Princeton Architectural Press
April 2005
Based on this simple
premise, in 1992 Samuel Mockbee launched the Rural Studio to create homes and
community buildings for the poor while offering hands-on architecture training
for coming generations. Choosing impoverished Hale County, Alabama, for his bold
experiment, Mockbee and his Auburn University students peppered this left-behind
corner of the rural South with striking buildings of exceptional design. Most
use recycled and curious materials: hay bales, surplus tires, leftover carpet
tiles, even discarded 1980 Chevy Caprice windshields. The publication of Rural
Studio brought this innovative work to the public, and—five printings
later—continues to affect the way people view architecture.
Since Mockbee's death in 2001, the Rural Studio has continued to thrive, a
tribute to its founder's vision. In 2004, the American Institute of Architects
posthumously awarded Mockbee its highest honor, the Gold Medal for Architecture.
Under Mockbee's successor, Andrew Freear, the studio has seeded southwest
Alabama with an additional seventeen architectural landmarks, and all are shown
here. With thoughtful text from Andrea Oppenheimer Dean and stunning photographs
by Timothy Hursley, this new book explains the changes the studio has undergone
during the last four years and its continuing ability to 'proceed and be bold,'
as Mockbee counseled.
176 p., 25 x 20 cm
EAN 9781568985008
