Rural Studio is proud to announce its upcoming 20th Anniversary Celebration.The Studio’s rich existence in rural West Alabama is rooted in building relationships and earning trust from our neighbors and friends in the community. Immersing themselves in West Alabama has afforded our students the opportunity to apply their skills while also learning about the nature, history and culture, economy, architecture and community in this unique educational landscape. We want to celebrate and honor this place and its people, which have allowed us to thrive while maintaining rigor and passion. The title “Born and Raised in Hale County” seemed the appropriate name for the 20th Anniversary Celebration. To read more, see page twelve.

Spring Newsletter 2013

Meet Natalie: Our 20th Anniversary

Manager

Recently Completed

Projects

See Our Progress on the 20K

Product Line

Page 8 Page 12 Page 14

Newbern TimesAll of Rural Studio’s news from Hale County

Vol. 2

R U R A L S T U D I O

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“behind the scenes” at Rural Studio and gave advice on the future of the 20K House and the upcoming 20th Anniversary Celebration.

This year, we have exciting new projects on the boards including a Library for Newbern instigated by a small group of teachers and concerned local citizens. We will continue to work in Lions Park, as well as explore a slab on grade, accessible 20K House. Chantilly has been lifted and set on a new foundation wall, thanks to grant money from the Alabama Historical Commission. Rural Studio is now actively using Chantilly as a studio for Elena Barthel’s drawing class.

We are also looking forward to completing a plethora of fantastic and significant projects this year. In February, we opened the Newbern Town Hall across the newly created courtyard from the Fire station. Troop 13 Boy Scout Hut is the first major conditioned building in Lions Park, and another team is “putting the park’ back in Lions Park” with major tree plantings, landscaping and irrigation. An amazing Boys & Girls Club is emerging out of the ground in Greensboro. This project is bringing Rural Studio to a new level with its scale, ambition, and socio-political consequences. Last but not least, the Solar Greenhouse at Morrisette is aiming to be completed by May. It is the first big infrastructural piece of the Rural Studio Farm with the goal of extending our growing season. Be on the lookout for the openings of these great projects.

Don’t be a stranger and come visit, there is a lot of good stuff to see. And don’t forget to put the 20th Anniversary in your calendar; you won’t want to miss it! Hope you enjoy the Newbern news for this year. Best wishes to ya’ll.

Andrew Freear

Director

like crazy for the College, the School, and Rural Studio. Incidentally, since our great new Dean Vini Nathan arrived at Auburn, we have had a continuous round of visits from the University’s upper administration. Visitors include Provost Tim Boosinger and the University General Council Lee Armstrong. Rumor has it that the Board of Trustees wants to fly in next! I think this is all good news, and I suspect that the University is just weighing up how to give us lots more money…

Locally, we have had very hotly contested elections. Incumbent Mayor Johnny B. Washington triumphed in the Greensboro Mayoral election. We are happy to continue to work with Johnny on projects such as the Greensboro Recreation Center and Boys & Girls Club, the ongoing development of Lions Park, a Parks and Recreation department, and drawings for the interior refurbishment of Greensboro City Hall. It is, however, very disappointing to lose Councilman Steve Gentry, as he was instrumental in forming the very successful Greensboro Farmers Market. A great friend to Rural Studio, Steve is a man with a great vision, and is a much-needed critical, curious, and impassioned voice for the area.

In Newbern, we are happy to continue to working with Mayor Woody Stokes and County Commissioner Joe Lee Hamilton. Probate Judge Leland Avery, incumbent for some 18 years, lost to write-in candidate Arthur Crawford. It is sad to see Leland go; he has been a great supporter of Rural Studio projects. He has been instrumental in finding funding and resources for many projects such as Akron Boys & Girls Club, Newbern Town Hall, and Lions Park. We will miss Leland and his resourcefulness but look forward to building a similarly fruitful relationship with Judge Crawford.

The fragility of Hale County is ever present, but there are always folks making positive efforts within the community. In Newbern, the Post Office is heading towards reduced hours, although it is still surviving. Newbern Mercantile seems to be flourishing under new owner Ashley Kyser and short order cook Rosie Williams. In Greensboro, the Hale County Animal Shelter has re-opened under the watchful eyes of the Hale County Commission. A “Friends of the Hale County Animal Shelter” not-for-profit has been established with our retired friends Frances Sullivan and GB Woods, as well as veterinarian Angelica Reyes Waters leading the charge. It seems the future management of the shelter is assured and in good hands. The Greensboro Boys and Girls Club continues to grow with over 60 kids in attendance each afternoon as they await a new classroom facility that the Studio is currently building. Local resident Buzzy Barnette helped found a new Greensboro Business and Tourism Association, whose major goal is to rejuvenate Main Street.

In October, we had another great Advisory Group visit. New additions to the group of attendees included Ted Flato from San Antonio and Peter Gluck from New York City. Kristiina Nivari, curator of the Finish Museum of Architecture, came all the way from Helsinki, and of course the Lovely Lady Mockbee came from Canton, Mississippi. They were shown a full day

Letter from Hale County

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Newbern Times: all the Rural Studio news from Hale County! I hope this finds y’all well.

The Studio’s future communication strategy will be to send out this yearly newsletter, a keepsake if you like, and support it with quarterly emails. These will connect to our current news and events as found on the Rural Studio website. Please keep an eye open for these.

We are excited to launch our new website (ruralstudio.org) thanks to fantastic help from graphic designer Clifton Burt, the website designers Armchair, and our in-house team of Danny Wicke, Cameron Acheson and Mackenzie Stagg. For those interested in current and on-going projects, please don’t forget to check out our current project blogs.

The big news at the moment is the announcement of Rural Studio’s 20th Anniversary, to be celebrated in the fall 2013 & spring 2014. We will celebrate the people and the place, reflect on the work, and ponder moving into our third decade. All resources used during the celebration year will, of course, go into Hale County and West Alabama. Please look to page 12 for more information on the big event. The Studio has hired Natalie Butts to manage the 20th Anniversary, and to bring her fantastic personality and spirit to the Rural Studio team. Natalie is a alumna from the Perry Lakes Park Birding Tower team; although she was so frightened of heights she doesn’t remember much of the experience! We are delighted to have her back with us in Newbern.

To coincide with the 20th Anniversary, Elena Barthel and I have spent the last 18 months working with Andrea Dean, Tim Hursley and Princeton Architectural Press on a new book that will celebrate West Alabama and twenty years of Rural Studio work. Its primary focus is on projects built since the publication of the last two books (yes, it has been ten years since Proceed and be Bold!), but will also include a complete compendium illustrating all twenty years of projects. The book is designed to reflect the multi-voice nature of Rural Studio and provide an intense insiders reflection on the educational process.

The Studio continues to reflect on what we should build rather than what we can build. We ask the questions: How should we live in a rural setting? How should we build in a rural setting? How should we produce and consume in a rural setting? Investigating these questions through our student projects, we have also been able to reinforce our self-efficient food initiative with two recent staff hires. We recently added a new local Chef Catherine “Cat” Tabb from Greensboro who is aiming to help us to achieve 70% vegetable consumption in our kitchen. Also, Eric Ball is tending our kitchen garden and helping with the evolution of the Rural Studio Farm. Eric, originally from Portland, Oregon, came to Newbern from New Orleans where he was teaching at the same High School as Natalie. So there you have it, yet another “love connection” at the Rural Studio!

The biggest shake-up this semester has been Melissa Denney moving into a full-time development position in the Dean’s Office back at Auburn. She will be working with Dara Hosey, College Development Manager, and a plethora of new Development folks who are raising money

Auburn University is an equal opportunity

educational institution/employer.

BIG CHEESEAndrew Freear

PRINTING Auburn Opelika Printing

PRODUCTION Cameron Acheson

LAYOUTClifton Burt

EDITINGCameron AchesonMackenzie Stagg

ILLUSTRATIONSElena BarthelNatalie ButtsMackenzie Stagg

E X P L O R E T H E A L L N E W R U R A L S T U D I O . O R G

Auburn University Rural Studio • 3

Leischuck AwardRural Studio Director Andrew Freear received Auburn University’s Gerald and Emily Leischuck Endowed Presidential Award for Excellence in teaching. The award honors faculty members who have demonstrated innovative teaching methods and a continuing commitment to student success. The Leischuck Award is the top teaching award for undergraduate studies. Andrew was acknowledged for this award both at a ceremony before the Auburn vs. LSU football game and at the University’s annual Faculty Awards Banquet. Everyone at Rural Studio is glad to see Andrew recognized for his fierce commitment to his students’ education during their time at Rural Studio.

PublicInterestDesign.org is a blog about a growing movement at the intersection of design and service. Public Interest Design’s goal is to utilize their website and blog as a database for information on this movement, and as a catalogue for the work being done around the US.

Last year, Public Interest Design and partner Megan Jett produced an infographic, the Public Interest Design 100, which “seeks to honor many of the diverse, passionate people at the intersection of design and service within the US.” Director Andrew Freear and third year professor Elena Barthel were selected as members of the inaugural 2012 list for the work they are doing with Auburn University Rural Studio. Department Head David Hinson was also acknowledged for his work with Auburn University’s Design Habitat Program. To see the full list, go to http://www.publicinterestdesign.org/people/

Architecture Boston | “Design for Dignity” | Spring 2013 “Design for Dignity” is an article about Community-based Design and features images of 2nd Year Project Rose Lee’s House and 5th Year Project Lion’s Park Concession Stand.

World-Architects | www.world-architects.com | “Safe House Museum” | January 2013 World-architects.com is a database of architectures firms and projects that provides profiles of over 2,500 projects in 50 countries. The Safe House Museum, a 2010 5th Year project, was profiled with photographs, drawings and an interview describing the project’s process.

Architectural Record | archrecord.construction.com | “Editor’s Picks: Best Architecture of 2012” | December 2012 The Lions Park Playscape was selected by Architectural Record as one of the Best Do-Good Design Projects of 2012. They were highlighted in an online article on Architectural Record’s website.

Folio. | foliodigital.net | “Rural Studio” | October 10, 2012 Folio published an article about Lions Park Playscape in their October issue, as well as online.

New York Times | nytimes.com | “Good, By Design” | October 7, 2012 The Lions Park Playscape was featured in an online slideshow for the Sunday Review, which focused on humanitarian work.

Arquine | “El escape sonoro A Soundscape” | Autumn 2012 Arquine’s fall issue features an article on Lion’s Park. It features drawings and photographs of the Playscape as well as photographs of the Skate Park, and Surfaces project.

Public Interest Design 100

Rural Studio worked with graphic designer Clifton Burt to create a graphic identity for the 20th Anniversary Celebration. This year’s newsletter cover makes use of the graphics, with which we want to use to celebrate Hale County: the place that we call home.

The cover features images of typographic wood blocks used in letterpress printing (“wood type”) which are a significant part

of the rich visual language of the rural South. Working with letterpress printing helps us to remain closely in touch with the materials with which we work.

The champion of letterpress has been our dear friend Amos Paul Kennedy, through the work he has done for and about the Studio over the last fifteen years. Amos has inspired Rural Studio graphics for many years, and has been a mentor to our

students and staff. Amos recently packed up his shop in Gordo, Alabama and moved to Detroit to found the Detroit Printing Plant: a space that allows anyone with an interest in letterpress printing to come and experience it. The Studio is extremely sad to see Amos go, but wants to congratulate him and wish him best of luck with his newest endeavor. To see more of Amos’ work, check out the Kennedy Prints Website at www.kennedyprints.com

About the Cover

WebsiteOver a year in the making, Rural Studio’s web presence recently got a big facelift. In the summer of 2011, graphic designer Clifton Burt, with help from Danny Wicke, submitted an application to Sappi Paper Company’s ‘Ideas That Matter’ grant program. Clifton was awarded a $30,000 grant on behalf of Rural Studio to strengthen the Studio’s web and print presence.

Clifton and the Studio sought the help of Armchair Media out of Atlanta, Georgia to design and build the new website. In addition to providing a more immersive visual experience, the website is more streamlined for content management and updates. The Rural Studio website can be found at www.ruralstudio.org, .net and .com.

Recent Press & Awards

Por Dentro | “Un arquitecto con las pies en la tierra” (“An Architect with his feet on the ground”) | July 8, 2012 Director Andrew Freear was interviewed and featured on the cover for this Puerto Rican magazine. The article features images of the Hale County Animal Shelter, Lions Park Skate Park, Akron Boys & Girls Club 2, Antioch Baptist Church and 20K v. 2 – Frank’s House.

Wall Street Journal | “Avant-Garde in Alabama” | April 21-22, 2012 Written for the Adventure & Travel Section, “Avant-Garde in Alabama” highlights a variety of Rural Studio projects. The article also offers information on visiting Hale County.

Black Belt Living | “The Mechanics of Social Responsibility: The Growing Scope of Rural Studio” | January 2012Rural Studio was featured on the cover of Black Belt Living in the January 2012 edition. The article reviews the history and the program of Rural Studio, interviews History and Theory Instructor Dick Hudgens, and features information on the 20K House Project, Lions Park, and the Rural Studio Farm.

100 Contemporary Houses | Taschen | Philip Jodidio | 2012 Taschen’s 100 Contemporary Houses is a 2-book set, focused on single-family houses from around the world. Volume Two features Christine’s House, a 2005 5th Year project.

ArchitypeReview | architypereview.com | “Pavilions + Parks: Lions Park Playscape” | May 2012 ArchitypeReview published an article on the Lions Park Playscape, as well as an interview with Instructor Cameron Acheson as part of their “Pavillions + Parks” issue.

Becoming a Green Building Professional | Wiley | Holley Henderson | 2012 Holley Henderson’s book is a guide to becoming a member of the Green Building Community. It offers information on education opportunities and professional practice information on the Green Building Industry. The book interviews many professionals in the industry and Rural Studio is highlighted for its research and re-use of materials.

Designing to Avoid Disaster: The Nature of Fracture-Critical Design | Routledge | Thomas Fisher | 2012 The book Designing to Avoid Disaster re-examines the traditional role of architects and builders. Thomas Fisher advocates for “Public-Interest Design” and provides information on Rural Studio and the 20K House project as an example of socially-conscious design. Images of 20K v. 9 (Mac’s House) and 20K v.10 (Joanne’s House) were featured.

Moderators of Change: Architecture that Helps | Hatje Cantz | Regina Bittner, Carson Chan, Luis Fernandez-Galiano, Andres Lepik (editor) | 2012 Moderators of Change: Architecture that Helps is a book about socially conscious design. It features a selection of projects that demonstrate the changing role of architects and architectural education. Rural Studio was one of the organizations featured.

Vitamin Green | Phaidon | Joshua Bolchover | 2012 Vitamin Green is a collection of over 100 buildings, landscapes and products that address sustainable design issues like material re-use, water quality, pollution and energy consumption. The Lucy/Carpet House was featured in the collection.

Wallpaper* City Guide: New Orleans | Phaidon | 2012 Wallpaper City Guide: New Orleans is a guide to exploring the city of New Orleans. Rural Studio was listed as one of the “day trips” to take while visiting New Orleans.

left: Wall Street Journal, April 21-22, 2012; center: Architecural Record, March 2012;

right: Por Dentro, July 8, 2012

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Steve Long

My first visit to Rural Studio took place in the summer of 2001, just several weeks into my architectural education at Auburn University. Not knowing much about Rural Studio or Hale County, my arrival exposed me to a world that was both culturally fascinating and shocking. Having lived in Alabama my entire life, it was an eye opening experience to find that I had lived such a sheltered life.

I have participated at Rural Studio as both a student and teacher. As a 2nd Year student, I was able to learn from former director Samuel Mockbee during the design and construction of the Shiles House. This experience profoundly influenced my focus and ambitions in school. Several years later I returned to study under Andrew Freear as a 5th Year student. During my tenure as a 5th year student, my teammate and I completed a home in Mason’s Bend for Christine Green. I also had the opportunity to participate in a variety of projects, including community builds and museum installations.

Since graduating in 2005, I have been in various teaching roles at Rural Studio. In 2006, I became the instructor for the Outreach program, which focused on the third version of the 20K House. Additionally, I served as project manager on behalf of the Alabama State Historical Commission and oversaw the historical restoration of St. Luke’s Church, in Cahawba, Alabama. This was done in collaboration with Rural Studio in the 2007-2008 school year.

For the past three years, I have served as the instructor of Rural Studio’s Woodshop program, taking on the charge of developing and improving the current workshop facilities. I have also been applying this knowledge to the design of a new Woodshop. The hope is this will encourage emphasize the importance of craft and quality of materials Studio-wide.

The Woodshop curriculum involves multiple in-shop, tutorial-based courses with 3rd Year, 5th Year and Oureach students. I charge the 3rd Year students to research and reproduce a historically significant chair that has a direct connection with a specific piece of architecture. This is not a traditional design project; it is intended to be a research and craft project that allows the students to gain a better understanding of furniture making and carpentry. The pieces of furniture are all designed by modern architects. As in architecture, the beauty is found in the resolution of details and the consideration of material properties. The course is divided into two halves: the first portion focuses on research, process, and a series of one-to-one mockups. The second half is dedicated to the actual building of the chairs.

The 5th Year and Outreach course focuses on materials research, putting a heavy emphasis on using wood as a geographically and sustainably appropriate material. The course goal is to gain an understanding of the significance of wood to our society as a resource and cultural product. The Alabama wood-based industry is wide reaching, encompassing a variety of different endeavors from milling to carpentry. It has a profound influence on the state’s economy and community, providing jobs in both direct and indirect ways. The students’ research is used to catalogue the varying typologies of wood-based enterprises within the state of Alabama. The ultimate goal of this project is to build a library of local sources and business for Rural Studio.

The program acts as a counter to the typical studio environment, giving the students a focus outside of their day-to-day classes while still allowing them to think about the craft and detailing of their studio projects.

Growing up, my family placed a heavy emphasis on arts and education and how they can make a difference to one’s quality of life, while broadly having a more socially significant impact. It wasn’t a stretch to pursue the profession of architecture as a discipline in my upbringing and I consider myself very lucky to have had these influences in my life.

Faculty Profile

Profiles

Alvar Aalto —Stacking Stool 60

The challenges of the Aalto Stool involves the process of steam bending  and molding solid birch wood to the exact radius of the leg with forms and jigs, designed by the students.  Usually multiple iterations have to be performed before the process is perfected.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh— Ingram Chair

The Ingram chair relies heavily upon mortise and tenoned joinery.  However, the pieces are much more delicate in nature, and require a more sculpted  approach in creating the parts.  Most pieces are laminated and require shaping by hand.  Portions of the chair even require steam bending.

Frank Lloyd Wright—Robie Chair

The Robie chair is robust in terms of joinery, which is primarily mortised and tenoned.  Most parts of the chair have to be laminated to achieve proper thickness.  The actual construction involves rigorous precision in order to assemble the chair square.

Gerrit Rietveld—Zig Zag Chair

The Zig Zag is the most direct in form.  All parts are a series of four laminated hardword planes.  The real challenge is dependent upon jigs that help cut the complex mitered angles of these planes.  Forms are also created to help assemble the chair.

Auburn University Rural Studio • 5

3rd Year Program

Every semester 3rd Year students design a new evolution of the Rural Studio Farm including its ethic, strategic plan and infrastructure. Simultaneously they participate in the construction of a previous phase of the homestead designed by their predecessors.

CHAIR CLASS

For the past three years, as part of the 3rd Year course of study, an emphasis has been placed on developing and encouraging the use of wood as a renewable and readily available material throughout the Studio. The Rural Studio wood shop has served as a base for 3rd Year students to catalyze a solid comprehension of woodworking skills and focus on the quality and characteristics of working with wood. They are challenged to develop and design the process of recreating iconic chairs through research, drawing, modeling and buildings. The final product yields extensive drawings and the actual reproduction of the chair. The goal is to reinforce a culture of rigor in research and craft that will extend beyond the woodshop into future projects.

Programs & Current Projects

The Rural Studio Farm represents our attempt to “walk the walk” and live more sustainably by producing our own food, energy and timber. This is an ambitious dream for a better and more responsible way of life that can be achieved by working at a small scale with multi-phased projects, in which each phase builds on those preceding it.

Our first goal is the design and construction of a small-scale, sustainable, prototypical Farm to test and demonstrate permaculture and organic growing strategies. The ultimate goal is to ask ourselves two important questions: what is the future of farming and what is the future of food in contemporary rural settings? In responding to these questions, we seek an understanding of the social, cultural, health and environmental implications of small-scale edible systems. We believe in a renewed agrarian thinking as an alternative to the diffused large-scale agriculture that is bonded to unsustainable industrial strategies.

From its origin, frugal, organic and locally fresh produce – the culinary Southern culture – ceases to exist today, replaced by a mass of industrially processed food. At the same time, the quality of edible produce has decreased in parallel with the growth of cities and landscapes. As architects, planners, and educators, we believe we need to respond to this trend, to test living off the land and moving to a more holistic lifestyle. Guiding the Rural Studio Farm is the Rural Studio Campus strategic plan, which embraces all our property along Highway 61. The idea is that Rural Studio is an integral part of the community, the opposite of the usual self-contained campus. The plan suggests designating three acres of our properties as farmable land as well as refurbishing our buildings to be more frugal in their energy use. Another result of the strategic plan is a larger woodshop to be built in the backyard of our campus. The old woodshop will be converted into a community recycling station for downtown Newbern.

HISTORY AND THEORY SEMINAR The objective of the History and Theory Seminar at Rural Studio is to familiarize the students with the built environment in Alabama’s Black Belt and to gain understanding of the context of the buildings when they were built and how they relate to the world today. The physical, social, and cultural environments have to be understood in order to place these buildings in context, both nationally and internationally. The course consists of weekly trips to historic buildings in west Alabama, discussion of the buildings, and free-hand sketches of each building visited. Also part of the course requirements is a “Beaux Arts” watercolor of a historic building in the Black Belt.

At the heart of the strategic plan is the Morrisette property, the mainstay of the Rural Studio Farm. Projects at this property include a solar greenhouse, a raised horticultural garden and a food forest, all irrigated by a comprehensive and holistic rain water system.

The students are currently building the structure of the solar greenhouse while designing its components: a gravity-fed drip irrigation system, an insulated shading device for the roof, a berm planted with native grasses and a raised bed prototype. Every component of the solar greenhouse follows the desire to utilize passive architectural strategies to build a resilient, self-efficient building that becomes a manifesto of the Rural Studio Farm as a whole.

Solar greenhouse

10. Parking for trailers and tool storage

11. New workshop

7. Food forest

6. Expanded Garden with raised beds

9. New driveway for visitors

8. New driveway and parking for students3. Supershed and Student Pods

5. Solar Greenhouse (under construction)

2. Great Hall

e x i s t i n g

4. Commercial Kitchen (completed 2010)

1. Morrisette House f u t u r e p r o j e c t s

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5th Year Program

The 5th Year students are tackling complex, community-based building projects. The Studio continues to work with local municipalities to improve their health and recreational facilities, particularly those addressing the area’s youth. These projects are typically completed in 18 to 24 months and are built by teams of three to five students.

Instructors: Andrew Freear, Mackenzie Stagg and Cameron Acheson

NEWBERN LIBRARY The Newbern Library team is working with the Newbern Library Board, the Hale County library system, and the Auburn University Library system to provide a library and after-school program for the town of Newbern.

The team plans to utilize the old Bank building in downtown Newbern, which just celebrated its 106 birthday this year. By renovating the existing building and providing a small addition, the team will be able to preserve the history of Newbern, and add to the fabric and density of downtown.

The program will offer tutoring and after-school care to provide a place for the youth of Newbern and students of the local Sunshine School.

THESIS RESEARCHThis course is designed for 5th Year and Outreach students, meeting weekly to discuss the importance of the Alabama wood industry and how it impacts the profession of architecture. Students form two-person teams, where each is responsible for choosing a local company to study. The students coordinate site visits and document their findings. All teams are subsequently responsible for presenting to the Studio for review and discussion. Information gathered by the students is used as a resource of Alabama’s existing forest product industry, in turn building a catalogued map or reference for the Studio, that outlines the unique wood based manufacturers.

Programs & Current Projects

ON AND BEYOND THE CHAIR“On and Beyond the Chair” aims to improve the 5th Year Design Studio’s arts and crafts experimentation with free-hand drawing methods. The pedagogical model in which the class is rooted, is tied to the concept of “learning by making” from the perspective of the artisan, whose ethic demands work executed with intelligence, manual skills, and high quality.The students are challenged with three projects: one set of two-dimensional drawings focused on the construction of a found chair, a series of three-dimensional drawings to record its proportions and a mix media drawing dedicated to large personal images from the imagination, four times the real chair size.

Sketch of a community meeting in Greensboro by Elena Barthel

LIONS PARK FITNESSThis year’s Lions Park team is focused on enhancing the park through a series of trails that range in activity intensity and scale. These trails each offer a different experience while highlighting all of the rooms and activities within the park and making previously unused places in the park more accessible.

Thanks to a grant from the Alabama Department of Public Health, the Lions Park team has plans for high-intensity workout equipment. The team will design a fitness trail with stretching and exercise stations adjascent to the existing 1.068-mile walking trail. The team will add distance markers to the existing trail to enhance the it for fitness use and interval training.

Along the southeast edge, the team has discovered a piece of park landscape that has been long unnoticed and underutilized. They are designing a Nature Trail that follows the rainwater management strategies of the park into the forest, which culminates with a walk adjacent to a neighboring lake.

The old Newbern Bank Building Front gates at Lions Park. Photo: Timothy Hursley

Auburn University Rural Studio • 7

20K HOUSE Since 2005, Outreach teams have focused on the 20K House. The 20K House seeks to provide a well-built, affordable house for everyone. The homes are designed to be built for $20,000 where around $12,000 is allocated for materials and the remaining $8,000 would cover labor costs and contractor profit. Unlike other Rural Studio projects, the aim of the 20K House is to create a line of homes which could be built by contractors and have a greater impact on local communities. Presently, Rural Studio Outreach students have completed eleven iterations of the home.

So far, the models are one-bedroom, one-bathroom homes, but the goal is to expand to larger homes in the future. This year, we aim to round out the one-bedroom house models by designing a second home that specifically addresses issues of accessibility.

Based on statistical research of potential 20K House clients, the Studio has learned that many individuals in need of one-bedroom houses are elderly individuals or couples. Though the efficient size of the existing models is sufficient for many, the spaces are not designed to accommodate mobility assistance devices such as walkers or wheelchairs. By incorporating features of accessibility into the home from the beginning of the design process, the teams have

The Outreach Program was conceived as a way to bring outside students into the fold of Rural Studio. Each year, four non-Auburn University graduates from all over the world move to Newbern and are embedded into the 5th Year studio. These participants collaborate with the Auburn students, while simultaneously developing a project of their own.

Outreach ProgramInstructors: Andrew Freear, Mackenzie Stagg and Cameron Acheson

Programs & Current Projects

been able to design and detail spaces better suited to help clients age in place.

Last year’s team developed the first accessible 20K House. The house is on piers, and features a generous front porch the length of the entire house, allowing a 40’ ramp to be integrated into the porch as the primary entry. The team also built the first 20K House safe room: a tornado safe room built into the shower compartment of the bathroom. To read more about Turner’s House, please see our Recently Completed Projects page.

In response to last year’s project, this year’s team is designing an adaptable 20K House, built on a slab instead of piers. The added expense of the ramp (and the roof required to cover the ramp) was studied in comparison to the cost of a slab and found to be comparable both in cost and constructability. The team also plans to continue developing the ideas of the tornado safe room. Learning from the difficulties of installing plumbing in a safe room, this year’s team has created a safe room that doubles as a closet.

This year we have three team members working on the house: Outreach students Timothy Owen, Claudia Vollero and 5th year student Loren Prosch.

The 20K House seeks to provide a well-built, affordable house for everyone.

Illustration: Mackenzie Stagg

When a house is placed on a slab, the threshold of the porch becomes extremely important. The team is studying how to make the porch feel both secure and enclosed.

The 20K House has never been built on a slab. The slab facilitates accessibility, permits easy extension of the house, and contains multiple functions in a compact envelope.

With a house on a slab, it is important that the roof be designed to help protect the base of the house from the elements.

The past two teams have designed a tornado safe room for the house. This year’s safe room will be built with CMU block walls, which allows an easy connection to the slab foundation.

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In 2011, Rural Studio hired Marion McElroy, a 2002 Rural Studio alumna, as the 20K House Product Manager. In the past year, she has taken major steps in several areas to move the Product Line forward: an Architectural Review of each houses drawing set, the construction of Model Homes and the development of a Business Plan.

In Spring 2011, Rural Studio began working with an architectural consultant, Landon Bone Baker Architects (LBBA) out of Chicago, to review the existing 20K House Product Line drawing sets. After a code review using the 2012 International Residential Code and the Federal Housing Authority Standards, Regulations and Checklist, Rural Studio and LBBA saw the need to adjust the drawings into “builder’s sets.” This would shift the priority of cost from materials to labor, as is indicative of a contractor’s point of view. These construction sets have been given to several contractors to actually bid the project. Not designed to lead to the actual construction of a 20K House, this bidding process will be used to finalize the drawings into an efficient and effective construction sets. This will test the actual cost of a 20K House as well as give us an estimate at which contractors can procure materials.

Rural Studio is also planning to build three model homes in Newbern. The model homes are an important step in the marketing process of the 20K House and will be owned, operated and used by Rural Studio. The model homes are not intended to be student housing, but will be used as Rural Studio guest housing for visiting consultants and as office space for Rural Studio product development. The Studio can also use the model homes to conduct efficiency testing by recording energy bills and performing blower door tests. Rural Studio is in discussions with a local landowner about a piece of property in Newbern for the model homes and the goal is to have them built by next fall.

In developing the business plan, we explored the option of a social enterprise, a for-profit company that values its social mission as equally important to good financial returns and that has the legal ability to choose lower returns that support its mission over higher returns elsewhere. The social enterprise allows Rural Studio to build its values into a for-profit company while still maintaining the urgency of being for-profit.

The largest driver of the operating model is the customer base. There are three distinct markets for the 20K House: an institutional buyer, such as a federal or state housing bureau, that would construct houses and then match them with buyers; low income, rural individuals who would purchase the home themselves as a primary residence; and an individual looking for an inexpensive second home. Once we have finished the market sizing, we will begin to explore the underlying cost position of the business and speculate as to the overhead, marketing and sales costs.

For more information, contact Marion McElroy at marion@auburn.edu.

Profiles

Photos: Tim Hursley

The 20K House began in 2005 as an ongoing Rural Studio research project to address the need for affordable housing in Hale County and accommodate potential homeowners who are unable to qualify for commercial credit. After completing nine iterations of the house, it became apparent that developing a ‘product line’ of houses, rather than a single 20K House, would be a more appropriate solution. This product line would feature houses with different living options, but offer a consistency in materiality and detailing. The last four houses built, each named for its original owner, are considered to be the 20K Product Line. These houses are: Dave’s House (2009), MacArthur’s House (2010), Joanne’s House (2011) and Turner’s House (2012).

20K House: From Project to Product

Marion McElroy graduated from Auburn University School of Architecture in 2002 and is an alumna of Rural Studio; her thesis project was the Antioch Baptist Church. After graduation, she moved to New York City and for eight years worked on both national and international projects with the firm of Philip Johnson / Alan Ritchie Architects. Marion joined the staff of Rural Studio this summer as the Manager of the 20K House product line.

Auburn University Rural Studio • 9

Consultant ProfileAnderson Inge

When I graduated from the School of Architecture at University of Texas, Austin, I was strongly influenced by the ubiquitous popularity of the west coast Post-Modern architect Charles Moore: I ran the other way! How I got accepted onto the Masters structures course at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I’ll never know, but the decision to complement architecture with structural engineering was indeed the perfect move for me. A complete panic, to keep up, but a great move.

M.I.T. genuinely supports cross-disciplinary study, and I soon found myself doing two Masters simultaneously and partly supporting those studies by working as a teaching assistant in the structures department’s Testing Laboratory. There I taught the fundamentals of structural behavior via physical testing to a mixture of Masters students drawn from both the Civil Engineering and Architecture departments. Two aspects of that M.I.T. training have underpinned my career since: informing architectural design with an appreciation of

Anderson Inge practices architecture in London, having trained at the University of Texas at Austin, the AA, and MIT. Anderson’s studies at MIT commingled two post-graduate degrees in architecture and structures, when he honed methodologies for the use of design as a research tool. From extensive study of fine art at MIT, Boston’s Museum School and Central St Matins, Anderson has developed an effective pedagogy of drawing that he delivers in workshops at numerous institutions in the UK and USA, currently at the AA, RCA Sculpture, Rural Studio, and the V&A and Soane Museums. He has recently published two essays about his workshops and related buildings completed at the Rural Studio over the last ten years.

Profiles

the materials and forces that are building, and physical modeling study and testing as a way of developing design ideas. My first trip to Rural Studio in November 2002 was accompanying a student Unit Trip from the Architectural Association. At that time, Andrew Freear was still finding his feet as Director following Sambo’s death the year before, and Andrew had clearly identified the need for an architect/engineer to enable Rural Studio Fifth Year Projects. We effectively began a collaboration on first meeting, one that is now enjoying its tenth year. The mission of Rural Studio interests me progressively more with time, as it continues to clarify itself in vital directions. I was initially captivated by the basic Rural Studio premise of immersing architecture students in a community to literally design & build for good. Here was a teaching situation that would benefit from exactly the type of joined-up thinking that I had trained for extensively.

I have been particularly impressed in recent years by the 20K House initiative and the increased emphasis on the use of sustainable materials as is done in the projects utilizing local thinnings. Mockbee’s notion of using the intellectual capital of architectural training as an instrument for positive change within a community has proved to be a powerful formula. In the late 90’s I had moved mainly into teaching, in a range of settings that each allowed me to draw on my passions for architecture, structures and sculpture separately. Teaching at Rural Studio has given me an opportunity to combine teaching architecture and structures in a way that is linked to physicalizing that teaching, building it. It is a rare teaching situation where the teacher can see their influence being built, and that’s exactly what Rural Studio has given me. And, I hope that I have succeeded in enabling and extending the extraordinary vision of the students and staff of Rural Studio.

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It is not a stretch for me to say that I think of my Rural Studio days quite often. Between the fond memories of friends made and the lessons learned, Rural Studio represents a key milestone in both my architectural upbringing and a time which allowed me to understand who I was as a person. The beauty in my experience at Rural Studio was the camaraderie that existed between my fellow students and Sambo Mockbee. He made each of us challenge ourselves to become better students and to respect the people that we serve. In my case, I first had the distinct pleasure of working with Shepard and Alberta Bryant through the construction of the Hay Bale House.

Soon after, myself, Steve Durden and Tom Tretheway approached Sambo to propose the Studio’s first group 5th Year project. We set out to build the Yancey Tire Chapel,

Where Are Our Graduates?Ruard Veltman

Profiles

which we have always described as a study of “how to build something from nothing”. This project marked a distinct point in my life when I began to understand that I wholeheartedly enjoyed creating architecture with others.

While at Auburn University, I interned with McAlpine Tankersley Architecture (MTA) in Montgomery, Alabama and continued to work for the firm after graduating in 1995. In 2005, I formed Ruard Veltman Architecture (RVA). The office currently employs five people: two architects, one interior designer, one craftsman/designer and one administrator.  We specialize primarily in single-family residential architecture and are a commission-based firm that is driven by design, while also focusing on full service for our clients.

In 2010, myself and Julia Wood developed an interiors division called Veltman Wood Interiors; and in 2012, myself and Stan Dunham formed a custom furniture division, Veltman Meubles. Both divisions were exciting additions to the firm. They allowed us to offer new levels of service to our clients, along with the opportunity to complete our design holistically.

Although I cherish my days at former firms, it is Rural Studio’s influence that drives RVA. The Studio allowed me to understand the different levels of emotion involved during the process of design. It allowed me to interact with real people, with real design needs, which created an amazing atmosphere for us to put our minds and hands together. My experience of camaraderie at the Rural Studio is what I strive to uphold in my practice today.

I first decided to run for Greensboro City Council because I wanted to have a voice in my community and I felt that my management talents could assist the City. It was through the City Council that I first became involved with Rural Studio. I was appointed by Mayor Washington to be on the Lions Park Committee and I jumped at the opportunity because I believe the park has been a very important tool for bringing people together. I see a lot of people coming together to achieve things through its development. In the future, I’m excited to see it develop further through the establishment of a Parks and Recreation Board.

I also serve on the board of the Greensboro Farmer’s Market as a private individual. We initially got the idea for the Farmer’s Market while trying to think of new economic engines for the community. We are an agricultural community that can grow just about anything with our weather and soil conditions and while there were a lot of local farmers growing at home, not many of them sold their products. We felt that these people needed a place to sell, and

Hale County PartnerSteve Gentry

decided to establish the Greensboro Farmer’s Market. In the last two seasons, the market has continued to grow. Today, many of the farmers that are selling locally are now also selling to Farmer’s Markets in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham.

It has been through these two projects, as well as the Boys & Girls Club project, that I fully realized the contributions that Rural Studio has made to our community. Rural Studio’s students and staff are involved at many levels in our community and it is important to recognize their sense of ownership and pride of the projects they undertake.

Our community actively seeks the advice and participation of Rural Studio, and we welcome opportunities to work with them to further the common interest of the students, the citizens of Greensboro and all citizens of Hale County. The Studio does a fantastic job of bringing “sparks” to our community, and encouraging us to run with it. Their example of ‘leading by example’ encourages our citizens to become who they can be.

Looking towards Greenboro’s future, I’d liked to see more economic activity and self-sufficiency. I choose to live in Greensboro because I like a local community and as we become more self sufficient, our community will become even stronger. I would like to see us continue to develop economic engines that allow our community to grow, but still maintain the “home” feeling.

There are a lot of people moving into the community, buying older homes and restoring them. They move in, and they think this place is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I had the opportunity to visit with some of them while I was campaigning - and it was great. They said “you can’t get this kind of atmosphere anywhere.” One of the guys said “look, my son can get up in the morning and walk across the street to his school: do you know how rare that is?” And we take that for granted. This community has what people are looking for.

above left: Residence built in Bald Head Island, North Carolina right: Tire Chapel, Ruard’s thesis project; photo: Timothy Hursley

middle: Greensboro Farmers Market, Photo: Timothy Hursleyabove: Lions Park Skate Park, Photo: Timothy Hursley

left: Steve Gentry

Auburn University Rural Studio • 11

Friends of the StudioBob and Winnie Roloson

Since 1999, Bob and Winnie Roloson have been one of Rural Studio’s greatest supporters. They are one of three families that help the Studio survive. Bob and Winnie have lived all across the United States, and now split their time between a home in Telluride, Colorado and a home in Tubac, Arizona. Andrew Freear and Cameron Acheson recently sat down with Bob and Winnie to get to know them better, find out how how they established their foundation and how they first became involved with Rural Studio. Cameron Acheson: Bob and Winnie, we wanted to hear a little bit about who you guys are and where you are from.

BR: Well, I’m from Lake Forest, Illinois and Winnie is from, ummm… (to Winnie) – Winnie, what’s the name of that town you’re from…in Alabama? (Bob and Winnie chat in background) ……Martinsville, Virginia.

[Laughter]

BR: Just south of the border.

AF: So she’s a real southerner.

BR: Yes. Although she has claimed that her body was switched with another child’s, shortly after birth and that she’s a real Northerner.

AF: You live in Telluride, and have recently moved your second home from Florida to Arizona. Why did you give up Florida? Did you just get tired of the drive between Florida and Telluride?

BR: You know, that was part of it. The airlines were making it difficult for us to bring our animals on the plane from Florida to Telluride, and second of all, people in Florida have a…. well people we met, I shouldn’t say all people in Florida…

AF: [Interrupts to say:] “Oh that’s right, people are all old”

BR: Retirees in Florida seem to have just given up. It’s just like they’re waiting to die. You go to a restaurant, and if there isn’t a parking space within a block, they go to a different restaurant.We just found it very depressing.

AF: Depressing, huh? I can imagine. So it’s better out west?

BR: Yes. In Telluride, no one talks about age, nobody cares about age; they care about what slopes you ski, and what hikes you’ll go on.

AF: Fantastic. So you do a lot of that?

BR: I do quite a bit of it. You know with a couple of dogs, that takes me out for a couple of hours each day.

AF: Bob, tell us about how you got into being an architect.

BR: Well, I started out attending college in Gambier, Ohio, and was a history major. About my junior year, I realized that there wasn’t much that I was going to be able to do with that and the regular business world just didn’t interest me. I heard about a program that Princeton University was starting that next fall for the first time, in which they were going to take only students with degrees in other subjects, and perhaps out of the working world, and were just unhappy with what they had chosen.

AF: Huh, so that was the first year?

BR: That was my first year of architecture.

AF: So this was a masters program?

BR: No I had a Bachelor’s degree in history.

AF: Okay, but you went to Princeton for a Masters? Or a Bachelors?

BR: No, um, they weren’t quite sure…since it was the first year…. what they were going to do. And frankly, though, that first year…was not a very happy experience. The school, I don’t think they really thought it out. And you know, you couldn’t design, and you couldn’t draw, and you couldn’t do the history because you were too busy trying to do the mathematics, and you know… it was… They were going to put you through an advanced program in, I think it was 2 years, and, it just wasn’t going to work.

BR: After that, I went to work for a few years for an architect in Winnetka and one fall day, he came to me, and he said, “you’re fired”. I said “What’d I do?” and he said “you’re doing just fine, but you’re wasting your time here. I’ve enrolled you in IIT. I’ve got some pull over at Illinois Institute of Technology and I’ve enrolled you.”

AF: You’re kidding.

BR: So I thought I’d go give it a try. And…the Mies Van Der Rohe school and I did not get along.

[Laughter]

BR: I just thought, “God, if this is architecture, I want something else.”

AF: So where’d you go after that?

BR: Oh, after that, I went to the University of Pennsylvania. And I hit it off right away, and just loved it.

AF: What was it you liked about the University of Pennsylvania?

BR: They didn’t have rules like they did at IIT about how you have to do something. And what you’re design approach should be, and how it should be drawn. You do a good job, you defend it, and you could do anything you want. And they had that kind of program where at the end of each project, you had to stand up before audiences of maybe 150-200 people and defend your project. It was scary. There were students from other schools, there were professors there: anyone who wanted to come in and sit down was welcome. It made you think about what you did a little bit.

I got a Masters Degree from Pennsylvania, and after that, my first employer was Civic Center architects, which was put together to design the Civic Center in Chicago. And boy, this gives you an idea of what computers can really do for you these days. I spent a year drawing reflective ceiling plans; now it would probably be two weeks because I could just basically draw the same thing over, and over, and over, and over. I learned a lot wandering around between the desks.

That big Rusty Building in Chicago. What is it, 66’ spans of the floors? And I remember the head designer came by my desk one day, and asked “well what do you think of this building?” and I don’t know, it just popped out…. I said, “I think rust is a lousy material for justice.”

AF: Wow, rust is a lousy material for justice.

BR: Well, it’s a building that’s supposed to be giving out justice, and a rusty building just seems the wrong symbol. He never spoke to me again as far as I can remember.

AF: laughing. So then you were asked to move on?

BR: They let me go in the spring a year later, and I went and worked as a carpenter for a summer. I thought that would be good experience; it would give me a chance to see how things are actually put together. Everyone had a wonderful time giving me a very hard time.

Profiles

AF: Yeah, I bet. Those guys love architects.

BR: But I can tell you, I certainly learned to respect the work they did. I remember we were putting siding on a house one day and the guy working with me said “It takes a little time to get the knack of it. The first time you hit the hammer is to set the nail, the second time is to drive it and find out how hard the resistance is going to be and the third swing is hard enough so that the nail travels beyond the camber head and counter sinks”

AF: That’s fantastic stuff, Bob.

BR: You think, that’s crazy. You can’t countersink a nail just on its own inertia going into the wood. But they can. I really learned to respect these guys; it taught me not to turn my nose up when I walk on a job site thinking that I know more than anyone else.

AF: Did you ever go back and work as an architect after that? (Laughter)

BR: Oh yes. I teamed up with a guy named Mike Inlay and formed our own firm: Roloson Inlay and Associates. Mike Inlay and I were partners for probably 10-12 years. We had a residential firm and to be honest, there just wasn’t enough money coming in for two partners.

AF: Winnie came after all of this?

BR: Winnie came after all of this. I had six children I had to get grown up first.

AF: Bob, tell us about the Architecture Award you won.

BR: Oh well I got called back to Lake Forest. The Lake Forest Preservation Foundation awarded me a significant award for practicing architecture in Lake Forest Architecture. It seems that I was the only one living that’s ever been a recipient. It’s pretty good company. It was an honor.

AF: Winnie, what did you do before you met Bob? Can you think of a life before Bob?

WR: Well yes Andrew.

[Laughing]

AF: Where’d you go to college?

WR: To Hollins College for two years, which was a girls school in Virginia. Then, I transferred to the University of North Carolina for two years. I graduated from Carolina.

AF: What major did you graduate with?

WR: Oh, you’ll love this…Spanish, which I can’t even speak.

AF: [Laughing]

WR: I could read it, and I could write it, but I never have used it.

AF: What did you do after graduation?

WR: After I graduated, everybody but me went to New York, and I went to Atlanta, Georgia. I wanted to go to San Francisco, and my mother talked me out of it. It was just going to be a little while in Atlanta, and then I was going to go to San Francisco. And then, I met my future husband, and that was the end of San Francisco. And we ended up moving to Dayton, Ohio, and from Dayton Ohio we went back to Atlanta, and then from Atlanta we moved to Chicago.

AF: Ahhaaaa, so that’s where you met Bob.

WR: Getting closer to Bob. I was with Jamie for 25 years and we had two children: Katherine is now in Los Angeles and Gordon is in Telluride.

AF: How did you both decide to establish your foundation, and why?

WR: I saw an article in the NY Times about Foundations and, I can’t remember whether it was directly architecture or not, but Bob and I started talking about it. That’s how we got started. And I read about Sambo, and what an intriguing character he was.

BR: Rural Studio was the first place we gifted. We went down and met Sambo, and he took us all around, roaring around in the truck. You couldn’t help but be swept up with his ideas and his dreams.

AF: Why did you decide to support Rural Studio?

BR: The original inspiration was Sambo. What we liked about it so much was his enthusiasm and the way it spread to the kids, and the trust that he put in the kids to do the right thing, work hard, and earn their place there.

WR: And I loved the fact that he instilled in them the feeling that poverty is not abstract. It is real, it is tough, and you can do something about it. We also just love the fact that Sambo lived as he taught. He walked away from a very successful practice to do something that he thought was important and loved.

CA: What do you think about how Rural Studio has evolved from the single-family houses to the large-scale community projects, the 20K house project and the Farm? What do you both think about the way the program has changed?

WR: Do you want an honest answer? We sometimes struggle with the scale of the projects. We know why it has gone that way and the community relationship is fantastic, but we worry it gets impersonal. We

worry that it might have lost some of its soul.

BR: The last time I was down for an advisory group meeting, all the talk was of small houses and their square footage. I was worried about a lack of spirit. In truth, we haven’t been at Rural Studio for a long time, so it’s hard to criticize from afar.

AF: Well, we miss having you here. We have always loved rolling out the red carpet for you when you visit. It is always really great to have our students present their work to one the Studio’s biggest supporters.

BR: Well, we’ll come back and you may be sorry! [Laughing]

WR: Who is it that always said, “You’ll be sorry what you wish for?”

AF: [Laughing.]

CA: What would you guys aspire for the future of RS? How do you hope to see it develop down the road?

BR: I want to see it turn out enthusiastic, excited, young architects, that just can’t wait to get to work and do the best work they possibly can. Just see the joy, to find the joy that there is in what I’ve done, and what I’ve loved doing all my life. I’m not a grind kind of person. If I love it, I do it with enthusiasm and 18 hours a day. If I don’t like it, it’s very hard to get me to do anything.

“The first time you hit the hammer is to set the nail, the second time is to drive it and find out how hard the resistance is going to be and the third swing is hard enough so that the nail travels beyond the camber head and counter sinks”

“I want to see it turn out enthusiastic, excited...young architects, that just can’t wait to get to work and do the best work they possibly can.”

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20th Anniversary and Fundraising Campaign ManagerNatalie Butts

Profiles

Because her role is new, a big part of Natalie’s job is figuring out what needs to be done and in what order.

I first fell in love with Rural Studio in 2000 while I was ramming earth walls in the 2nd year house for the Dudley/Sanders family and then again while working on the tower at Perry Lakes Park for my fifth year project. Empowered by this rigorous type of education, where students are challenged to think more critically about the impact of their designs and the relationship to its place, as well as being given the space and opportunity to learn by making, I was immediately hooked.

I was fortunate to be part of the Rural Studio family as Clerk of the Works and later as the Assistant Instructor for the 2nd year program. And with the continued support of Andrew, the Studio family, and the influence of this magnetic community, Hale County has felt like my home. I moved on and taught design-build in New Orleans public schools for a few years, and while working with at-risk students was incredibly rewarding, I jumped at the chance to return to Rural Studio.

Hi, I’m Natalie Butts, Rural Studio Alumnus (2000, 2004-08) and current 20th Anniversary Manager, and I’m proud to announce the 20th Anniversary of Rural Studio.

Everyone who has ever experienced Rural Studio is forever connected to Hale County, and the anniversary is the perfect opportunity to celebrate. Now that I’m back in Newbern, it is my job to figure out how to do it appropriately.

I am inspired by the consistent energy of what the students do every day, therefore, I know the most important strategy for the 20th Anniversary is to continue doing what we always do, just amped up. I want to reach out to our Rural Studio family and friends to celebrate and honor this place and its people, which have allowed us to thrive while maintaining rigor and passion for 20 years. We are planning to celebrate throughout the 2013-2014 academic calendar year by focusing on housing, and helping as many families as we can. Rural Studio began with a house so, for our 20th year, 5th year, 3rd year, and Outreach students will all design and build 20K Houses. With all three programs focused on the 20K House, it pushes the project to the next level. In

theory, all projects will be completed by Pig Roast. This will help us launch the next twenty years with a fresh, clean slate.

To mix things up a bit, we will kick off each semester with a Pecha Kucha Alumni Night, featuring 10 alumni speakers in the same night. Following a fun, fast paced lecture format, each alumni speaker will be allowed to present 20 slides, with only 20 seconds per slide. It will be a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the work of our alumni and share new ideas. Another new twist is the 20th Anniversary Lecture Series, which will feature a few of our favorite consultants and BIG surprise guests. We will also amp up the Soup Roast, which will highlight locally grown food. Finally, in keeping the tradition of Rural Studio, the end of the year will culminate with a Super Pig Roast. Stay tuned for more information about some of our surprises!

Auburn University Rural Studio • 13

“Super Thesis”

Because of the scale of the fifth-year community projects, it often takes more than nine-months to design and build them. “Super Thesis” is a term coined by Rural Studio to describe graduates of the program, who commit to stay as volunteers until the completion of their projects. The studio wants to recognize these students for their hard work and dedication to their projects and the community. The graphs below illustrate the different processes each team has undergone and the rigor of how their projects have developed.

BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF GREENSBORO The Greensboro Boys & Girls Club team is building a 2,700 square foot building for the City of Greensboro. This building will allow for the organization to continue to grow and serve its 120 registered members and 70 daily attendees. The building will serve as the learning center for the Club and will consist of a classroom, male and female restrooms, computer lab, office and snack area. In addition to its primary purpose as a learning center, the Boys & Girls Club will also serve as a large meeting space for the City of Greensboro.

Programs & Current Projects

LIONS PARK LANDSCAPEThe Lions Park Landscape team is revising the master plan of Lions Park and providing strategies for planting and rainwater management. These interventions will be made in the empty, in-between zones that are the resulting space of previous Rural Studio projects. The zones will be shaped into a system of vegetated drainage swales, rain gardens and detention basins that will collect rainwater runoff from sports fields, play areas and pathways. Collected rainwater will be used to grow a variety of native plant life including native grasses, wildflowers, trees, and perennial shrubs. 

LIONS PARK SCOUTSThe Lions Park Scout team is designing and constructing a home for the local Cub Scout and Boy Scout troops within Lions Park. The building will have a multi-purpose space, restroom, kitchen, and storage for the Scouts’ trailers. It will be a primarily wood structure that utilizes the raised bent system of historic southern barns. By using all local wood vendors, the team hopes to live up to the scout’s ethics of environmental responsibility. The team is also building a second set of public restrooms and water fountains under the existing barbecue pit as well as enhancing the landscape.

L I O N S PA R K L A N D S C A P E

S C O U T H U T

Expected completion date: may 2014B O Y S & G I R L S C L U B O F G R E E N S B O R O

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Expected completion date: summer 2013

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JONES VALLEY TEACHING FARMJones Valley Teaching Farm approached Rural Studio to design and build two ‘stands’ for their campus in Birmingham. The two structures, used for washing and selling produce, are an evolution of the stands produced for the Greensboro Farmers Market. The construction of the stands utilizes standard dimensional lumber in a lightweight bypass system. Wood skids, allowing the stands to be transported and relocated on various sites, support the platforms. Adaptable steel furniture was developed to further the stands’ functionality and flexibility. The stands were built in Newbern, and then transported to Jones Valley Teaching Farm in June 2012.

project team:Michael DowdyFranklin FrostWill McGarityMary Pruitt

Recently Completed

TURNER’S HOUSETurner, or “Doc” as his friends know him, moved into his new home in October 2012. For the eleventh iteration of the 20K House, and as an addition to the Product Line, the student team focused on creating a fully accessible house. Through researching various forms of ambulatory disability, the team aimed to create a universally accessible and livable house. The “galleried” house features a long front porch and integral ramp contained within the gabled roof of the house. The bedroom, kitchen and living room all adjoin the porch space, and the single-room depth of the interior volume allows for increased natural lighting and cross-ventilation. The bathroom features a tornado safe room that doubles as the shower; it may be the first “safe room shower” in history!

project team:Meaghan BurkeRennie JonesIngunn OpsahlPeter Paller

NEWBERN TOWN HALLNewbern Town Hall and its adjoining courtyard sit north of the Fire Station and, collectively, they form the civic center of the town. The Town Hall consists of a chamber room for the Town Council and a larger gathering space for community meetings and voting. Ancillary spaces including an archive room, kitchen, bathroom and storage room support the functions of the building. A brick barbeque pit under an expanded metal arcade in the courtyard will be used for fundraisers and community celebrations.

The Town Hall is constructed of heavy timber cypress that serves as the building’s exterior finish, insulation and interior finish. The 43 steel trusses that make up the roof structure provide deep overhangs to protect the walls, while the roof’s open gable ends help to vent the building. Fabricated from a series of steel angle frames, the building’s windows and doors articulate openings in the timbers by being placed fully inside or outside of the timber walls. The material palette was designed to give both physical and psychological weight to the civic building.

Newbern Town Hall celebrated its grand opening on February 23, 2013.

project team:Brett BowersDavid FrazierMallory GarrettZane Morgan

Photo: Timothy Hursley

Photo: Timothy Hursley

GREENSBORO CITY HALL

In the fall of 2009, the Mayor of Greensboro contacted the Rural Studio to assist in designing a multi-phase renovation of Greensboro’s City Hall. The first phase involves moving the police department,

which is currently a collection of scattered offices, into an

under-utilized area within the existing building, giving

them a space they can call their own. The second phase

involves re-organizing the administrative offices, which

will add more office and storage space for the staff that has

outgrown the existing facility. The project is in the final

stages of design and should be completed by the fall of

2013.

Staff Initiatives

UNIONTOWN PARK

For the past three years, Rural Studio has partnered with the City of Uniontown and Strategic Alliance for Health to make improvements at Uniontown Park. Strategic Alliance for Health, a consortium organized

by the Alabama Department of Public Health, provided

grant funds for the park while Uniontown’s Public Works

department offered in-kind support. Improvements so far

include re-surfacing and re-lining the existing walking trail

and basketball court, installing benches, water fountains,

and trash receptacles. Most recently, Rural Studio added

a new playground. The Studio hopes to continue this

partnership with potential future improvements of adding

fitness equipment and renovating the existing field house.

NECK DOWN PROJECTS

“Neck Down” is a bi-annual event that is celebrated by the entire studio. At the beginning

of each semester, all students and staff come together for

a week of working together. The phrase “Neck Down”

was coined by Sambo as a way to describe physical labor:

literally work that utilizes everything from your neck

down. These two weeks during the year allow the studio

to complete small projects and repair existing work in the

community, while also giving the students across all three

programs an opportunity to work together and get to

know each other.

In Fall 2012, the Studio helped “super thesis” project

teams, installed playground equipment and trashcans at

Uniontown Park, cleaned up at the Hale County Animal

Shelter, helped the Town Hall team. The Studio campus

also received attention, including wood storage cleanup

and inventory, unloading a new delivery of lumber, and

maintenance of the Morrisette House backyard and kitchen

garden.

In Spring 2013, the Studio continued to help ongoing

thesis projects: Town Hall, Lions Park, and Greensboro

Boys and Girls Club. The interior of Chantilly was cleaned,

while work continued on the structure and exterior. A

team worked at Perry Lakes Park, replacing boards on the

walkway between the pavilion and restrooms. The Rural

Studio campus also received attention, including supply

organization and maintenance of Red Barn.

CHANTILLY RENOVATION

Rural Studio has begun the repair and restoration of Chantilly, a historic 1850’s Greek revival house

that is sited on the Rural Studio campus, in front of the

Bodark Amphitheater. Work includes the raising of the

exiting structure by a foot and the reconstruction of the

buildings foundation. Subsequently, cosmetic restoration

and structural repair is being done to improve the existing

building. During January neckdown, the Studio spent

the week cleaning and repairing the interior of the center

building. Elena Barthel and her 5th Year and Outreach

students use Chantilly as their studio for their weekly

drawing class.

GREENSBORO PARKS AND RECREATION

BOARD

Rural Studio is working with the landowners of Lions Park to provide a long-term plan for the care and maintenance of all of Greensboro’s Parks and Recreation Facilities. The Lions Club and the County

have agreed to deed over their pieces of Lions Park property

to the City of Greensboro as soon as the City starts a Parks

and Recreation Department. The City Council is working

together to provide funding for the project with a ½%

increase on Sales Tax.

Rural Studio is researching the management and budget

of Parks and Recreation Boards in other cities to provide

the City of Greensboro with information. A student team

is also putting together a comprehensive maintenance plan

of Lions Park, which will be used by the future Parks and

Recreation Board.

MORRISETTE BARN

Rural Studio is designing a new workshop. Located on Morrisette campus, this shop will include the

appropriate amenities needed to help improve the quality

of Rural Studio projects, both large and small. The design

includes a large wood working space that will be used for

both teaching and facilitating a more rigorous emphasis

on craft. The structure will also include an expansive

covered outdoor working space that is flexible in use to

accommodate the varying project needs.

CAMERON ACHESON

MACKENZIE STAGG

JOHN MARUSICH

HERE’S WHAT THE STAFF IS WORKING ON

STEVE LONG

ELENA BARTHEL

ANDREW FREEAR

DICK HUDGENS

JOHNNY PARKER

MARION JUNCTION COMMUNITY CENTER

Rural Studio was approached by the Marion Junction Community Club with a request to help repair the roof of the Marion Junction School. The

Community Club raised several thousand dollars to pay for

the roof replacement, and asked the Studio to help in its

construction. In the short term, Rural Studio has applied

tar to the currently flat roof as a way to temporarily stop the

leaks. The long-term plan is to build a gabled roof using

pre-manufactured trusses and corrugated metal during one

of the Studio’s neck down.

SAFEHOUSE MUSEUM WEBSITE

Rural Studio is working with the Safehouse Board and Armchair Media to develop a website for the Safe House Black History Museum. After helping

Rural Studio develop their own website, Armchair Media

has generously donated their time to the project by offering

the same services to the Safehouse Museum.

The new website will provide easy access to contact

information, operating hours, and directions. The website

will also feature history of the museum, a calendar of events,

and provide information on all Safehouse Exhibits.

GREENSBORO ZONING ANALYSIS

In conjunction with the Greensboro Parks and Recreation Research, Rural Studio is helping the City of Greensboro establish a Zoning database. The

City is interested in amending their Zoning Ordinances;

however they do not have the proper documents in which

to do so. The first step in this process is a survey of existing

construction and property lines. This research is being

investigated and documented by Rural Studio. The findings

will be combined into a singular document for the City.

This will allow the City to see Zoning Patterns as they

currently exist, which can help them resolve future zoning

requests, and create new Zoning Ordinances.

TALLEDEGA STRATEGIC PLAN

The Oakmulgee District of Talladega National Forest lies approximately twenty-five miles north of Newbern and covers land in a five-county area. As

part of the campaign to revitalize the national forest land,

Oakmulgee District Ranger Cynthia Ragland approached

Rural Studio faculty to help develop a plan for adding new

learning and recreational opportunities throughout the

forest.

Rural Studio invited consultant Xavier Vendrell to partner

with both Forest Service staff and Rural Studio faculty in

the development of a holistic Strategic Plan for the entire

Oakmulgee District. Using Payne Lake Recreation Area as a

gateway, the plan seeks to provide opportunities for visitors

to disperse into the larger forest area.

The first step in the development of the Strategic Plan is

gathering and distilling information from the USDA Forest

Service and the Oakmulgee District. A series of maps

showing a variety of factors, from natural and manufactured

resources to visitor use data, was created to help with

the analysis of existing conditions. The end goal of the

Strategic Plan is to create a comprehensive document for the

Oakmulgee District, which they can use to implement the

suggested strategies.

CITY OF GREENSBORO FLAG

The City of Greensboro requested the help of Rural Studio in designing a flag to represent their city. The City Council had previously held a workshop to

brainstorm ideas for a city flag. After they made a mock-

up of their ideas, the council asked Rural Studio to help

iron out the design. Rural Studio staff members presented

proposals at the last council meeting. A number of variations

were presented and a final design was chosen. The Studio

has helped the city move forward with the production of

the flag and the winning design will make its inaugural

appearance at a Mayoral conference this May.

GREENSBORO FARMERS MARKET

After the success of the first Farmer’s Market Season, Rural Studio was approached by the Greensboro Farmer’s Market to help re-locate and expand the market. The Greensboro Farmer’s Market

was moved to a new site that provided more space and

better visibility. Rural Studio helped prepare the site and

organize the relocation of the market stands.

Due to its success, the Market had outgrown its current

infrastructure, and needed an additional vendor stand, as

well as a stand specifically designed for the Market Manager.

The vendor stand was a replica of the other vendor stands.

The Market Manager stand was designed to be a place with

visibility of the entire market, as well as a place to provide

customers with information. This stand contains a small

storage room and a flat surface for the Market Manager to

use as a desk.

The Studio also built new furniture for the Market. Located

directly across from the market stands are several benches

that serve dual purpose: on one side, they offer seating

and on the roadside they provide room for advertisements.

The Greensboro Farmer’s Market uses the sale of these

advertisements to offset costs of managing the market.

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