Four Food-Related Projects by Rural Studio
In 2005, Rural Studio and the Lions Park Committee in Greensboro, Alabama, embarked on a multiphase, multiyear project to rehabilitate the playing fields, playground, and environs of 40-acre Lions Park. In 2008, Rural Studio began work on the Lions Park Concessions Stand. Over nine months, in a contractor's workshop in Birmingham, a student design-build team erected the structure, composed of a tubular-steel frame, and later clad it in aluminum. “We based the stand's shape on a mouth,” explains Freear, describing the abstracted clamshell-like form, which opens and closes with a winch-and-steel-rope mechanism. In addition to providing income for the park, the amenity gets Greensboro's baseball fans outside and socializing. “It's the lifeblood of the park,” says Freear.
Photo © Timothy Hursley
Despite Alabama's reputation for lush farmland, Hale County residents have had limited access to fresh produce. Local farmers wishing to sell their food, Freear explains, did not previously have a place to do so. The Greensboro Farmers Market was created in 2011 to fill this void, and comprises a series of plywood stalls with corrugated metal roofs. Now residents can regularly shop for fresh fruits and vegetables and local meat. It's all been a unifying agent for the community, says Elena Barthel, an assistant professor of architecture at Auburn University and a member of the Rural Studio team: “It's really encouraged parts of Greensboro's racially and culturally segregated population to interact.” The Jones Valley Teaching Farm (2012), in nearby Birmingham, is a smaller project geared toward education. The two wood-and-metal structures are used for selling the farm's crops to the public and raising awareness of agricultural operations.
Photo © Timothy Hursley
Despite Alabama's reputation for lush farmland, Hale County residents have had limited access to fresh produce. Local farmers wishing to sell their food, Freear explains, did not previously have a place to do so. The Greensboro Farmers Market was created in 2011 to fill this void, and comprises a series of plywood stalls with corrugated metal roofs. Now residents can regularly shop for fresh fruits and vegetables and local meat. It's all been a unifying agent for the community, says Elena Barthel, an assistant professor of architecture at Auburn University and a member of the Rural Studio team: “It's really encouraged parts of Greensboro's racially and culturally segregated population to interact.” The Jones Valley Teaching Farm (2012), in nearby Birmingham, is a smaller project geared toward education. The two wood-and-metal structures are used for selling the farm's crops to the public and raising awareness of agricultural operations.
Photo © Timothy Hursley
Despite Alabama's reputation for lush farmland, Hale County residents have had limited access to fresh produce. Local farmers wishing to sell their food, Freear explains, did not previously have a place to do so. The Greensboro Farmers Market was created in 2011 to fill this void, and comprises a series of plywood stalls with corrugated metal roofs. Now residents can regularly shop for fresh fruits and vegetables and local meat. It's all been a unifying agent for the community, says Elena Barthel, an assistant professor of architecture at Auburn University and a member of the Rural Studio team: “It's really encouraged parts of Greensboro's racially and culturally segregated population to interact.” The Jones Valley Teaching Farm (2012), in nearby Birmingham, is a smaller project geared toward education. The two wood-and-metal structures are used for selling the farm's crops to the public and raising awareness of agricultural operations.
Photo © Timothy Hursley
In 2005, Rural Studio designed and built a fire station for the volunteer squadron in Newbern, Alabama. In 2011 it constructed a new town hall nearby. The two buildings form a small courtyard that, today, members of the volunteer fire department use for fundraising barbecues. At the heart of these efforts is the Newbern Town Hall Barbecue Pit, finished last year. The pavilion is made of 4-foot-wide metal panels that gain their structural stability from being folded. A canted, corrugated metal roof protects users from the sun and directs rainwater away from cooking areas. The structure's back wall acts as a trellis for creeping confederate jasmine, which will eventually grow to shield the nearby parking lot from view altogether. Fires are started in a brick fireplace, and their coals are moved to each of the four grilling pits. Once cooked, the food can be passed through a large window into the town hall's kitchen, where many events are held. “The barbecue pit has been great for fundraising,” says Freear.
Photo © Timothy Hursley
In 2005, Rural Studio designed and built a fire station for the volunteer squadron in Newbern, Alabama. In 2011 it constructed a new town hall nearby. The two buildings form a small courtyard that, today, members of the volunteer fire department use for fundraising barbecues. At the heart of these efforts is the Newbern Town Hall Barbecue Pit, finished last year. The pavilion is made of 4-foot-wide metal panels that gain their structural stability from being folded. A canted, corrugated metal roof protects users from the sun and directs rainwater away from cooking areas. The structure's back wall acts as a trellis for creeping confederate jasmine, which will eventually grow to shield the nearby parking lot from view altogether. Fires are started in a brick fireplace, and their coals are moved to each of the four grilling pits. Once cooked, the food can be passed through a large window into the town hall's kitchen, where many events are held. “The barbecue pit has been great for fundraising,” says Freear.
Photo © Timothy Hursley
Architects & Firms
Since it was founded in 1993 by Samuel Mockbee and Dennis K. Ruth, Rural Studio has provided first-rate architecture for disadvantaged populations in and around Hale County, Alabama. Houses, chapels, and community centers are among the structures designed and built by the firm with undergraduate architecture students at Auburn University. After Mockbee's death in 2001, British architect and educator Andrew Freear assumed the helm of the program, which under his watch has taken on a number of food-related projects.
Click through the slideshow above to read more about four projects all built to foster community in a traditionally underserved region.
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