Proceeding boldly toward our third decade, Rural Studio continues to educate “Citizen Architects” with a mixture of hands-on learning and a healthy dose of social activism. At home in Hale County, we persist in grappling with the complex issues of housing, health, education, nutrition and underemployment that endure in the rural area. As always, one single question drives the work of the Studio forward: How can ideas travel more, while materials and resources travel less? suggests that everyone, both rich and poor, deserves the benefits of good design. We constantly reflect on what we should build, rather than what we can build. In all of the Studio’s projects, the students continue to creatively recycle, remake and reuse materials while simultaneously utilizing sustainable, renewable local resources. the rural studio philosophy
True to this mission, the fifth year students are working in the public realm on a variety of complex, large-scale, community-based projects. Hand-in-hand with our community partners and elected officials, these projects focus on the various areas of health, welfare, and education. In each of the projects, the student teams aim to knit together the fragile rural fabric while simultaneously reinforcing the collective memory of place.
Through seven years of persistent research and development, Rural Studio has developed a product line of homes that may be built and purchased by the public (both low- and highincome) for a total cost of $20,000. Designed to fit well within a variety of contexts, the current line of “20K Houses” includes shotgun, dogtrot, and square typologies. The outreach students are currently engaged in the development of a fully accessible version of the 20K House. The 20K House project is perfectly suited to Rural Studio’s ability to research and reflect critically on the challenges of creating well-designed, durable, buildable, dignified and affordable housing.
Supplementing these three core studio classes, Rural Studio’s elective offerings emphasize the importance of craft. In both the third year watercolor class and the fifth year drawing class, the Studio aims to create an enduring legacy of beautiful artifacts that celebrate the work of the hand. While digital technologies have an important place in the contemporary world of design, Rural Studio believes that the very tools that create architecture also profoundly affect what is made. To draw is to simply think out loud with one’s hands. Combining Rural Studio’s ethic of craft with the goal of utilizing locally sourced material, the Woodshop continues to explore the range of opportunities inherent in pine, cedar and cypress. The most fundamental of renewable and sustainable building resources, wood is one of Alabama’s primary agricultural crops. This fact, joined with our ideas of craft and material research, allows the Woodshop to reinforce Rural Studio’s mission of underpinning one of the vital engines of our fragile local economy.
“To draw is to simply think out loud with one’s hands”
As an ongoing catalyst for the “Rural Studio Revolution,” the third year students are questioning the way the Studio itself builds, eats, consumes and wastes. The “Rural Studio Farm” project is tasked with guiding our own ethic forward in response to contemporary economic and environmental issues, as well as provoking both our neighbors and ourselves toward a holistic, self-efficient environment.
The 20K House is a clear demonstration of Rural Studio’s mission to promote a reasonable and sustainable lifestyle that is beneficial to both homeowner and community alike. The 20K House also aspires to be a significant economic engine. Able to be constructed in three weeks utilizing both local labor and materials, the ultimate vision of the project is to provide the opportunity for the emergence of a cottage industry of locally built, sustainable, long lasting and easy to maintain homes.