Auburn Rural Studio student architecture program has been making a difference for 30 years.
Timothy Hursley
If you drive south down State 69 fromTuscaloosaand look out your window, you wont see much.
The University of Alabamas grand campus of stately brick buildings and mega-mansion sorority houses fades to farmland.
Credit:Timothy Hursley
Rural Studio is a proven experiment in symbiotic cohabitation.
Students live, work, play, and grow during their time here.
Most days, the dishes incorporate fruits and vegetables harvested from the on-site farm.
Rural Studio’s campus in Newbern, Alabama includes a small urban-style farm that is cared for by student architects.Credit:Timothy Hursley
Hammocks are strung from support beams, and drawing books are scattered across a dilapidated table tennis setup.
Keating lived among his pupils and inspired them to greatness.
So, too, did Mockbee.
Corrugated cardboard was the primary material used to create this pod on Auburn Rural Studio’s campus.
Mockbees influence was pivotal from the beginning.
Andrew Freear, a native of England, saw him give a lecture in Chicago in the late 1990s.
I admired him, Freear says.
The Scout Hut in Lions Park, built in 2012, hosts local groups.Credit:Timothy Hursley
The Full Picture
Freear says that Rural Studio is about more than constructing interesting buildings insmall-town Alabama.
Instead, the program focuses on addressing the full range of challenges that often plague rural areas.
Their farm helps alleviate the fresh-food shortage by donating excess crops to a pay-what-you-can stand in Greensboro.
One of Rural Studio’s most common building projects are 20K houses for local families.Credit:Timothy Hursley
But once you look at outside factors, you realize theres so much more.
So were finding partners to help us solve those problems.
And dozens of local families now own and live in low-cost homes.
e Breathing Wall Mass Timber Research Project allowed students to explore how structural design could impact energy use.Credit:Timothy Hursley
Educating Young Architects
But at its core, Rural Studio is about education.
Architecture students normally draw things and then have this kind of game with their professors, Freear says.
Here, theres something at stake.
A former bank in downtown Newbern was turned into a library in 2015.Credit:Timothy Hursley
Third-year students collaborate on a single project, often a house for a family in the area.
Its a good practice to be this invested in your work.
Everybody who works here is snakebit, McGlohn says lovingly.
The Newbern library, built in 2015, provided the first public internet point in the community.Credit:Timothy Hursley
I dont think you could do this unless you were.
McGlohns journey with Rural Studio started when she was a college sophomore in 1999.
John Marusich, who met his wife here as an undergrad, also couldnt stay away.
He joined the team in 2022 as a lecturer and design-build manager.
Rural Studio is as much a part of the community as the community is a part of it.
But none of those accolades come close to its biggest accomplishment.
This small outcropping of buildings includes theNewbern library, fire station,andtown hall(all student projects).
