Rural Studio
Oct 13, 01:12 PM
Based in the School of Architecture at Auburn University Alabama, Rural Studio forms part of a commitment to bridge learning in academia with ‘real’ world needs and problems. Along with the Urban studio programme, students create/design/build for local community contexts, putting education and learning to work creatively in meeting the needs of people and place. The mission of The Rural Studio is to allow students to find 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.
The Rural Studio consists of three programs across the period of study – all taking students out of the institution to “form teams, to plan, design and build community projects”. Key to Rural Studio, is the making of ideas into habitable, affordable buildings. The 20K house is a unique project at the Rural Studio. The design for the house is not client or site specific, but rather intended as a prototype for low-income housing in Hale County. At present there does not exist a precedent for a house that can be built for $10,000 materials and $10,000 labor and profit. The 20K house aims to create that precedent [...] giving people an alternative to substandard housing or trailers.
Students at Rural studio offer up blogs of their projects as the process progresses, offering fantastic visual and personal insights to the making and realisation of ideas. Reminiscent of the communality of barn raising, each project opens up the richness of dialogue and relations that are built up between students and those who will live in and use the architecture.