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Students' visions reshape the rural landscape

By MARY JANE PARK
Published October 8, 2006

AUBURN, Ala.

Out of the red clay they rise, structures crafted from discarded telephone poles, leftover carpet tiles, even old Chevy Caprice windshields.

Some seem imbedded into the earth itself. Others are as ethereal as a hummingbird's wings.

From houses to park shelters to churches, the buildings were custom-designed for impoverished residents of west Alabama.

The late Samuel Mockbee co-founded the renowned Auburn University School of Architecture's Rural Studio, challenging his students to live among the people for whom they designed their projects and work with families and community groups to accommodate their needs.

Their work and some of Mockbee's are showcased in "Rural Studio: Education of the Citizen Architect," which runs through Nov. 5 at Auburn's Jule Collins Smith Museum. (Also on exhibit, through Oct. 15: "Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses." Some of his designs are in the Tampa Bay area.)

For Gators and Tigers headed to Auburn for Saturday's football game between the University of Florida and Auburn, the exhibitions are added value along with the tailgate parties.

Mockbee himself was a graduate of the university's School of Architecture. He left a flourishing professional career to return to his alma mater to teach. In 1993, he and D.K. Ruth established the Rural Studio, in Alabama's Hale County, challenging their students to raise money, ask for donated materials, work with engineers and other architects and, ultimately, to turn dreams into sturdy, inexpensive housing characterized by imaginative design.

Their building materials include license plates, old tires, even glass bottles.

"I tell my students, it's got to be warm, dry and noble," reads a quote from the man everybody called Sambo.

Mockbee was diagnosed with leukemia in 1998. In July 2000, he was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Foundation grant. He died on Dec. 30, 2001.

The Rural Studio program, acclaimed throughout the world, continues at Auburn, and the exhibition showcases some of the work completed in the five years since his death.

It is an emotionally moving showcase of the intersection of ideas and their manifestations, of hopes accomplished.

If you go

"Rural Studio: Education of the Citizen Architect" is on exhibit through Nov. 5 at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, 901 S College St., Auburn, Ala.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission: adults, $5; senior citizens, $4; college students (identification required) and children to age 17, free.

Information: www.jcsm.auburn.edu; (334) 844-1484.

[Last modified October 6, 2006, 11:54:20]