COMMUNITY
Volunteer Work Projects
We are involved with communities in a number of ways, including both active (volunteering) and passive (thinking/making) efforts.
organizations
Citizens for a Vibrant Apache Corridor
A community of the heads of each neighborhood along Apache Blvd that works to improve housing & commercial activity.
Founded in 2014, we work with communities, developers, and the city to support developments we perceive as supportive of North Tempe.
Matthew Salenger is a founding member of this group
Teen Architecture Workshop
Started in 2012, coLAB studio (in coordination with SMOCA Scottsdale) began inviting teens to spend timing learning what architects really do, as well as learning about educational career paths.
Maria + Matthew Salenger have led 8 workshops. Exit surveys show kids and parents really enjoy the experience.
Sonoran Collaborative
Originally developed through the ILFI Living Building Challenge, this organization had three leaders and several helpers in organizing lectures and events.
Founded in 2012 by Jeff Frost, Ashley Mulhall, Sonja Bochart, and Matthew Salenger, the group had a following of over 500 people in 2020.
Future Desert
A full-day regenerative workshop event for professionals run by the Sonoran Collaborative in Februarys with plans to hold another two smaller events each year.
urban sprawl
Invidividualocracy
Research organized around attempting to understand how people directly control their surrounding urban environments through personal everyday decisions such as where to dine, shop, live, and be entertained: Our team collected over 100 lengthy interviews in person from people all over the Metropolitan Phoenix area to create a primer of non-academic qualitative research on attitudes about different areas of the city and how people decide where to live. The data shows a stark difference of the way people live depending on their location in the city, and does point to a correlation between lifestyle choices and surrounding environment.
The research is included in two publications:
1) A limited edition hand-made art-print made of five booklets and outer sleeve. The production of the books was in collaboration with Dan Mayer and John Risseeuw of the ASU Pyracantha Press. Four of the booklets have Turkish map-folds that describe the research graphically. The fifth contains the text version of the data. The books are for sale on colab studio's website.
2) As an essay within a collection of projects regarding urban planning, entitled "Retrofitting Sprawl", edited by Emily Talen. The book is available for sale internationally.
To complete the project, colab studio obtained two grants and a fundraising prize from the US Artists site.
Books have been purchased by libraries around the nation, including Yale, Stanford, UC Berkeley, University of Puget Sound, University of Washington, and University of Colorado.
Typology
In studying typical American housing types, we created a diagram that is rooted in reality, polemic, and humor.
The drawing is a combination left-brain information along with right-brain sentiments, also playing with socio-economic stereotypes, and an apparent limit of creativity for available housing types on the market.
One interesting aspect is the heavy overlap of sentiments associated in the “Zone of Maximum Flexibility” that encompass townhouses and apartment clusters. These housing types have not been constructed in the Phoenix area for a couple of decades. While popular, the housing-financial industry does not find them profitable at this time.
In a unique coLAB studio manner, this project combines research, info-graphics, and tongue-in-cheek commentary into an ambiguous work that can be considered art yet also used for demonstrative purposes.
Pandemic Housing (from 2020)
This art project was started on March 15th, 2020, when pandemic “stay at home” orders began in Arizona.
Quarantine anywhere is bothersome at best, though living within Phoenix’s suburban landscape the isolation had its very own peculiar surreal quality. When looking outside from one’s neighborhood house, nothing in the city was different except lower traffic on arterial streets, and more people working from home. The lack of drastic changes to the immediate surroundings should have been comforting, though it exacerbated a feeling of uncertainty. What was really going on out there? How many people were really sick? What was everyone else feeling? Did anyone need help?
A home became an island- one of many islands in a neighborhood and city, as if each house was surrounded by a moat. Outsiders became potentially dangerous invaders. Groceries, delivered contact-less, became a trojan horse requiring a rigorous kitchen-integration processes of being thoroughly washed and/or decontaminated before allowed in the house and put away for future consumption. Simultaneously, the feeling of sanctuary each house should give was greatly strengthened, as was a sense of a property acting as one’s own little universe.
Perhaps people in rural areas felt less affected, already having a sense of separation from heavily populated communities. Perhaps people living within high-rises of Manhattan felt like caged pets on shelves, separated for their safety. Without living in those situations in the time of a pandemic, it is difficult to understand how anyone else might have felt—even other people within Metro Phoenix undoubtedly felt a wide range of unease. People in different areas all over the world would undoubtedly produce a different take on “Pandemic Housing” than what is presented here.
This project is not a proposal. It is an exercise in uncertainty, originated by intuition and processed through imaginary thought-spaces. Much like the surreal atmosphere of Phoenix through the pandemic, this presentation exists in-between unstable realities and subsequent intuitive reactions to what one is immersed within.
Is this a re-imagined Phoenix, purposefully designed for a pandemic quarantine?
Is this psychologically oriented?
Is this a critique of the way Phoenix has developed?
Is this political commentary?
Is this an illustrated stream-of-consciousness?
Is this architecture, or art?
Is this utopia, or dystopia?
Yes.
And no.
The Embrace: A Visionary Community in Tempe, Arizona
The Embrace is an innovative project redefining urban living. Spanning 137 acres in Tempe, Arizona, it aims to house 30,000 residents at 65 dwelling units per acre while preserving 31% open space. The project is guided by five main goals:
Intimate Community Pods: Residents are divided into "pods" of no more than 200 people, fostering close-knit communities and meaningful connections.
Nature at Your Doorstep: Biophilic design ensures direct access to nature, integrating green spaces, natural materials, and sky views to promote well-being.
Self-Sufficiency and Sustainability: The community features urban farms, rainwater harvesting, renewable energy, and waste recycling for self-sufficiency in food, water, energy, and circular economics.
Lifelong Living: A variety of housing types accommodate residents at all life stages, from starter homes to family units and accessible housing for seniors, allowing them to stay in the same community as their needs change.
Cultural and Economic Vibrancy: Reflecting the rich cultural heritage of Tempe, The Embrace incorporates diverse cultural elements, including five music venues, innovative architectural design, and ample economic opportunities.
The Embrace combines innovative design, sustainability, and community-focused principles to create a vibrant and resilient urban environment.
We all deserve better options from the housing industry. This year-long project is full of ideas of how to transform housing- from the “inside” with investors, developers, municipalities, communities, and designers working together to use better delivery methods including the Integrative Design Process.
And with “thinking outside the box” to discover better ways to include existing adjacent community cultures and desires. One example of that would be bringing more music venues back to Tempe to spur more innovative music similar to that of the 1980’s and 90’s.
