Rural Studio, an off-campus design-build program of Auburn University’s Architecture Program, gives architecture students a more hands-on educational experience while assisting an under-served population in West Alabama’s Black Belt region.
Take a Look: Studio Gallery
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Jamie Sartory | Lions Park Playscape
Lions Park Playscape finished product
Fifth year team | Faunsdale Community Center
Lions Park studio drawing
Lions Park shade finished product | photo by Timothy Hursley
The Architecture Program’s Rural Studio seeks solutions to the needs of the community within the community’s own context, not from outside it.
Abstract ideas based upon knowledge and study are transformed into workable solutions forged by real human contact, personal realization, and a gained appreciation for the culture.
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In 1993, two Auburn University architecture professors Dennis K. Ruth and Samuel Mockbee established the Auburn University Rural Studio within the university’s School of Architecture. Rural Studio, conceived as a method to improve the living conditions of rural Alabama and to include hands-on experience in an architectural pedagogy, began designing and building homes that same fall. Professors Mockbee and Ruth sought funding to begin the studio, and through the years, it has received additional funding that has helped it become what it is today: a vision of a process to make housing and community projects in one of the poorest regions of the nation.
To most, the measure of success of the Rural Studio is in its built projects; in reality, its success is measured by its effect upon the lives of the students, faculty, families, and communities it touches. It is not only the buildings that make the Rural Studio what it is but also the education the students receive about architecture and about society. Ultimately, it is about “sharing the sweat” with the community.
Faculty
Staff
Physical Address: 8448 AL Highway 61
Newbern, AL 36765
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 278
Newbern, AL 36765
Phone: 334-624-4483 | Fax: 334-624-6015 | General Inquiries: rstudio@auburn.edu