Alternative Desert Cities 1

The studio was tasked with proposing housing for 5,000 people anywhere within the Phoenix Metropolitan Area (The Valley of the Sun/Salt River Valley/Metro Phoenix). Students defined this demand on their own terms and through narratives that they  individually created and developed each throughout the semester. While the housing requirement was the only explicit programmatic concern, ancillary programs in support of the housing (office, industry, transport, farming, entertainment, sport, education, etc) were up to the discretion of each student in accordance to their specific project scopes.

Though the task operated at a range of scales that differed from student to student, the inherently diverse and flexible tools and methods of architecture were utilized to best demonstrate the unique qualities in each project. Both conceptual and detailed drawings/models were coordinated across the studio to illustrate a comprehensive and comparative collection of 16 unique conceptual desert cities.