Cooperative Housing for Sustainable Living
The Phoenix Housing Cooperative, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Located on a decommissioned golf course, this cohousing eco-community proposes a new model for sustainable, modern redevelopment in suburban contexts. The Phoenix Co-op reimagines the stereotypical relationship to “nature” that defines many American suburban neighborhoods. Valuable green space is redeveloped as a community land trust, where natural resources are once again sustaining and life-giving. Drawing from regional building traditions (adobe), the project modernizes earth-based construction for a new generation and a new way of urban living.

The Phoenix Co-op provides multi-generational cohousing, where private homes are clustered around shared neighborhood amenities that include gardens, childcare, cafés, and business incubators. The project is financed as a cooperative, making housing more affordable long-term for low- and moderate-income households; utilities are decentralized, small-scale, and renewable. The development features a range of housing types to serve individuals at all stages of life, from 1- and 2-bedroom apartments to more traditional single-family homes that are also deployable as stand-alone typologies on other urban sites.

Phoenix is one of the most extreme urban environments in the world, with scorching temperatures only projected to get hotter in years to come. A housing solution for Phoenix is a solution for growing cities everywhere facing the realities of a warming planet. As temperatures increase alongside global populations, the Phoenix Co-op proposes a scalable urban housing solution—one that transforms existing resources into places that are eco-friendly, forward-looking, and truly cooperative.