https://www.architecturalrecord.com/rss/1622 en-us British-born Freear joined the design-build program at Auburn University in 2000, and has made scalable, low-cost housing solutions for impoverished rural communities a primary focus.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/16142 Mon, 06 Mar 2023 11:57:18 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/16142-rural-studios-andrew-freear-receives-the-2023-thomas-jefferson-foundation-medal-in-architecture http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/15838 Thu, 08 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/15838-the-cooper-hewitt-national-design-awards-honor-architects Cooper-Hewitt-2.jpg Rural Studio Farm, a year-round functioning produce farm, located on the Rural Studio campus in Newbern, Alabama. Photo © Timothy Hursley, courtesy Cooper Hewitt Cooper-Hewitt-1.jpg Rural Studio's Newbern Library, renovated and expanded from the old Bank of Newbern building by a team of four 5th-year students to accommodate its new function as a library. Photo © Timothy Hursley Cooper-Hewitt-3.webp Nader Tehrani's Entrelac, an installation for Amman Design Week in Jordan (2016) with collaborator Raya Kassisieh. Photo © Roland Halbe Cooper-Hewitt-4.webp Nader Tehrani's Interfaith Spiritual Center, a center for people of all faiths to gather at Northeastern University (Boston, Massachusetts, 1998). Photo © Dan Bibb Cooper-Hewitt-5.webp Nader Tehrani's RISD North Hall, a new dormitory and studio for the Rhode Island School of Design (2019). Photo © John Horner Cooper-Hewitt-12.webp David Hertz's WEDEW generates renewable energy, heat, cooling, biochar, and water inside a 20-foot modified shipping container while sequestering atmospheric carbon into useful applications (Malibu, California, 2021). Photo © Laura Doss Photography Cooper-Hewitt-10.webp Hertz's WEDEW system operates in Malibu under a post-Woolsey Fire grant from California Energy Commission in Malibu, California (2019). Photo © Laura Doss Photography Cooper-Hewitt-11.webp WEDEW water pod set up at the 2019 XPRIZE Visioneering Conference at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles (2019). Photo © Laura Doss Photography Cooper-Hewitt-8.webp Rural Studio's 20K Dave’s Home, one of the firm's first in affordability research that would later become the first model home in the Front Porch Initiative’s product line. Photo © Timothy Hursley Cooper-Hewitt-7.webp Rural Studio's Greensboro Boys & Girls Club, an extension to the existing armory compound designed and constructed by a team of four 5th-year architecture students. Photo © Timothy Hursley, courtesy Cooper Hewitt Cooper-Hewitt-9.webp Rural Studio, Thermal Mass & Buoyancy Ventilation Research Project, part of a multi-institutional research project to investigate how to create a more responsible building system. Photo © Timothy Hursley Cooper-Hewitt-6.webp Newbern Town Hall, designed and built seven years after the Newbern Firehouse by 5th-year students. Photo © Timothy Hursley goncharj@bnpmedia.com (Joann Gonchar, FAIA) http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/14592 Tue, 28 Apr 2020 14:52:00 -0400 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/14592-rural-studio-program-promotes-energy-efficient-home-ownership Auburn University’s Rural Studio transforms an aging bank building in Newbern, Alabama, into the town’s first public library.

]]> http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/12812 Sun, 02 Jul 2017 08:26:00 -0400 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/12812-newbern-library-by-rural-studio The library’s folded steel awning, like other elements, riffs on aspects of the aging neighboring buildings. Photo © Timothy Hursley A courtyard is defined by repurposed bricks. Photo © Timothy Hursley Inside, perforated ceilings and cork flooring were selected for their acoustic properties. The old bank’s tellers station is now the librarian’s desk. Photo © Timothy Hursley Image courtesy Rural Studio 1407-lions-park-scout-hut-rural-studio.asp Wed, 16 Jul 2014 12:00:00 -0400 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/7985-lions-park-scout-hut-by-rural-studio Lions Park Scout Hut The students built the trusses on the ground nearby, and 20 friends helped move them into position, where they bolted them to steel plates that connect to the footers, and raised them with a boom. The trusses cradle small-diameter logs that form the walls.   Photo © Timothy Hursley Lions Park Scout Hut A polycarbonate wall admits ample light into the pine interior. Almost all the wood (and other elements) were donated by lumber companies or manufacturers.   Photo © Timothy Hursley Lions Park Scout Hut Rigid steel-plate entries with deep foundations act as moment frames, providing further stiffening for lateral stability.   Photo © Timothy Hursley Lions Park Scout Hut Image courtesy Rural Studio 1307-county-fare.asp Tue, 16 Jul 2013 12:00:00 -0400 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/5829-county-fare 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 goncharj@bnpmedia.com (Joann Gonchar, FAIA) lions-park-playscape.asp Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:30:00 -0400 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/6493-lions-park-playscape-by-rural-studio For the playscape at the Lions Park in Greensboro, Alabama, students from Auburn University's Rural Studio created a mazelike environment on the ground and a canopy overhead of steel drums.   Photo courtesy Auburn University Rural Studio The playscape includes sound tubes made of the same steel that supports the canopy.   Photo courtesy Auburn University Rural Studio The students built mockups of the playscape before constructing the final version.   Photo courtesy Auburn University Rural Studio The Rural Studio students sculpted the land around the playscape to create small hills and mounds.   Photo courtesy Auburn University Rural Studio Building the playscape involved earthwork, installation of geotextile fabric, and the spreading and tamping of gravel.   Photo courtesy Auburn University Rural Studio Each steel drum is welded to adjacent drums in eight places.   Photo courtesy Auburn University Rural Studio Image courtesy Auburn University Rural Studio 1103film_making_of_citizen_architect.asp Sun, 16 Jan 2011 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/6185-filmmaker-sam-wainwright-douglas-on-citizen-architect-samuel-mockbee-of-rural-studio http://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/12617 Sat, 01 Jul 2000 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/12617-interview-with-rural-studios-sam-mockbee