Citizen Architect
This weekend I had the opportunity to watch Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio. I first heard about the Rural Studio during my sophomore year of college, and I’ve got both An Architecture of Decency and Proceed and Be Bold. If you’re not already familiar with the work of Samuel ‘Sambo’ Mockbee, and Auburn University down in Alabama, I highly suggest you check this documentary out. (Or ask, and I’ll be happy to loan you my copy.)
Samuel Mockbee
Sambo’s work in creating, and growing the design-build curriculum at Auburn was, and remains, an inspiration to those of us who went through design school at a time that seemed to many of us to be more about form than substance. In the era of ‘green building’ it seemed that design, particularly as highlighted by national design magazines, had more to do with big dollar clients, cool materials, and ‘innovative’ forms than with connecting with and serving one’s fellow man. Mockbee is, to me, the antithesis of that mindset. Simultaneously representing both the very best that Architecture and the American south, have to offer.
I tell my students, it’s got to be warm, dry, and noble. ~Sambo Mockbee
Check it out soon. If afterwards you’re not fired up and ready to get started on applying these same principles and ideas to your own community, I’ll be surprised.
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