Rural Studio Newsletter 2016

All of Rural Studio’s news from Hale County Newsletter 2015—2016

vol. 5

The Rural Studio exhibit at the 2016 Venice Biennale

20Kv17 Geraldine’s House

Meet Patrick Braxton

Meet Tim Hursley

Recently Completed

Local Profiles

Friends of the Studio

Page 12

Page 13

Page 9

big cheese

Letter from Hale County

Andrew Freear printing

Auburn Opelika Printing

G

her and Eric’s fabulous little blonde bombshell

friendly critics and visitors from all over the

Rural Studio had the honor and

son ...introducing the one and only OLIVER!

USA and the planet. To name but a few: the

privilege of being asked to participate

Congratulations to Natalie and Eric! On the

Grumpy but lovely Peter Gluck; the watercolor

in two major international exhibits in Europe:

more serious staff front, we all celebrated Eric

wizard Frank Harmon; the glass engineering

the Milan Triennale and the Venice Biennale.

Ball being taken on as full-time gardener: Eric

genius from London, Tim Macfarlane, who

editing

To be invited to both events left us giddy with

and Chef Cat are making great strides forward

brought his “not-so-wee” boy Alexander with

Natalie Butts-Ball

excitement, and just a little overwhelmed, when

in our desire to feed ourselves with produce from

him; and Julie Eizenberg, who dragged her

production

Natalie Butts-Ball

reetings from newbern!

This summer

we realized the company we were in, and the

the front yard. Gayle and Brenda continue

sarcastic old man Hank with her all the way

copy-editing

fact that we were THE only US designers invited

to do sterling work guiding the front office

from Los Angeles! Incidentally, our great friends

Colleen Bourdeau Eric Ball Alex Henderson

to the Venice international exhibit by curator,

“ship”. Our Office Manager has been christened

Billie Tsien and Tod Williams didn’t show

and recent Pritzker award winner, Alejandro

“Bionic Gayle” after receiving a complete,

up (too busy schmoozing with the Pres!), but

Aravena. It’s quite extraordinary recognition

new set of titanium arms and legs; while Miss

we understand they actually got the Obama

for a small undergraduate architecture program

Brenda cannot stop celebrating her son, Warren

library commission because of their connections

layout

from West Alabama! A very special thank you

Aubrey, who is attending Marion Military

to Rural Studio, specifically because of the fact

Clifton Burt

to Elena Barthel for making both complex

Institute. We also were delighted to hire local-gal

that the President and First Lady gave all

projects happen a long way from Hale County!

Lynn Milner to help around our Newbern

the short-listed architects an image of a Rural

i l l u s t r at i o n s

The biggest challenge facing mankind today,

property.

Studio project as inspiration... go figure. Strange,

Callie Eitzen Alex Henderson

and architects in particular, is the management of resources. We decided to make a statement with the theme for both our exhibits. Always very critical of the waste of resources and materials at such events, we made sure that both exhibit installations were temporary diversions of materials that had a greater, ultimately more “useFULL” goal, generating no waste. In Milan, we simply borrowed one hundred one-ton paper bales, which were on their way to be recycled, and stacked them to make a meeting place and forum for discussion in the exhibition. In Venice, we built a small theater using material requested by two local housing advocacy groups who were doing great but under-appreciated work in the city. Bed springs, mattresses, lockers, insulation, and a wide variety of other materials (all still in their protective wrapping!) will be put on a barge to help these groups when the Biennale is over. Yes, even Venice has a housing crisis!

Meanwhile in West Alabama, the work continues!

This year we were delighted to complete a 20K Home for Geraldine Braxton on Dodge City Road in Newbern. At our Morrisette Home, the 3rd Years completed a dry storage building, with courtyard and landscaping, for the gardento-kitchen project, and the greenhouse started to receive its glass skin. The dream of feeding ourselves is moving forward y’all! The 5th Years made three great, unbuilt, but challenging, explorations of 20K Homes and the 5th Year leftover students are completing a fabulous Fabrication Pavilion for our use at Morrisette and three extraordinary shading pavilions sponsored in part by alpolic in Lions Park. We hope to see these leftover projects completed by the midfall, so please look out for your invites in the mail! With the 20K Home Product Line we are slowly but surely taking the home beyond the classroom. Its significance is shown by events after the inauguration of the two test houses, just outside of Atlanta, by Serenbe. When the two homes were completed and released to the world publicly, our 20K Manager, Natalie Butts-Ball, in a six-week period, fielded over two-thousand email requests and phone calls from people wanting plans and help with information in building one of these homes.

Natalie managed to answer absolutely every last one of the emails despite having to keep an eye on the latest member of the Rural Studio family:

Melissa Denney, our Auburn-based Development Officer, watched her son get engaged this year and was so excited that she celebrated by raising $65,000 on Tiger Giving Day. Thanks to all one hundred thirty-one donors and please keep up the great work Melissa! Rusty Smith, Alex Henderson, and I gave talks in Nashville, Seattle, Chicago, Richmond,Virginia, Indianapolis, New York State, and as far afield as Barcelona, Vienna, Venice, and little ole Letterfrack in western Ireland. Most importantly, we were invited to talk to the Alabama Rural Caucus in Montgomery: the Rural Caucus is Alabama’s bi-partisan group of politicians who champion rural issues, and they made very positive noise about our 20K Home and Rural Studio Farm as holistic, healthy rural living initiatives - the really good news is that they want to come visit and see them in person. In Greensboro, under the continued leadership of Bill Henry, the Farmer’s Market is thriving. Susie Harris is doing a great job leading up the Greensboro Parks and Recs board; Steve Gentry, her co-conspirator, is recovering from illness, so we are looking forward to seeing him back up and running. The Greensboro Opera House had a Grand Opening gala to celebrate all the hard work done over the last few years and the re-opening of the ground floor of the building.

Kudos to Winnie Cobbs, Buzzy Barnette, and the Opera House Board for all their hard work (with absolutely no interference from us!). In our beloved Newbern, fantastic librarian Alfreda Howard, and the Library Board, have been running very successful summer programs—so things look promising for the library’s future. Ashley Williams is a

but true story! At Soup Roast we held another Pecha Kucha at the Faunsdale Bar and Grill, and we were wowed by nine alumni from all around the world. The evening highlight was Carol Mockbee for her fabulous quotes, insights, and reflections on her father’s sketchbooks, though she will mainly be remembered for her question “When is Andrew gonna leave?”, which brought the house down! As you can imagine, our usual fabulous visitors, aging Jersey Devil rockstars Steve Badanes and Jim Adamson, sat quietly looking on from the corner - though they occasionally regaled us with their ailments and social security advice. The year was rounded off with a great Pig Roast day. Heavy rain during the evening graduation ceremony moved the crowd to the Great Hall at Morrisette House, where our wonderful friend Marlon Blackwell brought tears to people’s eyes with an extraordinary, but heartfelt, very funny, reflection on the work. Then Johnny Parker, as only he can, heroically set the fireworks off in the backyard and local Tuscaloosa band, the Golden Monica, played through the thunderstorm and late into the evening. A great time was had by all!

This fall, after seventeen years in Hale County, I will be taking some time off, which will give me the opportunity to recharge my batteries, spend some time with my family, and deal with a failing body (I will eat something else besides BBQ, catfish, and Budweiser!). But have no fear! Old sexy-accent himself, Xavier Vendrell, will be the Acting Director, SO BUSINESS WILL BE AS USUAL! Xavier will focus the Studio on a nice combination of community, garden-to-table, and small home projects. So wish me luck and good luck to you all. I’ll see you next year!”

Much love and BIG kisses,

lovely, smiley presence at the Post Office along with delivery gal Gwen Melton, who we just found out is going to be a grandma! Meanwhile, Leah and Matt, and their merry band of kids, are continuing their wonderful, but, of course, completely nutty adventures at the Newbern Mercantile. We just love ‘em! On a very sad note,

Andrew Freear director,

Rural Studio

we lost three of our very favorite 2OK Home owners this year: Bobby Calhoun, Turner Dansby, and the lovely fighter Joanne Davis.

We will miss them all very badly. During the year, we had our usual plethora of fabulously Photo(above): by Manuel León Photo (below): Milan Triennale

A U B URN U NIVE RSIT Y IS A N E QUA L O P P ORTU NITY E DU C AT IO NA L I N S T I TU TIO N/E MP LO Y E R .

3

Press

2016

Rural Studio Pig Roast 2016 StudioAPLA | web | july 6, 2016

Rural Studio Represents US In Two Prestigious International Exhibits StudioAPLA | web | july 6, 2016 Rural Studio. Forum Architecture as Art | book & exhibit journal | 2016 Saving The World, One Brick At A Time Architecture Record | web | july 1, 2016 Greensboro Boys & Girls Club Arquine No. 76 | magazine | summer 2016 Venice Biennale Of Architecture: The Theater Of The UseFULL By Rural Studio catalogodiseno.com | web | june 29, 2016 Why Are There (Almost) No American Architects At The 2016 Venice Biennale?

The Architect’s Newspaper | web | may 27, 2016 I Molteplici Fronti Dell’architecttura Non Tradiscono Le Attese Il Giornale Dell’Architecttura.com | web | may 25, 2016 7 Architecture Schools With Stellar Design-Build Programs StudyArchitecture.com | web | may 3, 2016 Rural Visions Places Journal | web | april 2016 Rural Studio – “The Theater Of The UseFULL” Arkitektur N | magazine | april 2016 Building In The Black Belt Church Health Reader | magazine | spring 2016 Serenbe Ecovillage Values Nature, Creativity And Community Earth911 | web | march 17, 2016 Growing Business In Tiny Houses Business Alabama | web | march 10, 2016 These Beautiful Tiny Homes Cost Less Than $20,000 To Build - Take A Look Inside Business Insider | web | march 09, 2016 No Such Thing As Bad Publicity? Why Clickbait’s Bad For Affordable Housing Metropolis | web | march 08, 2016

Alabama Bright Lights: Andrew Freear continues the legacy of Sambo Mockbee and the Rural Studio in Alabama’s Black Belt

Architectural Geniuses At Auburn Somehow Design Beautiful Houses That Only Cost $20K Yellowhammer News | web | february 04, 2016 A $20,000 House Could Be A Game Changer Builder Magazine | web | February 04, 2016 Architecture Students Try To Solve Rural US Housing Crisis By Creating Affordable Homes That Cost Just $20,000 To Build (Shame That Doesn’t Include The Price Of The Land) This Is Money | web | february 3, 2016 Architecture Students Try To Solve Rural US Housing Crisis By Creating Affordable Homes That Cost Just $20,000 To Build (Shame That Doesn’t Include The Price Of The Land) Daily Mail UK | web | february 3, 2016 Architecture Students Try To Solve Rural US Housing Crisis By Creating Affordable Homes That Cost Just $20,000 To Build (Shame That Doesn’t Include The Price Of The Land) Ontario Association of Architects | web | february 3, 2016 This House Costs Just $20,000-But It’s Nicer Than Yours Fast Company Co.Exist | web | february 03, 2016 Students Built The House For Only $ 20,000. The Interior Will Really Surprise You! Nehnutel’nosti | magazine & web | february 01, 2016 ‘Rural Studio’ Created This Home Design That Can Be Built For $20,000 Trend Hunter | web | january 30, 2016 These Students Aim To Create Affordable Housing For All House Beautiful | web | january 29, 2016 See Inside These Dreamy Tiny Houses Designed In Alabama AL.com | web | january 27, 2016 Architecture Students Design Sustainable Low-Income Homes That Can Be Built For $20K My Modern Met | web | january 25, 2016 Department Of Architecture Students Challenged To Create Cheap Houses OkeZone | web | january 23, 2016 Students Design Affordable, Beautiful Homes That Target Mass-Production At Just $20,000 Inhabitat | web | january 21, 2016 Bring Shelter For The Soul To Beltlandia BeltLandia | web | january 21, 2016

20K House In The News CADC | web | february 13, 2016

Lions Park: Architecture Students Transforming A Community ALPOLIC-Americas | web | january 19, 2016

$20,000 Dream Homes Are Being Built In This Georgia Town Where 70% Of Public Land Is Edible The Plaid Zebra | web | february 11, 2016

Serenbe & Rural Studio’s Partnership Leads To A Happy, Artistic Haven ArtsATL | web | january 18, 2016

Remarkable $20K Houses From Rural Studio Green Building Elements | web | february 11, 2016

Sneak Peek At Serenbe’s Tiny Houses For Artists Atlanta Magazine | web | january 15, 2016

Auburn Studio Putting 20K Houses On The Market Columbus Ledger Enquirer | web | february 09, 2016

Place, Evolution, And Appropriateness Metropolitan Laboratory Magazine | book | 2016

By Karim Shamsi-Basha October 2, 2015

Low-Cost Rural Studio Homes Aspire To Be Built For $20,000 Tree Hugger | web | february 09, 2016

Menu 

COMMUNITY

As you drive the two-lane highway into Newbern in the heart of the Alabama Black Belt, you might experience a massive shift in your perception.

(/)

Rural Studio - Teaching Socially Conscious Architecture Agile-City | web | february 09, 2016

There is something different about the architecture of the buildings downtown. I use the term “downtown” loosely to describe a handful of buildings along state Highway 61.

Those buildings, including a city hall, a fire station, a library and a few others, look uncommon, unconventional, exotic and almost idiosyncratic.

Is This The Future Of Low-Income Housing?

Bisnow | web | february 8, 2016 This $20,000 House Will Save America Hustle | web | february 8, 2016

This House Costs Just $20,000—But It’s Nicer Than Yours

Step Inside The Loveliest Low-Cost Cottages In All Of Georgia Mother Nature Network | web | february 08, 2016 Students Try To Figure Out How To Make $20K Homes By Building In A Luxury Community Digital Trends | web | february 06, 2016

The Rural Studio's 20K House is so cheap and has such innovative design that it's changing the entire housing system—from mortgages to zoning laws.

For over a decade, architecture students at Rural Studio,

Someone Is Promoting This One Hundred Thousand Yuan Small House, In Order To Solve The Housing Problem Q Daily | web | february 06, 2016

Auburn University's design-build program in a tiny town in West Alabama, have worked on a nearly impossible problem. How do you design a home that someone living below the poverty line can afford, but that anyone would want—while also providing a living wage for the local construction team that builds it?

Rural Studio Proves Attractive Affordable Housing Is Possible Azure | web | february 05, 2016

In January, after years of building prototypes, the team finished their first pilot project in the real world. Partnering with a commercial developer outside Atlanta, in a tiny community called Serenbe, they built two one-bedroom houses, with materials that cost just $14,000 each.

Housing For Next To Nothing? These Students Make It Possible Elle Netherlands | web | february 04, 2016

The goal: To figure out how to bring the ultra-low-cost homes, called the 20K Home, to the broader market.

"We're in a kind of experimental stage of the program, where we're really trying to find out the best practice of getting this house out into the public's hands," says Rusty

Shape: Designs For Life Brisbane Times | web | february 04, 2016

Smith, associate director of Rural Studio. "Really this first field test was to find out all the things that we didn't know, and to find out all of the kind of wrong assumptions that we had made, and really find out how we had screwed up, honestly."

Alabama’s Auburn University And Rural Studio Develop $20,000 House The Age | web | february 04, 2016 SU B SCR I BE N OW

Subscribe/Renew in Print Subscribe on iPad Give a Gift Customer Service

Current Issue | Subscribe | Archive | Product Info | Books | Competitions | Trade Shows | CEU | Advertise | Contact Us | My Account

Newsletter Signup

ARCHITECTURE

CULTURE

DESIGN

PRODUCTS

BLOG

VIDEOS

EVENTS

PROJECTS

POINT OF VIEW / MARCH 2016 / NO SUCH THING AS BAD PUBLICITY? WHY CLICKBAIT'S BAD FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Mar 8, 2016

Point of View

About This Blog 09:00 AM

ADVERTISEMENT

No Such Thing as Bad Publicity? Why Clickbait's Bad for Affordable Housing K i ra Goul d

ADVERTISEMENT

Courtesy ©Jessica Ashley Photography

Last month, FastCoExist and Inhabitat ran stories about Auburn University’s Rural Studio’s 20K Project. Inhabitat’s was titled: “Students design affordable, beautiful homes that target mass productions at just $20,0000 each.” FastCoExist’s was: “This house costs just $20,000, but it’s nicer than yours.” The subhead took it even further: “The Rural Studio’s 20K House is so cheap and has such innovative design that it’s changing the entire housing system—from mortgages to zoning laws.” The 20K house is a worthwhile student project coming out of the great program run

by Andrew Freear and founded by Samuel Mockbee. It’s great to see coverage of Rural Studio’s efforts, but to hear these headlines (and, less hyperbolically, the stories that followed), the 20K Project is revolutionizing affordable housing for the mass market right now. However, the authors, who may not be responsible for the titles, fail to point out some of the key differences between student work and building in the real world—and in so doing do a disservice to everyday practice.

After reading these stories, I reached out to two prominent designers in the design­build world to get their opinions. First, architectural designer Jordan Pollard, who is currently running his own company, DRIFT Design Build, after working for four years at Make It Right in New Orleans (before

Search

ADVERTISEMENT

SPECIFY

2015 La Proposta Educativa I Arquitectonica Del Rural Studio: Una Visio De Futur L’arquitectura que ve | book | 2015 Alabama Bright Lights: Andrew Freear Continues The Legacy Of Sambo Mockbee And The Rural Studio In Alabama’s Black Belt Alabama NewsCenter | web | october 2, 2015 The 20K House The New Small house | book | 2015 You Can Now Vote On The Best Public Restroom In The U.S. Mashable | web | september 21, 2015 At Long Last, Rural Studio’s 20K House Ventures Outside Of Rural Alabama Mother Nature Network | web | september 10, 2015 A $20K Home Starts Construction At Serenbe, No Really Curbed Atlanta | web | september 9, 2015 Freear Is Keynote Speaker At Alabama Humanities Foundation Annual Awards The Greensboro Watchman | newspaper | august 13, 2015 Xavier Vendrell arqa | magazine | july/august 2015 New States Of Play The Architectural Review | web | july 30, 2015

4

Exhibitions & Awards

Milan Triennale Rural Studio Designs and Builds “Forum” This year’s exhibition, ARCHITECTURE AS ART, at The Milan Triennale was curated by Lotus architecture magazine.

The magazine invited fifteen architects and designers from all over the world to each design a pavilion in a contemporary art museum in Milan, Italy. The approximate material and labor construction budget was 25,000 euros. Rural Studio was the only invited academic program and was in the extraordinary company of Herzog & de Meuron, Studio Mumbai, and Lacaton & Vassal, to name but a few.

When asked to design and build an installation entitled “Forum” for the exhibition, we saw an opportunity to work with principles that we always keep in mind for Rural Studio projects and exhibitions: Firstly, to construct an installation that has little or no waste – nothing is thrown away!

Second, to use materials available in close proximity to the museum, thus minimizing transportation. And finally, to understand the installation as a metaphor for a bigger question: how do architects and designers instigate a responsible attitude towards the resources that we utilize every day?

In Milan, to our delight, in a recycling plant we discovered beautiful cardboard and white paper bales that we borrowed for the installation and afterwards sent on in their course of life. In our imagination, the bales, each weighing one ton (and we stacked one hundred in total!), represent large pieces of stone quarried to make a “Forum”: a place to sit, think, read, or debate. A ceiling made of printing tests was added and will enter the recycling process at the end of the exhibit.

Fifteen books and inspirational texts, each provided by our fellow exhibitors, can be discovered in the Fourm. At the end, the bales, unharmed, will return into the recycling process. We will leave nothing behind!

Andrew Freear Receives Architecture Award at the American Academy of Arts and Letters in NYC On May 18, 2016, Andrew Freear received the 2016 Award in Architecture for his work at Rural Studio from the American Academy of Arts & Letters in New York City.

Since 1991, these awards have recognized American architects whose work is characterized by a strong personal direction.

This year’s selection committee, chaired by Elizabeth Diller, was Henry N. Cobb, Peter Eisenman, Kenneth Frampton, Hugh Hardy, Steven Holl, Cesar Pelli, James Polshek, Robert A. M. Stern, and Tod Williams.

To honor the newly elected members and recipients of honors and awards, the Academy also hosted an exhibition of paintings, works on paper, video, photographs, architectural models and renderings, and original manuscripts. Rural Studio’s work was on display from May 19June 12. The collection included Timothy Hursley photographs and models of the Newbern Fire Station, Antioch Baptist Church, and Perry Lakes Park Pavilion, Restrooms, Covered Bridge, and Birding Tower.

5

Exhibitions & Awards

Venice Biennale Rural Studio Designs and Builds the “Theater of the useFULL”

of the insulation panels. ASC has been renovating and reopening abandoned government housing since 2012 and has handed over forty houses to families in need.

Perhaps the greatest exhibition coup this year for Rural Studio was to be invited to make an installation at the Venice Biennale.

The short-term use for these materials is for the six-month run of the Biennale.

Once that is concluded, they will reach their final destination in the service of these two organizations. Although only select materials were chosen to make up the edifice of the theater, other valuable materials, such as locally-manufactured windows and plumbing fixtures for ASC, and mattresses and storage cabinets for Cooperativa Caracol, will also be donated to these organizations.

This year represented the Biennale’s 15th Architecture Exhibition, and Rural Studio was the only representative of the US invited to make an installation for the international exhibit curated by Alejandro Aravena. From Santiago, Chile, Aravena, who is the 2016 recipient of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize, has an approach to architecture that maintains social consciousness. As such, the theme that Aravena chose for the exhibition is “Reporting From the Front”, which aims to shift the traditional gaze of professional architects toward new frontiers of engagement – places like off-grid rural villages, urban slums, megacities, or conflict zones – with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of people’s lives through architecture.

Rural Studio’s installation holds to the philosophy that nothing be wasted. It also underscores the directive which the Studio has operated under since its inception: to build not what can be built, but what should be built.

Rural Studio’s installation, entitled “Theater of the useFULL”, is made up of metal spring-coil beds, still wrapped in translucent shipping plastic, which enclose a space defined by stacked and hanging insulation panels. The intimate theater-space that these two materials create houses projected video stories of Rural Studio’s work in Hale County. The videos were created by New York-based filmmakers Claire Dub and Randy Rubin, with photography from Timothy Hursley, and they celebrate 23 years’ worth of building projects which respond to the needs within the Studio’s community.

The use of the two materials in making the installation, however, was strategic: each one chosen for its usefulness to two Venetian organizations that support local social causes, so that these might be celebrated along with the videos. The first of these, to whom the beds will go, is Cooperativa Caracol, which is committed to providing cold-weather shelter for the homeless. The other organization is Assemblea Sociale per la Casa, the recipients

Design Museum Foundation: HANDS ON, Vienna Extraordinary Playscapes Lions Park Playscape is currently part of a major, nationally-traveling exhibition, Extraordinary Playscapes, hosted by the Design Museum Foundation. The exhibition examines the art, history, science, and importance of play, while telling the story behind some of the most incredible play spaces in the world. Featuring over 40 international playgrounds, drawings, sketches, videos, scale models, and playable installations, the interactive exhibition examines the importance of play and the latest thinking in playground design.

SOFA Chicago

Rural Studio was invited to be part of the exhibition, conference, and excursion on academic design-build studios called HANDS ON enhancing architectural education, hosted by the Vienna University of Technology in Vienna, Austria, June 1-3, 2016. Andrew Freear presented the key-note lecture for the conference.

Rural Studio was invited to participate in the special exhibitions at SOFA, Sculpture Objects Functional Art and Design, an annual exhibition fair in Chicago, from November 6 to 8, 2015. More than eighty galleries from all over the world participated in this edition, and it had more than 35,000 attendees.

Rural Studio projects highlighted in the exhibition included Lions Park Scout Hut, Newbern Town Hall, Newbern Fire Station, Newbern Library, 20Kv08 Dave’s Home, Corrugated Cardboard Pod, Rose Lee’s House, Glass Chapel, and Yancy Tire Chapel.

The special exhibition, designed and built

by Rural Studio, consisted of twenty-seven banners of paper hanging from metal cables displaying a selection of Rural Studio projects. Color photos of the completed projects were displayed on one side of the banner while black and white process images and drawings were on the other side. Andrew Freear gave an accompanying lecture.

6

Programs & Current Projects

3rd Year Program Instructors: Xavier Vendrell, Alex Henderson

Rural Studio Farm Storehouse This year, the 3rd Year studio focused on developing the Rural Studio Farm. The Rural Studio Farm initiative, a rebranding of the Studio’s main property, began in 2010. It allowed us to reimagine how the property is used and how it is cared for, giving the students an active role in its design and maintenance. During the 2015-2016 academic year, 3rd Year students split into small teams and each team was given pieces of the Farm to design and build. Below is a map indicating the tasks accomplished.Â

7

Programs & Current Projects

8

Profiles

Staff Profiles Alex Henderson

Photo: Keith Isaacs

Alex first came to Rural Studio in spring, 2009 and helped complete a house in Footwash, AL for Rose Lee Turner. He returned as a 5th year student in 2011 and worked in a team at Lions Park, developing rainwater management, planting, and maintenance strategies for the forty-acre green space. He was hired as 3rd year instructor shortly after and hasn’t left. in Northeast Alabama, in the foothills of the Appalachians. I lived in a neighborhood perched atop a small bluff that followed a bend in Short Creek. My brother, our friends, and I spent countless hours romping around the woods. As far as we knew they were endless. In three directions, we never made it to the forest edge. We built rope swings, cut trails, dammed up streams, set booby traps, caught fish, and built huts. It was ideal. Last year my brother and his wife moved into the same house and they recently had a child of their own. Some of the land has since been cleared, but I can still recall the different rooms and passageways that made our kingdom. The edges of the spaces are blurred, but each has its own undeniable, distinct character. i grew up on sand mountain

In high school I fell in love with music. In true Millennial fashion, my friends and I were treasure hunters carried on that digital wave - the Internet - searching hungrily for acoustic gems unavailable on the local radio stations. Before long, we were writing and recording our own tunes in my friend’s basement. It was the first time that I stepped out of the audience and attempted to create original work in a field I admired.

I’m also one of those people who reads the perfect book at the perfect moment in life. When you catch it just right and it resonates like a power grid, energizing a personal life quest chock-full of purpose and meaning. For me the book was Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig, and I read it during my senior year of high school. It was Pirsig’s pop philosophy classic that first got me thinking about thinking, and I’ve never stopped.

of the ivory tower and puts callouses on your hands. Or, for those romantics out there, it topples the ivory tower altogether and builds a village from the rubble. Whatever metaphor you choose, the truth is this: Rural Studio is beyond ideas and words; it is concerned with thoughtful action. This is the most important thing I’ve learned.

Don’t be content with ideas alone. Test them, put them to work.

My time at Rural Studio has molded me in more ways than I will ever be able to say.

I’m sure there is some indication as to the extent of its impact when I say that I am drawn, increasingly, to the utopian idea of carving out a future in some rural setting with a community of friends, designing and building our lifestyle and hosting some sort of educational workshop to support the whole endeavor. Really… I’m not kidding. That’s what I’m dreaming. It currently seems to me that the ol’ “meaning of life” is so close to ground surface in that rural pasture that I can smell it, that all one would need to do is sink in a shovel.

I don’t know where I’ll go after leaving this place. But I do know this: I’m taking the Studio with me.

Needless to say, I went to Auburn to play in a folk-rock band and to study philosophy.

After the first year of college, with band members moving away and rock-n-roll dreams fading, I just couldn’t seem to make sense of the term “professional philosopher”. I switched majors to architecture because it seemed, to use the language of Robert Pirsig, to be a promising synthesis of the Classic and Romantic temperaments, or, put another way, a nice blend of the sciences and the arts.

Going into architecture school has to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, however unwittingly. I have had the opportunities to study under and alongside amazingly talented individuals; to be challenged with and coached through enormous, complex problems; to live in Istanbul, a city of untold millions, and Newbern, population 184; to meet some of the top designers in the field; and to be a part of the wonderful community of students and faculty that is Auburn’s architecture school. All told, the most decisive episode of the adventure has, for me, been Rural Studio.

Rural Studio has been, and continues to be, the most educational experience of my life. The Studio engages problems of innumerable scales - from the best way to tap into an active septic line, to the conditions of rampant social inequality, and everything in between.

It is a place where thought is followed by action. It yanks you out Photo: Keith Isaacs

9

Profiles

Friend of the Studio Timothy Hursley Aside from Johnny Parker, the most fascinating character in the Rural Studio cabal might well be Timothy Hursley. If you have ever seen a published photograph of a Rural Studio project, or a glimpse into the baroque heart of a Nevada brothel, a weathered silo bowing toward an open sky, or any snapshot from a virtuosic and near-endless catalogue of modern architectural photographs, it was almost certainly the work of Timothy Hursley. Like a nomad, Tim travels the world documenting architectural and cultural marvels. He is among the greats. Tim has been a part of our team from the very beginning, capturing the first photos of the Haybale House, nearly a quarter of a century ago.

In downtown Little Rock, Arkansas, atop a steep slope sits the studio of world-renowned architectural photographer Timothy Hursley. I knocked on the door, and, after a long pause, Tim answered.

CALLIE: I noticed your two-headed pet. Where did you find that?

TIM: I photographed it on a great site in Pocahontas, Arkansas. I

We started with a tour of the studio. The main floor held Tim’s archives: a maze of file cabinets labeled with famous architect after famous architect – and Rural Studio, of course. An office, kitchen, and myriad Americana treasures, including a two-headed taxidermied calf from 1940, completed the tour of the first floor.

By the way, Tim just won grand prize at the Arkansas Arts Center 58th Delta Exhibition for his photographs of the two-headed calf.

After passing his collection of Butch Anthony artwork along the stair well, and his computer lab, we reached his wife’s studio. Her space was light and airy, and she painted while one of their twin sons sat on her couch. We then headed back down the stairs to begin the inter view.

CALLIE: What brought you to Arkansas?

TIM: Well, I’m from Michigan. I have a brother who was also a

photographer, and he was living here. I joined him in 1980. He eventually left and went to Austin, and I stayed here.

CALLIE: Your studio is called The Arkansas Office?

TIM: Not as much anymore. I originally set up on Capitol Avenue downtown, in this cool building that was on the Mall. I looked down Capitol Avenue, and I just thought of The Arkansas Office.

I joked that it sounded international. It could have not even been in Arkansas – you didn’t know what it was. It made it seem underground and international. It worked for a while, when I was young.

CALLIE: How did you get into photography?

TIM: While I was up in Michigan, I had the opportunity

to work around the yard of a renowned architectural photographer. He was Hungarian. Balthazar Korab. He had worked at Eero Saarinen’s office. I was 17. I wasn’t even into photography at the time, but my brother was also working there. I spent nine years there. Didn’t go to college. Then I came here, joined my brother. We only stayed together about a year before I started The Arkansas Office downtown.

Tim’s wife Jeanie and their son walked down the stairs on their way out of the studio.

CALLIE: How did you guys

meet?

TIM: Here in Little Rock. My office was downtown and she had a studio downtown.

CALLIE: So you just ran into each other on the street?

JEANIE: You would’ve thought we would have.

TIM: No, a guy that I was working with knew someone Jeanie was working with.

JEANIE: Sometimes I say we met at a bar, depending on the audience. Or I’ll say we met through mutual friends. Both of which are true.

Jeanie and son, Evan, say goodbye, and the inter view continues...

CALLIE: So how have you seen the industry change since you started?

TIM: I think the digital really made the change in a number of ways.

It took you out of the dark room. Now it’s all hands-on, and the micro-detail that you didn’t have before. I was slow to change to shoot digital – that vault is full of negatives. Now I’m all digital.

The fact that now you can transmit photographs all over the place is great. Just got in Friday night from a ten-day trip in South Korea photographing the Asian Cultural Center in Gwangju. The architect is Kyu Sung Woo. CALLIE: What is your camera of choice?

TIM: Well, I have this camera called a Phase One. It’s a great

camera with great latitude, and I have a lot of nice lenses for it.

It makes coming out with the images a lot easier when you have a nice camera. I also have a Canon DSLR for certain things.

CALLIE: What sort of things do you like to do when you’re not taking

photographs?

TIM: Now I’m collecting Americana-type stuff. If I’m headed to an assignment and I can drive, I spend a day to drive it. I’m always looking around for stuff to photograph.

stumbled upon it, and the guy was willing to sell it.

CALLIE: Do you have plans to continue collecting taxidermy?

TIM: No, but it’s funny. There was a taxidermy piece I ran across

in Greensboro like twenty years ago. It was on 14, in like a car dealership. I don’t know if it’s even there anymore. I photographed it. It was all these albino squirrels on a tree.

CALLIE: So how did you first get connected with Rural Studio?

TIM: Sambo called me about the Haybale House, and we’d already

photographed together on a couple of his own projects. He said, “I’ve got something really great.” I went down and met him. Then I did it again the next three years in a row, with the Yancy Chapel and the Butterfly House. Sambo set it up so we would get one of the architectural magazines to sponsor the trip. One year we’d do Architecture, the next we’d do Architectural Record, and so on.

CALLIE: So they’d get the story if they paid for the trips?

TIM: Yeah, and after that I just did it all on my own for the most part. The collection has grown, and the interest too – all over the place. I helped fuel it; I would put things together and send it to people in Europe. There was so much interest in what Mockbee was doing at Rural Studio that he got more attention from the press than Frank Gehr y.

CALLIE: Do you have a favorite project that you like to photograph at

Rural Studio?

TIM: I keep going back to the Haybale House, since I started there. I always enjoy watching it change. That’s yielded the most photographs over time, but I’m really keen on the Newbern town plan.

CALLIE: What inspired you to buy the silo?

TIM: I was with Steve Long. We were

coming back from Marion, and I just saw it sitting in the field. It just looked like some crumpled thing in the distance coming off 14. I liked those first photographs – it was cloudy and I could circle it. If it had been sunny, I wouldn’t be able to get as many shots. I’d been in and out of so many museums, and I thought it looked like a great piece of sculpture, just the way it was. Later I found out they were maybe going to scrap it, and I said, “No, don’t scrap it! I’ll take it.”

CALLIE: Any future plans for the silo?

TIM: No, nothing’s come up. Maybe it’ll fall over and I can get some new photographs.

CALLIE: What are some quick tips for a beginning photographer?

TIM: You have to be relentless about your approach – about ever ything! In South Korea, we decided on a hotel that was close to the site so we could walk to it, rather than take a cab. The project was mostly underground anyways, so we liked coming up from the street. That was the right approach. It was a really bad hotel: it was burning out my cords to charge things. We had just started the shoot and I had five batteries that were fully charged, but I can go through three of them in a day. But we wanted to stay close to the site, so we could be kind of local. That was part of my approach, being relentless.

CALLIE: I may need to get a picture of that two-headed calf before I

leave.

TIM: This is his best angle. But I can sit here in front of it if you’d like one of me.

Tim proceeded to help me arrange the lighting and layout of above photo.

10

Programs & Current Projects

5th Year Program Instructors: Andrew Freear, Steve Long

This year, the 5th Year studio was charged to design three distinctly different two-bedroom 20K Homes. Each would have a specific area of exploration, while focusing the approach to design through a more evidence-based and scientific eye, as well as hoping to challenge previous assumptions made about the 20K design. The student teams embarked on three different threads of exploration: the Demographic Home, which challenges different living dynamics of people inhabiting a house; the Eco-Home, which explores the performance and efficiency of a house; and the Income Home, which focuses on how one lives in a home and how the home might offer opportunities to generate additional income.

20Kv18 The Demographic Home

J.P. Alexander, Robert Gray, Leslie Kounthapanya, Caitlyn Salters The Demographic Home addresses the changing landscape that makes up the rural American household, which may not necessarily reflect what is thought of as a typical multi-occupant home. It’s becoming more common for the household to be comprised of multi-generational lineage, extended family, and even friends. The previous iterations of the twobedroom 20K have focused more on the typical nuclear family. With the rise of a more diverse household living situation, there is a desire and need for a more flexible house that can fit a wider array of occupants.

The previously-mentioned criterion was used as a basis for the design of the Demographic Home, along with designing for accessibility and ease of adaptability. The principal structure includes a slab foundation and typical wood-frame construction. As with the rest of the 5th year designs, a new test and feature for the house is the use of Zip paneling for wall sheathing, which will hopefully provide a tighter building envelope and reduce labor cost. Not unlike other recent 20K designs, the choice of materiality was based on the consideration of local availably, durability, and constructability.

The major design features consist of a house divided into two zones. One zone includes a more centralized kitchen that is largely independent of the living spaces. This is a departure from recent design strategies that have a more open connection to the living space. Also included in this zone are two bathrooms. Previous designs of two-bedroom 20Ks have only had one full bath: by including a second bath, the hope is to make living conditions within the house more flexible. Laundry and storage are also in this area and the ends of the zone are capped with bedrooms. The generous division between the two bedrooms is more accommodating to different living situations.

The second zone is for living, which includes two flexible, independent living areas that are separated by a central screened porch. The idea behind the independent living spaces is to give some privacy and flexibility to the different living scenarios. One of the living spaces could also serve as a third bedroom. The porch will be used as a transition space between the interior and exterior and also serves as a means to draw light into the interior of the home. The porch will also act as the main entrance and central hub to the rest of the house.

11

Programs & Current Projects

20Kv19 The Eco Home

Josh Banks, Forrest Burleson, Will Gaskill, Saxon Gibbs The Eco-Home is an evidence-based study of how the 20K performs in both the short- and long-term. The team was challenged with gathering scientific environmental data on previous 20K home performances to test past design assumptions, including: orientation, ventilation, constructability, and materiality and analyzing the data and understanding the conclusions.

How the client occupies the 20K home and how design decisions have impacted the way in which the occupant lives was also a focus. The EcoHome uses the evidence and data acquired to give a more scientific basis for decision-making, rather than that of the rule of thumb.

New tools, previously unused by the Studio, were utilized in gathering data. For example, blower door testing and infrared heat signature guns were applied to previous 20K designs to test the breathability and tightness of the building envelope, find vulnerable areas in the construction, and identify any trends there may be from house to house. Data collection devices were installed to record the temperature and humidity levels in different areas of a house. This will also give data over time to identify environmental trends and the success of site orientation choices. The longer the period of time the data are collected, the more valuable the information yield will be in determining environmental trends. The hope is to continue to record data from previous and future homes, so we get a more accurate sample of information.

The Eco-Home design derives from the data collection. The challenge was to take a previous 20K design, ‘Dave’s Home,’ and adapt it according to the conclusions drawn from the research. The final design is a narrow shotgun house very similar to the original design; it remains a singleoccupant dwelling. Major updates of the building section include a slab foundation, super-insulated walls, a tall interior ceiling for ventilation, and a single-pitch shed roof. The walls and roof are wrapped with the Zip panel system to increase tightness of the building envelope.

Windows are situated, both high and low, to maximize ventilation. The goal is for the narrow section to act as a “ventilation machine”, relieving the need to rely on mechanical systems for cooling, while minimizing system use in the winter months through optimum building orientation. In the summer time the building is specifically oriented to catch cardinal winds.

20Kv20 The Income Home

Nathaniel Bartlett, Ellise Gallagher, Quinton Jones, Libby So The living and working situation for a multi-occupant household in rural Hale County is diverse, with scenarios ranging from the typical nuclear family to living with extended family or an elderly relative. People in rural areas drive great distances to their workplaces and could benefit from a home/work situation. There is already a significant number of people that work from home. There is also evidence of a need for space that could be rented for extra income. This is not only a local condition in rural West Alabama, but a condition throughout the United States.

These living situations have a profound economic impact on many family households and therefore seemed right to explore in the 20K evolution.

Around such research, the Income Home team developed a design that would try to accommodate these living scenarios: to provide a main house with an attached, but private and flexible unit that is separate from the rest of the house. This type of planning could help offer the opportunity to generate extra income in multiple ways.

The Income Home has a long, narrow, super-insulated section that will take advantage of natural cross-ventilation. The simple extrusion supports the ease of construction. In the main two-bed home, one long exterior wall is loaded with service functions. The separate apartment unit has an open and flexible plan that can be adaptable to different uses. It also has its own kitchenette and bath. The main home and the small unit are structurally attached through a common dogtrot porch that also serves as an entrance for both.

The House uses readily-available, durable materials. The construction of the house involves a pier-foundation system with traditional platform framing. The walls are comprised of wood stud framing wrapped with the Zip paneling system. The roof is a pre-manufactured truss system topped with corrugated tin, providing a generous overhang that protects the walls and provides shade. The finished siding for all exterior walls is metal, while the common dogtrot porch is clad with wooden boards.

12

Projects

Recently Completed 20KV17 GERALDINE’S HOME

20Kv17 is the fifth iteration of a twobedroom 20K Home. In response to the four two-bedroom homes built a year earlier, this version of the 20K Home explored streamlining structural and environmental systems. This long, narrow, and proud home reduces the number of piers and allows for improved cross ventilation and natural lighting and is adaptable for disabled clients.

The home has an interior dogtrot that is skewed to increase living room, dining room, and kitchen views to the exterior.

Storage, running the length of the house, also helps organize the main spaces. This is the first 20K Home to have built-in storage using screwed-together, off-the-shelf IKEA module products. The aim is to improve the range and quality of storage available to future potential clients while accommodating furniture. A generous “push-in” porch offers light and ventilation to the large communal kitchen, dining, and living room.

Photo: Timothy Hursley

Ongoing Projects LP SHADE

The Lions Park Shade team is addressing the need for places of refuge throughout the park for the casual park user. While the park features a beautiful shaded forest, the majority of the forty-acre park can become unbearable in the heat of summer. The project extends the shade past the forest along different areas of the walking trail, creating opportunities for rest, relaxation, and gathering.

The shading structures symbiotically relate with recently-planted trees, which will take fifteen to twenty years to provide good shade.

The structures will create a layered canopy that allows precise shading at certain times of the day and year, changing over time and offering a unique experience for every park visitor.

The main structure is made of welded aluminum beams and anodized steel columns.

Atop this structure, shading members are made of a folded composite sheet material that has a core of recycled plastic and a stressed skin of metal.

R S FA B R I C AT I O N PA V I L L I O N

Existing outdoor covered workspaces at our Morrisette campus and woodshop are limited in space and performance.

The Fabrication Pavilion team is building a new, dedicated outdoor fabrication space that will improve craft and offer new construction opportunities.

The new Fabrication Pavilion is the first phase of a two-phase project and provides a covered, level concrete working surface for students to build mockups and test ideas. The second phase, a woodshop, will sit beneath the roof of the pavilion and provide interior space for machining, fabricating, and teaching.

The pavilion structure consists of wood columns and trusses that are bolted together using a bypass construction method, in which wood members slip past each other to allow simple connections. Shear walls are attached from the concrete slab to the roof to stabilize the pavilion in the short axis. A Structural Insulated Panel (SIP) roof sits on top of the wood trusses and handles the shear in the long axis of the building.

13

Profiles

Local Profiles Patrick Braxton Patrick Braxton grew up in Hale County and attended Sunshine School in Newbern.

He graduated from Sunshine in 1985 and worked for 26 years as part of the factory maintenance crew at CT South, a metal components manufacturer in Marion, AL. Patrick has been an active member of the Newbern Volunteer Fire Department since it was established in 2004. Since 2012, he has worked as a builder in the Newbern area, using his skills to help out whenever and wherever he can. His mom is Geraldine Braxton, the owner of 20Kv17.

ON LEARNING TO BUILD…

ON BEING A VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER…

“I learned to build from the vice principal at “My favorite thing about being a Sunshine. His name was Mac McCurry. We volunteer firefighter is being able to go out had a vocational shop class that I took from 7th grade through 12th grade. During study and help people. If I get a call, no matter hall I’d go over to the shop. And if a teacher where I’m going, I’m going to turn around, and get back. If I’m in church, I’ll take my was out, and we had a substitute, and she radio and have it turned down low. But if didn’t know what work to give us, I’d ask, “can I go to shop?” and off I’d go! Every year it goes off in church, I’m gone! They know I need to go… I tell people, what if it was the vice principal would take three or four your family? You’d want me to go. You’d students to the state competition. After 7th want somebody to come and do what they grade, I went every year with him. We won can.” every year. He was that good.”

ON WORKING IN NEWBERN…

ON THE FUTURE OF NEWBERN…

“If I’m not working with Mr. Ken [Unruh], I “I’d like to be mayor one day! Would you mostly like to do little stuff for elderly people. vote for me?”

Look out for them. I try to make sure people don’t overcharge them, you know? I usually go around once a week or so and check on them. If I can fix it, I’ll go over there and fix it. Someday I hope to have my own shop in my backyard.”

Frances Sullivan

Frances Sullivan grew up in Newbern, Alabama. She graduated from Morgan Academy in Selma and in 1977 received a B.A. degree in Religious Studies from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. She returned to Hale County in the spring in 1979 and spent a few years working in the catfish industry with her father. She spent twenty-six years working for the US Postal Service, eighteen years as Newbern’s Postmaster. Frances is married to Mike Sullivan and has two children and one grandchild living in Tennessee. She has been very heavily involved with several local nonprofits over the years and continues to support the community while enjoying her retirement, knitting, and weaving.

ON GROWING UP IN NEWBERN…

ON GETTING TO KNOW THE RURAL STUDIO FAMILY…

“I was born just two miles outside of Newbern on a dairy farm and grew up as a catfish farmer’s daughter – my father and a couple other gentlemen started the catfish industry in this area. I loved growing up here; we had the community pool at our house, so everyone came to our house in the summer.”

ON GROWING HER PASSION FOR FIBER ARTS…

“My father taught me to knit when I was sixteen-years old and I’ve been knitting ever since. Then, a few years ago, I discovered Weaving Alabama in Northport, AL and have absolutely fallen in love with weaving. I now have two looms. I guess you could say I am very passionate about yarn!”

“I met Sambo and the students when they first came to Newbern in 1997.

Over the years Mike and I have had nearly two dozen “leftover” students live with us – from two days to several years at a time. I’ve gained so many fantastic young friends; it has changed my life forever.”

ON THE FUTURE OF NEWBERN…

“I would love to see more opportunities to support the arts in our area. We have so many marvelous local artisans.

It would be wonderful to find ways to support and feature their work – perhaps with local exhibits, art classes for adults and children. The possibilities are endless.”

14

Profiles

20K Home Product Line In Rural Studio’s ongoing project most commonly referred to as the “20K Home,” students are faced with the challenge of designing a mass-market house that every one might want and anyone can afford.

Serenbe Photos: J. Ashley Photography

The 20K Home began in 2005 as a research project to simply address the need for well-designed housing that is not only affordable in Hale County, but could also simultaneously support an industry of small, local home builders. The initial experiments all consisted of singlebedroom homes. In order to address the needs of a broader and more diverse clientele, over the past several years we have expanded the project to include dwellings that meet national accessibility guidelines, address issues of sheltering in place, and provide multiple bedrooms.

The 20K Home Project seeks to create dignified solutions that afford responsible home ownership as a real possibility for everyone. With this in mind, this year’s students researched and analyzed three new schemes: the Income Home, the Demographic Home, and the Eco Home. Using evidence-based data, these proposals each address an expanded set of criteria beyond just the initial construction cost of the home. How can a home generate an ongoing “post-occupancy” income for the owner (Income Home)? How can a home address the changing needs of an owner over several decades (Demographic Home)? And how might the overall life-cycle cost of a house affect the long-term affordability of a home (Eco Home)? The information developed by this research forms the foundation on which the next generation of homes will be developed.

Over the past decade, over 140,000 hours have been collectively invested in the design and construction of the 20K Home by more than 85 architecture students and consultants. In taking the 20K Home from “Project to Product,” our steadfast goal for the project remains the development of the construction documents and specifications required for construction in a climate similar to central Alabama and to be easily adjusted to meet the building requirements of other areas beyond our region. Ultimately, we aim to confidently offer up these documents free of charge to anyone who wishes to provide for themselves or others a housing product that is dignified, affordable, and sustainable.

To that end, Rural Studio expanded its engagement with outside consultants, Landon Bone Baker Architects, to aid in aligning the 20K Home documents with the current International Residential Code, as well as Federal Housing Authority (FHA), and United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) guidelines.

Facing a growing interest in the project from the general public in 2014 – 2015, we constructed two model homes in Hale County ourselves.

These public models have proved to be an invaluable asset in the following ways: First, they allow us to show the homes to potential clients and stakeholders. Second, they provide a controlled platform for ongoing environmental performance testing and analysis not accessible by our client homes. Third, and perhaps most importantly, these homes afford us the opportunity to continue to develop and revise the current product-line (or Product Line) homes relative to the ideas, details, and best practices that continue to be developed from our ongoing research. This year we had the opportunity of completing a third model home – only this time we didn’t build it ourselves. Instead, acting only as project managers, Steve Long and Andrew Freear oversaw the construction by a genius (and generous!) team of design-build professionals from JAS Design Build in Seattle Washington. In less than three weeks, this team demonstrated that it is possible to “dry-in” the home in less than nine working days!

Thanks to the hard work of Jake LaBarre, Greg Porter, Minh Nguyen, Tim Strange, and Ryan Zamora, this initial experiment of “external build” left us cautiously optimistic that under optimal conditions the home could actually be constructed within the requisite four-week timeframe, a key criterion in the assessment of the affordability and constructability of the home.

Building on this success, we also partnered with Serenbe, a progressive, farm-to-table community on the edge of Atlanta,

Georgia, where they are developing a growing artist and residency complex, called The Art Farm. Fraught with many challenges, this first real “field test” of the constructability and performance of the 20K Home Product Line outside of the Studio’s direct oversight and control gave us a tremendous amount of sobering insight into just how difficult the task of procuring a small home really is for the everyday consumer. It is no small wonder that such a product doesn’t exist just yet. Undaunted by the complexity of impediments to such an endeavor, Serenbe Founder Steve Nygren (famously “uninterested in difficult things, but fixated on impossible things”) was thankfully committed to seeing the project all the way through to the end. Brandon Hinman (Director of the Serenbe Artist in Residence Program) worked tirelessly to manage the project both proverbially and literally through the mud and muck of the day-to-day issues that conspired to thwart the effort, and Contractor Simon Shell anchored the effort throughout the myriad trials of zoning enforcement, code review, energy audits, weather setbacks, and standard construction practices, all of which unintentionally but unequivocally conspire against small, affordable home ownership. This overwhelmingly successful partnership was simultaneously rewarding, revealing, and eyeopening. We have learned a little about what we have done right, much about what we have done wrong, and the most about what we still have left to do. It is safe to say we have learned as much during this fifteen-month project with the team at Serenbe as we have in the past ten years of studio work. We have always known that there is a tremendous number of variables that are outside of our control in bringing these small homes to market, but we now know that the very way in which we ourselves communicate about the project and process is critical. For example, instead of using a normative set of construction documents that simply shows what to build, we now understand that we must develop an “instruction set” of documents that show not only how to build the home, but also describes clearly why it is to be constructed that way.

It should not go without admitting that the surprising publicity generated by this partnership was a little overwhelming and profoundly humbling. In the past several months Natalie has received well over 2000 impassioned, moving, and often-urgent requests from individuals and families for the documents necessary to procure the homes themselves. The outpouring of need has left us more resolved than ever to see the project across the finish line. This coming year we are moving forward with all haste in that endeavor, and are developing partnerships with a small number of second-round field test partners to develop and test the communication tools required to procure the mass-market house that every one might want and anyone can afford.

15

Profile

Consultant Profile Jake LaBarre Jake LaBarre lives in Seattle and teaches at the University of Washington in the Neighborhood Design/Build Studio with Steve Badanes and is Project Manager at Miller Hull Partnership. For the last ten years or so, he’s been visiting Rural Studio with the Jersey Devils at Soup Roast to give reviews and this Fall, he led a crew of three builders from JAS Design Build drying in the latest Dave’s model home in ten days.

Where are you from?

Until I was about 16, I lived in very rural southern Minnesota, and then we moved to Northfield, MN, population 20,000. The motto was Colleges, Cows, and Contentment.

Where did your love of designing and building come from?

Since I was a kid, I always was building forts and go-karts.

My dad has worked with and taught others how to work on hydraulic systems for the last 40 years or so, and my mom’s family had a small tree farm in northern Minnesota, so it must have all started there. The farm we lived on had a bunch of outbuildings, and one summer, when I was about 11 or 12, my parents kept me busy by letting me dismantle a granary. I was busy building forts with the wood and nails left over from that project for the next couple of years. I was bit by the architecture bug when I began working at JAS Design Build. I was with JAS for eight years and it was while there that I read Pattern Language, heard about Black Mountain College, and started to wonder what it would be like to be a formal designer of things that I built. Then I learned about the Jersey Devils and Rural Studio, and I was pretty much done for – there was no turning back!

Tell us about your time in school. Where did you go?

St. Olaf College in my hometown of Northfield for a BA in Physics, and then University of Washington for my MArch.

What did you like, or not, about architecture school?

Architecture school brought me global influences. Trips to Italy and Scandinavia, and a studio with Glen Murcutt - they all shook me up a bit. I think seeing, thinking, eating, and drawing in strange places and cultures helps you look at your local environment with fresh eyes. I also think that it really helps you begin to notice the brilliance and lessons of the vernacular.

What do you like most about coming to Hale County? How did you hear about Rural Studio?

The commitment towards working within the community. Whether it be the architecture, agriculture, tutoring, and culture that you build on, with, or learn from, the passion and dedication is incredibly inspiring. The breadth of work all within the community really knocks you over on the first visit.

What is it like to work with Steve?

Incredibly frustrating. He knows every student’s name from the last 30 years, he can eat way more food than me, and he never gets a hangover from Vodka! He is also usually right. Well, enough about Steve Long, I should also mention Steve Badanes, builder and male model for the Fremont Troll, a real Jersey Devil, and an amazing critic, friend, and advocate for public-interest design.

As designers and builders, we can all work to make our world and communities stronger, more equitable, and way more inspiring and creative. He has been proving that for his whole career.

What do you do when you’re not at work?!

Wonder if Andrew Freear got that email that I sent him.

Wonder if he will ever email me back…

Walk our dog.

Decide what the next project my sweetie Nicole and I are going to tackle on our house, will it be to rip out the bathroom floor or finish the outdoor shower/dog washing station?

Listen to records… on vinyl!

Tell us what’s important to you…

Positive effort in our communities and environments and homes, on the clock and off. Meals with friends and family, and the restorative and invigorating power of the arts and building.

Who are your heroes?

Right now? Can I include musicians? Bob Hull, Greg Cartwright, Lina Bo Bardi, Joe Strummer, Alvar Aalto, and Glen Murcutt.

Advice for our students?

Don’t discount our ability to learn from what we are doing.

Whatever architectural path that you end up on, you would probably do it better and enjoy it more if you were a well-rounded person.

Learn how to listen. Learn how to build.

J A K E ’ S F AV O R I T E TOOLS

I am not really sure where I first heard about Rural Studio, probably an article in a magazine or newspaper. I am still surprised at how many architects and builders don’t know about the work and people here.

1. skilsaw Worm Drive

2. A sharp block plane

3. A General’s #580 Test Scoring Pencil

16

Alumni Lecture Series

Alumni Lecture Night As you might imagine, Rural Studio attracts an atypical flock of students, and if they aren’t nutty when they arrive, they most certainly are once they leave. Each year, we ask a handful of these inimitable characters to travel back to Hale County and share with the students and staff their remarkable accomplishments and tales from their adventures in the world beyond.

“Returning to Rural Studio reminded me that architecture can instigate positive change at any scale. (Thank you Sambo!)”

Amy Holtz Mathys plp architecture London, England 2001 Cardboard Pod (5th Year) 1999 Lewis House (3rd Year)

Hana Loftus hat projects

Colchester, England 2005 20Kv01 Elizabeth’s Home Outreach

Craig Peavy pvdesign, inc.

Chattanooga, TN 2001 Akron Boys & Girls Club (5th Year) 1996 Butterfly House (2nd Year)

Matt Finley bilt in alabama

Birmingham, al 2004 Newbern Fire Station (5th Year) 2001 Sanders Dudley House (2nd Year)

“Rural Studio was completely formative in my education and remains the model for how I feel architects should learn their trade. I am humbled by what Rural Studio achieves and I continue to learn from it and draw on my experiences in Hale County, almost daily.”

“The human connection at Rural Studio gives a unique perspective on the value of architecture. It allows the young energy of the creative to experience the real-world reaction to experimental, built environment and learn from their successes and failures. Sometimes the failures teach us more about the art and ourselves than the successes.”

“I can’t overstate the value of my experience at Rural Studio. It forever altered my definitions of community, process, craft, and place.”

17

Alumni Lecture Series

“I now realize that in thinking about and interacting with people, places, and communities… we should be learning something new, every day.”

Jermaine Washington Fulltime Lecturer at california polytechnic state university San Luis Obispo, ca greg wynn architects 2003 Newbern Little League Baseball Field (5th Year) 2000 Sanders Dudley House (2nd Year)

Lucy Begg thoughtbarn

“Rural Studio is where I first learnt to connect the ingredients that infuse our practice today: Making & craft.

Community. An economy of means. A sense of place.”

Austin, tx 2003 Ole Mae Porch Outreach

“Participation in Rural Studio awakened the artist within; a connection between the intellect of the classroom and the craft working hands.”

Tim Vaught cole and cole architect Montgomery, al 1994 Haybale House (Bryant Residence)

Aimée O’Carroll

“Rural Studio was a major fork in the road that has led me to where I am today. The feeling of working collaboratively and the lingering taste of ‘learning through doing’ hasn’t left me since.”

gocstudio

Seattle, wa 2008 20Kv05 Loft Home

The evening also featured Carol Mockbee as guest speaker

Outreach Carol Mockbee mississippi innocence project

Oxford, MS 2004 Subrosa Pantheon Outreach

18

Support Rural Studio

Melissa Foster Denney, hired by Sambo in May 2001, is a Development Officer for the CADC, including Rural Studio. She’s a dedicated champion of all things Rural Studio, and Andrew says, “she’s as nutty as a fruit cake and we love her!” When Melissa’s not quilting or spending time with her family at Lake Martin, she’s on the road sharing with our loyal supporters and working hard to continue to find sponsors.

Many people do not realize that while Auburn University covers operational and administrative costs for Rural Studio during the nine-month academic year, the Studio fully relies on gift and grant funds to build projects. Melissa works tirelessly to find support for Rural Studio, so our students continue to have the opportunity to learn and build in West Alabama.

Dear friends of Rural Studio,

“Rural Studio is not merely a resume of wonderful projects. It is a living idea of service that has thankfully become the vocabulary of the next generation of architects.” Don C. Brown ’71 (FAIA, AIA Vice President 2013-2014) made this statement when he recommended Rural Studio for the AIA Whitney Young Jr. Service Award.

Don Brown is right. While significant, Rural Studio’s greatest legacy is not only its vast number of projects or its impact on the community of West Alabama, but how it has changed architectural education and brought service into the profession.

Rural Studio is going strong – and getting stronger – with the gifts you are currently making to our annual fund, to our scholarship initiatives, and to our endowment. More and more friends of Rural Studio are choosing to give through estate planning or life insurance.

I am always awestruck by the compassion and character of our supporters. You are unpretentious and generous. It is never about you, it is always about the service, the students, the community, and the legacy to the profession. We are always grateful for your support and loyalty. Thank you for not only helping us continue our legacy for future generations, but also for letting us be part of your legacy.

Best wishes,

Melissa Foster Denney CADC Development Officer melissa@auburn.edu 334.332.1452

was Auburn University’s first-ever 24–hour fundraising event held on December 1, 2015. Thanks to YOU, Rural Studio raised $65,517 to build houses for families in our community. tiger giving day

Be on the lookout for our annual fund initiative this fall. We look forward to sharing our successes with you. thank you

19

Support Rural Studio

AUBURN UNIVERSITY RURAL STUDIO PO BOX 278 NEWBERN, AL 36765