat and biodiversity loss, nitrogen cycle imbalance, global (national, local) inequality, growing authoritarianism.
We believe these problems are solvable and the solutions can work holistically across most/all issues. Yet what we do as artists and architects have limits to our effect. This is why we work in/with communities; to help make the solutions and possible actions more clear and hopeful.
But buildings must also do their part. Solutions for environmentally conscious buildings must also look for holistic and regenerative solutions solving multiple issues simultaneously, allowing projects to repair and grow an environment and community.
The architectural projects we take on adhere to various certification levels per the Sustainability Matrix below, though actual certification is sought only if directed to do so by the client. One way to holistically target the myriad of challenges is to build with high-density because it is inherently more efficient (energy, water, materials, carbon, etc) than building at low-density.
Building low density projects that match high-density efficiency requires higher levels of environmental awareness and technical expertise- something we excel at.
coLAB studio’s 'Sustainability Matrix’ below is a chart that that prioritizes both density and environmentalism. The less dense a project is, the higher the environmental level should be.
In addition: We generally only take on projects within urbanized areas to keep from eliminating natural habitat of non-human species. Thus, for us, the further a project site is from an urbanized area and/or the more sensitive a site’s habitat is, the greater the project’s environmental level needs to be.
Our Reasoning: While the carbon and climate warming issue is widely discussed, the loss of wildlife habitat and resultant reduction of biodiversity is as much an immediate issue to resolve.
The example below shows what we consider to be urbanized area in green. Properties in the grey and yellow areas are evaluated case-by-case by our studio, and a sustainability matrix level is determined.
coLAB studio has an action plan for environmental design, which you may read here, which includes additional environmental factors and environmental commitments we have made.
We follow the leadership of the International Living Future Institute and have additionally signed onto the AIA’s 2030 Commitment to incrementally decarbonize the buildings we work on by 2030.
coLAB studio also has an in-house environmental policy for studio operations, which you may read here. In that document, one can read about how we decarbonize our studio’s functions, save water and energy, etc.
For more information about our studio’s core interests, click on any of the following five words for brief definitions or simply contact us.
Native People’s Land Acknowledgement:
coLAB studio would like to acknowledge our studio sits on unceded and sacred land previously occupied by the O’odham and Piipash peoples along with their Huhugam and Piipaa Nykor ancestors. We wish to honor the many past, present, and future generations and elders of the Onk Akimel O’odham (also known as Salt River Pima) and Xalychidom Piipaash (also known as Maricopa) communities. We recognize their experience and particular genius in being the original stewards of this environment, and feel a sense of humility to reside in this area. We would like to honor the various and diverse indigenous peoples connected to this land and encourage non-indigenous peoples to recognize their importance to the past, present, and future of this place. We, non-indigenous communities, have much to learn from them.
Likewise, I (Matthew Salenger of coLAB studio) would like to acknowledge the indigenous Hawai’ian people of the islands where I grew up. I feel honored and humbled to have been exposed to their culture, language, and unique understanding of the environment and the human connection to it. The land I lived on there has been occupied for many centuries by these amazing sea-faring Polynesian people living in harmony with the land. I have much to learn from them.
coLAB studio was the first architecture studio to receive certification with the Arizona Green Business program run by Local First AZ in 2020. We have been a member of Local First Arizona since 2008.
coLAB studio joined the AIA’s 2030 Commitment in 2023 to reduce embodied carbon from our projects.