FLIP-A-STRIP // CHIA MESA

CHIA MESA transforms the strip mall into a prototype and a recovery strategy for Phoenix. Rapid urbanization of the metro area—its unbridled horizontal expansion into the outlying landscape—has destroyed not only its potential agricultural productivity, but its civic identity as well. With CHIA MESA, a new imageability emerges for the city as a whole—one whose morphology ironically recollects that of the landscape it is rapidly consuming. Instead of being anonymously absorbed into the endless and undifferentiated urban fabric (Phoenix’s own version of Banham’s Plains of Id), the scenario we propose envisions the next generation of strip malls as climactically and socially “cool hotspots” in an arid fi eld. They will become the new landmarks of Phoenix’s urban future, as the indistinct identity of this city develops a singular imageability of its own, as recognizable to the world as Dubai’s “palm” islands, New York City’s skyline or, closer to home, Vegas’ neon glow. CHIA MESA is a strip mall that grows green: the color-striated lettuces, vegetables, flowers and algae that wrap the shops and offices literally demonstrate a new desert ecology of cars, consumers, and productivity.