Rural Studio Newsletter 2020 by Rural Studio

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ALL OF RURAL STUDIO’S NEWS FROM HALE COUNT Y

2019–2020

BORN IN NEWBERN

DESIGNED IN BHAM

PRINTED IN OPELIKA

CELEBR ATING OUR 2020 GR ADUATES

VOL. 9

THE NEWBERN TIMES, VOL. 9

LET TER FROM THE DIRECTOR

PROCEEDING BOLDLY, EVEN NOW Dear Friends, This year has been one of the most challenging at Rural Studio, in part because COVID has blown at us like hurricane winds, a situation unlike any in our lifetime. The rest of life has blown at us, too: the social unrest and the loss of our own Johnny Parker. These factors have changed how we relate to ourselves and our communities, cutting short our delivery of the work of our hands. But, mark my words, we’re still standing, planning, connecting our hearts, listening.

This year began brightly with the ribbon cutting of 20K would remain as research (unbuilt) projects. We informed have brought solidarity in approach, in wearing masks, Ann’s Home and the completion of Phase 1 of the Project those in the process of building projects that they should which are neither politicized nor mandatory. They are, Horseshoe Farm Homes. Ann’s Home’s focus on aging in not wait for Auburn to reopen, that they must move on simply, worn. I wore a mask whenever I was out and, place epitomizes resilience and access to simple pleasures with their lives. refreshingly, looked people in the eyes. So it is, from Italy like rolling out for a sit on the porch, family circling Everyone had a mix of anger and disappointment. We and Atlanta and Hale County, we carry on. around to support, and, for us, long-term thinking. Since feel empathy to our core, but that doesn’t always come spring, we ourselves would have to adapt to new circum- through on Zoom. I also acknowledge, it’s impossible for JOHNNY stances and change our thinking. Running a design-build me to be as good a teacher on a screen as I am in person. How do I even start? Another shock was the sudden death education program in the middle of a pandemic is hard. Even so, students faced the situation with remarkable res- of Johnny Parker. Johnny lived a hard life, incarcerated Designing and building is premised on hands-on, face- olution and put the initial disappointment behind them. for 26 years. At Rural Studio, though, he found a place he loved, where folks loved him back. to-face education. Everything changed. Johnny, with his fearless, can-do attitude and heart In March, our orders were to shut down as quickly as Auburn’s main campus. No negotiation. We closed of gold, had a huge cultural impact and enabled us to sites to open them at an undetermined “later.” We feel a do projects that we may never be able to do again. Part of it was his confidence, projection of control: he never direct threat to Rural Studio’s future: A residential designbuild program is fragile. The university faces tremendous worried that something would go wrong. But more was financial stress, and Rural Studio is a high-profile but his awareness abilities. This renegade who hated faculty expensive luxury. Or at least, that’s how we could be seen. meetings was always there when you needed him, and Are we a luxury? We find ourselves in a time when the he knew what the hell he was doing. He’d be the first world is waking up, realizing that Black communities have to say that being safe isn’t all about formal training: it’s about being aware of your surroundings. And talented? been disenfranchised, suffer disproportionately, and find the promise of justice unfulfilled. We’d like to think we’ll Maybe I’ll just leave it at, he could turn his hand to a be respected for our decades of listening and partnership, thousand challenges. My memories of 18 years with Johnny live on. He that they mean more than our profile of PR for finished products. We’ve worked intensely for nearly 30 years wasn’t a politically correct sort. I know you can’t imagine, to help under-resourced rural communities, frequently but he and I shared a love for colorful language. I had the seeing the weight of the world often lay heaviest on Black privilege of his firsts: his first airplane ride, his first sight of the ocean. I also had the privilege to hold his hand at shoulders. We hope our actions speak louder than words, that we are a good neighbor, listen, and learn, even from the end. My friend. Twelve months on, I miss him terribly. Nothing is ideal, even personally. We have to work mistakes, which we acknowledge. Let me be clear: We stand with Black communities. hard to keep this program open, and I did the front- PICKING UP THE PIECES Yes, everybody deserves good design. But people deserve end of that work from Italy. Hale County is my home, So, after closing up project sites for a few months and so much more, more than I can say here. We’ll continue but when we realized that Elena and Cristina’s insurance hitting pause, we’ve transitioned back to our site-based, to learn and work toward being part of the solution, didn’t cover COVID-19, we heeded our friends’ urgings: face-to-face, learning. Of course, we can’t get Johnny though we may stumble along the way. We’ll hold our- we traveled to Italy to be with family. In Italy, everybody, back. (Many communities won’t be the same, for difselves accountable and keep moving forward. rich or poor, can access the same healthcare. I had already ferent reasons, different people lost.) But, we have to been teaching remotely from the safety of my Newbern move forward. THE WINDS AROUND US home office, as had most other Rural Studio faculty and We owe it to Johnny to keep the can-do spirit. We Coronavirus hit us with speed. Spring break was set to staff, so the decision was only an extension. We returned owe it to the students who have come before. To the end, with classes resuming on Monday, March 16. On to our aging family and network in Italy, both to be a students who found themselves swept off site by COVID the Thursday before, no one had heard a word about support and in case either myself or Elena got sick. It’s and didn’t get a Pig Roast celebration. But more than all university plans–not me, not Rusty, not Dean Nathan. fair to say that we made a decision others didn’t have the of that, we owe it to the torn world to keep doing our News came by lunchtime: everything had to go to remote privilege to make. We have the privilege of opportunity, little part, to keep finding ways forward for our rural teaching, and students shouldn’t return from spring break. the wealth afforded by working as college professors, and communities. Our students had to decide where they called home: if it the mobility allowed by that same work. Many are stuck We are back with a clamor and a plan. Back to was Greensboro, they could come back, and many did. without such options. hands-on work. With these thoughts in mind, Elena and I traveled Staff spent the first days of the next week closing down existing building sites: Horseshoe Hub Court- into the heart of the COVID-19 outbreak, where it yard, Moundville Pavilion, 20K Ophelia’s Home, and exploded in Europe, but we have been very safe since. My Best wishes Breathing Wall Mass Timber Research Project. Then we Italy has been sensible, careful. The country’s opening Love and Respect to you all started remote Zoom conversations to plan. Not long has been slow, controlled, and unified. For Italy’s size, the Stay safe and well after, we told the student design teams that their work nearly 35,000 lives lost are staggering. Collective losses

Big Cheese Andrew Freear

Production Natalie Butts-Ball

Copy Editing Susan Youngblood, Michelle Sidler, Eric Ball

Printing Opelika Auburn News

RECENTLY COMPLETED PROJECTS

IN THE BOOKS

20K ANN’S HOME

HORSESHOE HOMES

LOCATION

Newbern, AL

Greensboro, AL

STUDENT TEAM

Ayomi Akinlawon, Jed Grant, Madeline Gibbs, & Yikuan Peng

Sydney Gargiulo, Lauren Barnes, Frank McDaniel, & Gavin Fraser

INSTRUCTORS

Xavier Vendrell & Steve Long

20K Ann’s Home’s research and design focus was “aging-in-place.” The team took on the challenge of designing a home for the entire life of its occupant, not simply accepting the narrow understanding of “aging-in-place” that considers life following retirement. This meant providing spaces that are flexible and remain usable as a family expands and contracts during different phases of life. In addition to providing a living room that can easily transition into a third bedroom (when those teenagers need their own space or the favorite niece comes to stay), the design created a strong connection between the interior and the porch with double doors. Not only did this approach create accessibility for someone in a walker, wheelchair, or even a hospital bed, it also provided space for families to gather and support one another. The house included details that are both durable and affordable to maintain as well.

The Horseshoe Homes team designed a master plan for five living units and an indoor community space. Phase one, which is now complete, includes three independent living units and a covered outdoor communal space. Phase two will be re-addressed by a second student team in the coming years. This design provides a physical environment to support mental, physical, emotional, and social wellness. It does this by creating space that is manageable, bright, private, surrounded by nature, and easily personalized. Each unit provides a flexible lifestyle for the women, allowing them to choose how much daily interaction they want. They encourage growth of independence with the full inclusion of a kitchen, dining area, bathroom, sleeping area, ample storage, entrance nook, and private back porch. Today, the Horseshoe Farm Homes are fully and happily occupied. The client, Dr. John Dorsey, sends photo updates of the front porch being enjoyed as a gathering spot, the closets neatly filled with clothes, and each of the spaces being personalized and used.

MOUNDVILLE PAVILION LOCATION Moundville, AL

STUDENT TEAM Emily Lopez, Katie Cantine, Lauren Ballard, & Sarah Page

INSTRUCTORS Andrew Freear & Steve Long

Moundville Archaeological Park is the historic site of the largest Native American settlement in the Southeast during the 1200s. Now owned by the University of Alabama, the park is an active archaeological site as well as a campground and recreational space. Rural Studio has been charged with designing and building a pavilion in the campground that will serve the campers, park goers, and community members. The pavilion will incorporate a covered gathering space for large events with supplementary areas for smaller groups, as well as an outdoor cooking area and seating for visitors and educational programs. The Park had an existing supply of lumber for the project, which drove the overall structural design and aesthetic. The team broke ground in summer of 2019, raising the columns and trusses in August. They became quite the expert carpenters, completing framing of the ceiling, roof, and pavilion edge. When COVID-19 halted construction in March, the team was able to prepare the structure for sheathing and cladding for when the site reopens. Rural Studio hopes to restart this project in fall 2021.

Layout Tatum Design

Illustrations Courtney Windham

THE NEWBERN TIMES, VOL. 9

3RD-YEAR STUDIO

20K OPHELIA’S HOME This 3rd-year team began, like most, by carefully studying their client, which included interviewing Ophelia, documenting her home and property, and reflecting on the way she lived. From this, the team gleaned the project’s focus: how can a one-bedroom 20K Home be modified to also include a quarter bedroom, fondly dubbed a nook, for short- or long-term guests?

After examining each product line home, the students chose to adapt the original 20K Joanne’s Home design by adding 24 inches of space to the bedroom and bathroom, increasing the width of the home from 26 feet to 28 feet. They gained the space by converting part of Joanne’s roomy front porch, pinching 5 feet of interior space out of the generous 15-foot-deep exterior porch. The resulting porch still seemed deep enough, and the additional 150 square feet of inhabitable space created room for a sleeping nook and for the back door to be located in the bedroom, supporting private access for two residents. To address the site’s steep slope and provide an enclosed foundation to support homeowner’s insurance, the house needed a ventilated crawlspace, which the team built using CMU blocks to structurally support the house and passive vents to prevent moisture buildup. Once students returned in the fall of 2020, after taking a short break from on-site work in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the next step was to design and build the ramp attached to the front porch, providing an accessible entrance into the home.

LOCATION Newbern, AL INSTRUCTORS Emily McGlohn & Chelsea Elcott FALL 2019 Adam Davis, Anna Claire Priest, Brenton Smith, Caitlyn Biffle, Davis Benfer, Emily

Davis, Gemma Ramon Centelles, Hailey Osborne, Han Li, Ignasi Vendrell I Simon, Laurel Holloway, Oliver Higgins, Yi Xuan Teo SPRING 2020 Adam Boutwell, Alex Harvill, Daniel Burton, Elizabeth Brandebourg, Elle

Whitehurst, Hannah Moates, Jackie Rosborough, Jasvandhan Coimbatore Upendranath, Joo Young Lim, Lauren Deck, Luke Killough, Shijin Ding

3RD-YEAR CLASSES

QUILT CLASS INSTRUCTORS Emily McGlohn & Chelsea Elcott

We understand home through the experiences, additions, arrangements, repairs, furniture, memories, and homeowner photographs. Design relies on being able to see the beauty in others’ ways of living. This fall, the Dessein Elective’s 3rd-years learned about Ophelia, their client, through carefully drawing her patterns of life, then they designed a quilt for her daybed from these renderings. Empathy—the capacity to understand how someone else feels—is essential for an architect to cultivate. Placing oneself into another’s position supports intuitive architectural solutions.

William Christenberry’s photographs, paintings, and sculptures celebrate not a structure but a way of life, recording the care and utility of simple buildings. Although worn, the buildings are proud of their usefulness. Careful looking allows us to develop an empathetic view of the people who live/ lived in the buildings. Understanding the life lived within creates a graceful picture of the occupant. The artist’s hand develops viewer empathy. Like a Christenberry photograph, students’ critically yet respectfully documented everyday objects, materials, shadows, patches, and arrangements in

Ophelia’s home, studying our client without judgment. The result: detailed renderings of her patterns of life produced the quilt, of course, but also a better grasp of what Ophelia needs as a client. Under Aaron Sanders Head, local textile artist and natural dye expert, students dyed the fabric for their quilt with indigo, osage orange, and pokeberry. Along with Melissa Denney, our own quilt-enthusiast development officer, Aaron taught students traditional quilt making. Students visited Gee’s Bend, studying local improvisational techniques and the history of quilts made for family.

CABINET CLASS INSTRUCTORS Steve Long & Chelsea Elcott

Rural Studio champions the ideal of working with your hands and using tools that are essential and low-tech. The Cabinet Class, a new 3rd-year woodworking course, begins to examine what technology is appropriate in both size and scope. The course was a study in smallscale digital prefabrication. Grown out of 20K Ophelia’s Home project, teams with access to small-scale technology, specifically a CNC router, created cabinets for sleeping areas, bathroom, utility room, and kitchen while also exploring different resources (e.g., tools and building materials) and how they influence built work. The class discovered that millwork constructed in-house could be better quality and more affordable than products purchased in stores.

HISTORY & WATERCOLOR CLASS INSTRUCTOR Dick Hudgens

The history and theory seminar takes advantage of our location in Alabama’s Black Belt region. Students embrace the area and study its culture, history, and lifestyles that are distinct from much of the state. Students are exposed to the elegance, sophistication, and simplicity of architecture that has survived the ravages of time. We pose many questions. We ask about the purpose of the building, its materials, its design, its functions, the construction strategies, and their traditions and processes. We explore whether these buildings improved inhabitants’ lives, how they survived, how they’ve adapted to today’s world, and what we can learn from them today. Students are asked to seek the many wise and relevant secrets these buildings hold. AWARDS

Fall 2019: Watercolor Award: Brenton Smith / Sketchbook Award: Hailey Osborne

Spring 2020: Watercolor Award: Daniel Burton / Sketchbook Award: Daniel Burton

THE NEWBERN TIMES, VOL. 9

PROFILES

SPOTLIGHTS JON DAVIES

Senior Vice President at Regions Bank

Jon Davies thinks a lot about rural housing. As a Senior Vice President at Regions Bank (Regions), he is committed to helping residents of the bank’s communities build wealth through home ownership. But, he also understands the many obstacles for potential home owners in rural communities. Smaller homes in less populated markets are less lucrative for builders and mortgage companies, so rural communities’ housing needs are often underserved. Rural residents miss out on this opportunity, creating a cycle of invisibility and low wealth. More than a decade ago, Davies and other members of the Regions team recognized the potential for Rural Studio’s 20K Project to help bridge that gap. He believed that the Studio “provided to [Regions] what we thought was a unique opportunity to be involved in the development of something that could then be scaled or replicated into other southern rural markets.” Regions’ presence reaches many southern persistent poverty counties as well, making them a particularly strong partner with the Studio. As a way to catalyze rural home ownership and as part of their commitment to the Community Reinvestment

Act, Regions was the first organization to fund the 20K Project. They provided financial support and mortgage expertise to help the Studio research and develop well built, efficient, and resilient homes in West Alabama. The initial grant financed the construction of Dave’s Home, and then over the next decade, Regions provided $440,000 in grant funding for several 20K Homes. This early investment allowed students and faculty to design, build, and study homes that afford rural residents wealth, safety, and shelter. Davies also connected Rural Studio and Affordable Housing Resources (AHR), and Regions is now providing AHR with financing to construct four product line homes. The partnership between Regions and the Studio planted seeds like the AHR collaboration that grew into today’s Front Porch Initiative. Davies is enthusiastic about the Initiative’s mission to apply knowledge developed through the Studio’s 20K Homes and expand home ownership throughout the rural South. He is working with the Initiative, exploring ways to leverage the bank’s broad market reach, and continues to plant seeds for rural economic growth and financial equity.

What hasn’t changed is the importance and emphasis on remaining rooted in its community. The architecture might be more rigorous, the classes more structured, and there may be many more rules, but PLACE STILL MATTERS. MELISSA DENNEY

MELISSA DENNEY Director of Development at the Auburn University College of Architecture, Design and Construction

Melissa joined Rural Studio in May 2001, and in the ensuing 19 years, built a host of precious memories and friendships. Her rural upbringing with a “great crew,” trekking 30 miles to Birmingham for entertainment in high school, has shaped her central understanding of place and of why it matters. She has taken on a new, exciting role with CADC. Despite the cancellation of her not-to-be-missed 40th high school reunion (from COVID), she considers herself lucky, doing what she loves.

WHERE ARE YOU FROM? I grew up in Columbiana, AL, a great place to be from. I went K-12 with the same small group of people whom I’m still close to today. At the time, I didn’t grasp the impact of growing up in a rural area: but, I do now. TELL US HOW YOU STARTED WORKING FOR RURAL STUDIO? I interviewed for a part-time communications position at the College of Architecture, Design and Construction (CADC) and didn’t get it! I’d met Sambo Mockbee and loved him and Rural Studio. I even invited him to speak to Campus Club, an Auburn women’s group. D.K. Ruth’s wife, Linda, whom I knew from PTA, was on the college hiring committee. The dean offered the job to someone else but told me of another part-time position at Rural Studio. Elated, I took it immediately. Here’s a little secret… Linda called me the night before and said, “You don’t want that college job: come to work for D.K. and Sambo!” WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST ‘WIN’ FOR RURAL STUDIO? Of the many, one stands out: hosting Cathy Bradley, the executive director of Baseball Tomorrow Fund in New York, on a trip to Greensboro, AL. We had to convince her that BTF needed to give Rural Studio and the Lions Park Committee $100,000 to build new baseball fields. She was concerned about long-term maintenance, and for good reason. When she called in March 2006 to say we GOT the grant, I called Robbie Hoggle and we both cried.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEW POSITION AS DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT? FAVORITE ASPECT OF YOUR NEW ROLE? LEAST FAVORITE? BIGGEST CHALLENGES? In February, I was promoted to Director of Development for CADC, helping people understand its mission and acquiring philanthropic support for the whole college instead of focusing on Rural Studio. COVID hit six weeks into my new job, shifting everything. My favorite aspect is learning more about the other programs in the college and university and meeting their supporters. IF YOU COULD PICK ONE SIGNIFICANT CHANGE TO MAKE IN YOUR NEW ROLE, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Other than helping

someone name the college and two of the schools! I would love to be a catalyst facilitating more philanthropic collaboration across our college’s disciplines. Our awardwinning faculty from programs in all three nationally respected schools could learn much from each other. WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU’RE NOT FUNDRAISING FOR CADC AND RURAL STUDIO? I love the lake, semi-gourmet cooking,

and modern quilt making. I spend time in Jackson’s Gap, AL, at Lake Martin. Beautiful, relaxing. Before COVID, we had massive all-day swimming and dinner parties. I say that I quilt, but actually until I retire, I am just collecting colossal amounts of fun fabric and sewing machines.

HOW HAVE YOU SEEN THE PROGRAM CHANGE OVER THE YEARS?

WHERE ARE YOUR KIDS THESE DAYS? WHAT ARE THEY UP TO?

What hasn’t changed is the importance of and emphasis on remaining rooted in its community. The architecture might be more rigorous, the classes more structured, and there may be many more rules, but PLACE STILL MATTERS. FAVORITE MEMORY OF RURAL STUDIO? That’s like asking me which child is my favorite! Johnny Parker teaching my son Trey to drive. Sitting and having barbeque with William Christenberry in front of the Green Warehouse during the 20th Anniversary Pig Roast is blazed in my heart. Learning to play a comb while watching a Mark Twain impersonator with Kathryn Windham Tucker at the amphitheater. The box of fasteners that my son Foster—6 or 7 then—picked up at the bird tower opening: he was afraid the tower was going to fall down because they left screws out. And sleeping on the couch in Brenda’s office after Pig Roast once because I decided to stay to listen to the band. These don’t even include memories of visiting with Rural Studio supporters: that’s another full article!!

Trey, 27, lives in Denver with his wife, Sara. He is a data scientist and she is a sports hospitality director. They hike and explore the outdoors. Foster, 24, who lives in Atlanta, is an environmental graphic designer for a large architecture firm. His girlfriend is studying architecture at Georgia Tech. They are avid rock climbers, outdoors adventurists, and real-deal gourmet chefs. HOW HAS COVID-19 CHANGED YOUR LIFE, PERSONALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY? We don’t have a clue how it will change the philanthropic landscape. We’ve already had gifts reduced or postponed until the market recovers. Currently (June), we aren’t asking for anything, but making sure donors are well informed about our adjustments and how we are moving forward. Personally, I know two people who died from COVID-19. It is real to me. I wear a mask when I am in public and take it seriously. FAVORITE TOOL? Of course, it has to be, a Corkscrew.

FRONT PORCH INITIATIVE

The Front Porch team visits AHR’s project site in East Nashville. Pictured from left to right: Betsy Garcia and Mackenzie Stagg from Rural Studio, Barbara Latimer of Honeybee Builders, and Dan Eaton of AHR.

FRONT PORCH Over the last three years, the Front Porch Initiative has built relationships with housing provider and advocacy groups, culminating in home construction outside of Rural Studio’s West Alabama service area. As the Initiative’s scope has expanded, so has the team. In addition to Rusty Smith, Natalie Butts-Ball, and Mackenzie Stagg, the team continues to partner with Meghan Walsh, a USDA Rural Development Senior Architect working with us through an Intergovernmental Personnel Act. This summer, intrepid 3rd-year professor Emily McGlohn joined our team to share her on-the-ground experience building variations of the product line homes. And, in March, Betsy Garcia joined as our newest team member. A native Mississippian and Rural Studio alum, Betsy brings expertise from over 11 years of professional practice in Boston. We continue to work with colleagues from both the College of Architecture, Design and Construction (CADC) and College of Liberal Arts (CLA) through support from a 3-year Presidential Award for Interdisciplinary Research (PAIR) grant, under the leadership of Auburn University’s Office of the Vice President for Research & Economic

partnership led to the receipt of an additional Housing Preservation grant aimed at increasing their capacity from providing basic home repairs to additionally offering new home construction. Also located in Tennessee, Eastern Eight Community Development Corporation is using a HUD Community Development Block grant to build a high-performance demonstration home in Johnson City. And, lastly, Affordable Housing Resources is underway on construction of four homes in Nashville – you can read more about that partner and project elsewhere on this page. These partners not only provide invaluable insights into the procurement and implementation of the product line homes, they also are an instrumental link in the feedback loop that informs the ongoing student-led housing affordability research and development work back on the ground in Hale County. As the Front Porch Initiative moves forward, we’ve got some new

“Through this project, Auburn’s Rural Studio and its external partners continue to advance the goals of rural prosperity and home ownership. The team’s transformative research and scholarship are improving quality of life for citizens in rural Alabama while creating processes that can benefit all rural communities.” JAMES WEYHENMEYER, VICE PRESIDENT FOR RESEARCH AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Development. The PAIR team is helping to sharpen Rural Studio’s and ideas up our sleeves. While we maintain our focus on energy efficiency, Front Porch Initiative’s communications. We’d like to tip our hats to CLA we are also pivoting to consider the health impacts of homes on resiteam members Michelle Sidler, Susan Youngblood, and Ed Youngblood dents, builders, and material producers. And we continue to evolve the and CADC team members Margaret Fletcher and Courtney Windham idea of the product line, pairing prototype homes with climate- and for their efforts. client-appropriate building assemblies. To stay up to speed with all of The Front Porch team introduced our collective work in a vari- our goings-on, check out our blog for new updates! ety of venues this year, including the 2019 USGBC Greenbuild and the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) annual AFFORDABLE HOUSING RESOURCES national conferences. We shared our work at the Auburn University The goal of Affordable Housing Resources, Inc. (AHR) in Nashville, TN Faculty Research Symposium in October. We have also presented to is “to create affordable housing and strong neighborhoods” through stakeholders on the policy and implementation sides of single-family financial education, mortgage lending programs, and affordable home housing: USDA Rural Development, the US Department of Energy construction. This mission recognizes the wealth-building potential Building Technologies Office, the Governor’s Tennessee Housing of home ownership as a way to increase economic equality. AHR has Conference, and Fahe and their member organizations. Though the been supporting home ownership in middle Tennessee for 30 years, pandemic hampered our travel, these forums, whether face-to-face concentrating their new home construction in the Nashville area, where or digital, have furthered our research and helped us connect with affordable housing is scarce. housing providers across the Southeast and beyond. Regions Bank, long-time supporters of the 20K Project, connected In research partnership with Fannie Mae, we expanded our techni- Rural Studio and AHR and are now providing AHR with the financing cal assistance to six housing organizations dedicated to increasing the to construct four homes in partnership with Rural Studio. The project, availability of affordable, high-performance homes. Partners include which utilizes three product line prototypes – Dave’s, MacArthur’s, and three Habitat for Humanity (HFH) affiliates: Auburn Opelika HFH Joanne’s houses – is situated on two side-by-side lots in East Nashville. in Opelika, AL; Chipola Area HFH in Marianna, FL; and Darlington AHR is making use of the city’s innovative zoning, which allows for County HFH in Hartsville, SC. The collaboration with Auburn Opelika “detached duplexes,” meaning that two structures, each with a separate HFH has already yielded two high-performance homes, one meeting owner, can be built on the same lot. The homes, which broke ground Passive House (PHIUS) and FORTIFIED Gold standards and the this summer, will be available for purchase to provide workforce housing other built to Zero Energy Ready Homes (ZERH) and FORTIFIED to local residents. The partnership between AHR and the Front Porch Initiative is complementary: AHR is leveraging Rural Studio’s design Gold standards. Using a Rural Community Development grant from USDA, we expertise and technical assistance, while AHR’s expertise in securing are providing enhanced technical assistance and capacity building mortgages for low-to-moderate income homeowners provides valuable support to housing provider Mountain T.O.P. in Coalmont, TN. This financing insight for the Front Porch Initiative team.

THE NEWBERN TIMES, VOL. 9

5TH-YEAR PROJECTS

5TH-YEARS Our 5th-year students worked at a variety of scales this year, designing a new home for our Newbern neighbor, Reggie; researching strategies combining thermal mass and buoyancy ventilation; and re-envisioning the courtyard for the Hale County Hospital.

REGGIE’S HOME LOCATION

Newbern, AL STUDENT TEAM A shley B ucher, Jona t han S chneider, Mar ly n River a, & Z ak C hannell INSTRUCTORS

Xavier Vendrell & Steve Long

Reggie’s Home is the first client home Rural Studio has taken on in a decade. The project began with Reggie’s ambitions to demolish his now uninhabitable childhood home and rebuild a new home himself. Reggie desires a home that is passively heated and cooled with minimal reliance on external utilities. A home where he could spend much of his life outdoors. The team spent this year getting to know Reggie and learning about the site in order to develop a design that would best suit the way Reggie wants to live. The team questioned the impact the intervention of a new home would have on the site as a whole. They began by building Reggie a composting toilet to facilitate a small improvement in his current living conditions and determine if it would be a viable permanent solution. With the postponement of the project, the team produced a book that includes their research and conversations with Reggie, and proposed a conceptual framework in which to continue this project and expedite its timeline.

How can we design a home that integrates the site into the home and is completely passive?

5TH-YEAR PROJECTS

THERMAL MASS & BUOYANCY VENTILATION RESEARCH PROJECT LOCATION

Newbern, AL STUDENT TEAM

Cory Subasic, Jeff Jeong, Livia Barrett, & Rowe Price INSTRUCTORS

Andrew Freear & Steve Long

Can we imagine designing and building singlematerial buildings that become repositories for carbon sequestration? Or an app that helps architects calculate the thermal mass building’s need to balance and sync with their occupancy load and need for natural ventilation? The Optimal Tuning Strategy (OTS) allows designers to use locally sourced building materials—concrete and southern yellow pine—to control temperature and ventilation by providing mathematical scaling rules that properly proportion a space’s internal thermal mass. The Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation Research Project (TMBVRP) team experimented with methods for testing the OTS while exploring possibilities locally for thermally massive public buildings. The team designed and built two scientific apparatuses for testing the OTS and applied this instrumentation to design. They also explored applying schematic design to various Hale County buildings. The TMBVRP team will extend their work in a three-semester Graduate Program, scaling up their experiments while researching how mass timber can be an effective, lowcarbon material for thermally massive buildings in the rural South.

Revisiting thermal mass in the 21st century to create naturally cooled, public spaces in the rural South.

HALE COUNTY HOSPITAL COURTYARD 2 LOCATION

Newbern, AL STUDENT TEAM

Ingrid Stahl, Jake Schirmer, Kyra Stark, & Nicole Brown INSTRUCTORS

Andrew Freear & Steve Long

The Hale County Hospital Courtyard 2 project was a new and challenging experience for Rural Studio: re-designing and rebuilding an existing Rural Studio project. This time the hospital offered up an idea for extending their thriving physical therapy program into the courtyard, a physical therapy program they see as the core of the hospital’s future prosperity. In addressing this program, the project evolved from not only bolstering rural patients’ health but also creating a relaxing space for staff and visitors to take a break, get some fresh air, and go outside. Sadly, the team was unable to build the courtyard, but they cultivated and nurtured a fruitful relationship

with their community partners. They painted a mural for the hospital in downtown Greensboro, designed new wayfinding signage on hospital grounds, and created new internal branding materials (e.g., for letterheads and banners). They finished their time at Rural Studio by creating the book, Reinvigorating Rural Healthcare, detailing the hospital’s resilience and impact in a rapidly changing healthcare world and documenting their own understanding of context, collaboration, and the challenges of being asked to wear the hat of a landscape architect. Rural Studio is committed to completing the project in the near future.

How can a new courtyard enhance a flourishing rural hospital and promote their vision?

THE NEWBERN TIMES, VOL. 9

CLASS & LOCAL PROFILES

CHAIRS & MAIL ON & BEYOND THE CHAIR CLASS INSTRUCTOR

Elena Bar thel

The 5th-year chair drawing course, “On & Beyond the Chair,” with professor Elena Barthel hones students as artisans, demanding work fully executed by hand. Students select a chair to study, then are progressively challenged with projects using various drawing methods. The first project is a set of full-scale plan, section, and elevation drawings focused on the chair’s construction. The second project examines the negative space of a sculpture of multiple chairs. The last project is an imaginative mixed-media drawing probing the student’s personal feelings about the chair. The revised Spring component, because of the remote teaching situation, was inspired by the emotions emerging during students’ last month of work in isolation. Daily, they drew small pieces to begin a collection: 10-minute exercises “taking a line for a walk” around their chairs and rooms. The assignment pushed them to make quick decisions while continuously drawing a line. Time spent by the hand wandering exceeds that by the eye looking, and drawings become more explorative and abstract.

Daily, they drew small pieces to begin a collection: 10-minute exercises “taking a line for a walk” around their chairs and rooms.

GWEN MELTON

Rural Mail Carrier at Newbern Post Office Gwen Melton says the hardest part of her job is when she can’t be at work. How many of us love our jobs that much? Melton has been an employee of the Newbern post office for 17 years, delivering the daily mail to nearly 500 homes in the Newbern area. The route takes her 7–8 hours, and she knows each home and each family well. “The favorite part of my route is conversation with my customers.” With her unique knowledge of the Newbern community, Melton has played a significant role in the history of Rural Studio, too. In addition to delivering its mail, Melton has been a consultant of sorts, informing Rural Studio faculty about nearby residents who are in need of housing support. A native of Newbern, Melton is married with two children, a son, Roger, Jr, who lives in Tuscaloosa, and a daughter, Jessica, who lives in Washington, D.C. When she’s not delivering mail, she enjoys spending quality time with her family, including her grandchildren.

“My favorite place on my route is my high school—just stopping by Sunshine High School—and my favorite view is the Newbern Library. The Newbern Library helps with our community’s children and their education. I would love to show you and take you to all the beautiful homes the students have designed and built.”

ONGOING PROJECT

IN PROGRESS

HORSESHOE FARM HUB COURTYARD LOCATION Greensboro, AL

STUDENT TEAM Caleb R. Munson, Claudia Paz Melendez, & Zack Cundey

INSTRUCTORS Andrew Freear & Steve Long

Project Horseshoe Farm runs an innovative network of support programs for adults and youth at their headquarters located in the newly renovated historic “Old Greensboro Hotel” building. The Horseshoe Courtyard celebrates and engages minimally with the 200-year-old brick building with a series of vegetated screens and strategically positioned trees to create shaded outdoor space For two months last fall the team worked at Jim Turnipseed’s shop in Columbiana, AL, fabricating the double-framed steel screens and walkway structure. The team learned how to construct jigs and to cut, weld, and perforate the material. Eight quarter-inch plates had to be hammer drilled and epoxied to the brick facade before the grate could be craned into place. With help from the entire Studio and a crane, all of the 18-foot-tall screens were erected on-site in two days. Since the Studio transitioned to online learning, the team has focused on finishing the design of the final smaller elements, compiling a book, and preparing construction documents. With the main structure in place, the team looks forward to launching the next phase of construction. Trees will be added first, then the shorter screens, to close off the north end of the courtyard from the public alley. Finally, ground surfaces will be spread throughout the courtyard. These will be composed of reclaimed bricks, concrete, and slate gravel. With help from fellow students and staff, the team’s days will be fun-filled, as they work toward completion this fall!

AWARDS FREEAR RECEIVES 2020 PRESIDENT’S MEDAL FROM ARCHITECTURAL LEAGUE OF NY The President’s Medal is The Architectural League’s highest honor and is bestowed, at the discretion of the League’s President and Board of Directors, to recognize extraordinary achievements in architecture, urbanism, art, design, and the environment.” – The Architectural League of New York This summer, Rural Studio Director Andrew Freear was awarded the 2020 President’s Medal from The Architectural League of New York. Traditionally, the award is bestowed during a special black-tie gala at The Metropolitan Club in New York City. Due to COVID-19, the event was held online and included remarks by Marlon Blackwell, Rosalie Genevro, Paul Lewis, and Billie Tsien, as well as tributes by many friends of Rural Studio. Paul Lewis, President of the Architectural League of New York, praised Freear’s work: “Andrew Freear challenges students to contribute to a better society, by creating truly exceptional buildings and places in deep collaboration with the diverse local community. Through its civic projects, new approaches to housing,

restorative food systems, and materials research, Rural Studio has become an exemplary model of architectural education. It defines through its work what every architect, and every citizen, must embrace: the ethical responsibility for the social, political, and environmental consequences of their actions in the world.” – Paul Lewis, President of The Architectural League of New York Recent recipients of the President’s Medal include: Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation; Christiana Figueres, Global climate change leader, 20102016 Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; His Highness the Aga Khan, the 49th hereditary Imam (Spiritual Leader) of the Shia Ismaili Muslims; Michael R. Bloomberg, 2002-2013 mayor of New York City; Richard Serra, Artist; Renzo Piano, Architect and founder of Renzo Piano Building Workshop. You can see the full online ceremony on our blog: www.ruralstudio.org/ freear-presidents-medal.

AUBURN UNIVERSITY HONORS RUSTY SMITH In fall 2019, Rusty Smith became one of two recipients of Auburn University’s Faculty Award for Creative Research and Scholarship at the faculty awards ceremony. The university’s annual faculty awards ceremony was held on November 5, 2019 at the Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center. This honor, a premier award from the university, acknowledges research achievements and contributions of faculty who have distinguished themselves through

research, scholarly works, and creative contributions to their fields. In particular, the award recognizes faculty “who have distinguished themselves both within and outside the university.” Rusty’s work guiding Auburn architecture students, his role as Rural Studio’s Associate Director, as well as his leadership in the Front Porch Initiative, promoting home ownership throughout the South, reflect the best of this award.

THE NEWBERN TIMES, VOL. 9

CONSULTANT PROFILE

MIKE & KATRINA

Mike Newman & Katrina Van Valkenburgh have been visiting Hale County since 2002. They bring expertise and passion for solving issues of homelessness and home affordability, as well as environmentalism, and with each visit, they bring several trays of the most delicious chocolate brownies you’ve ever tasted. Katrina was born in Iowa, and split her time between the East Coast and the Midwest, spending every summer on her family’s farm in Indiana. Mike was born in the Bay Area of California, then moved all the way across the country to Rhode Island when he was 11. WHERE ARE Y’ALL FROM?

WHERE DID E AC H OF YOU GE T YOUR EDUCATIONS?

Katrina: Kalamazoo College and the Urban Developers Program at the University of Illinois Chicago. Mike: University of Pennsylvania (with a stint at the University of Edinburgh) and the MArch at the University of Illinois at Chicago. HOW DID Y’ALL MEET? Mike moved into my shared house in Boston when he was 22. We were friends for several years, dating other people, and eventually became a couple before moving to Chicago. WHAT DO YOU BOTH DO PROFESSIONALLY? HOW DID YOU BOTH FIND YOUR CAREERS? Katrina:

I work for the Corporation for Supportive Housing. We’re a national nonprofit and CDFI (community development financial institution) that uses housing as a platform for services to improve the lives of the most vulnerable people, maximize public resources, and build healthy communities. We help government create funding programs, developers create new units, and tenants use their voice to advocate for policy. I oversee our five offices in the Midwest and have a team of 22 talented staff who do things as varied as helping create housing to prevent families from losing their children to the child welfare system, to helping people move out of prison and into housing that keeps them from returning to the justice system, to ensuring that there is a process for prioritizing who gets housed based on need in communities across the country. I love my work. It is a daily opportunity to try to make the world a better place. You can’t ask for more than that in a career. Mike: After three years of working for a high-end design firm doing multi-million-dollar houses, I knew for sure that it was not the sort of work I wanted to do. I went to a very different school, in a very different city, hoping to have a very different life. While at UIC, I found my way to various organizations that worked on issues of homelessness, affordability, and environmentalism. This eventually led me to a crazy little firm called CAPA where I was able to work on a truly wide array of social justice oriented projects. Along the way, Stanley Tigerman from UIC called to ask if I would help out with a new design school he and Eva Maddox had started called Archeworks which would focus on social justice design issues in a collaborative team process. Once again, I realized my career course was off kilter, and I started teaching at Archeworks on and off for 20 years. That teaching led to a rousing period teaching at UIC (where I met a certain nutty Englishman). Eventually it just seemed to make sense to have more control over the work type and flow, and I left CAPA to start a small design firm with Rashmi Ramaswamy (SHED Studio) that focuses on similar social justice and mission-driven concerns. After a shake-up and change in direction at UIC, I made the leap to teaching at the School of the Art Institute where I have been now for 12 years. When I left UIC, the ARE courses I had developed there came with me, and we performed them with the AIA Chicago office, where I met Marc Teer who had recently started a learning website for architects called Black Spectacles, and Marc and I conspired to put the entire course online. Somewhere mixed into all that, I started a small nonprofit with Rashmi and another friend called Territory, which started as a fairly traditional student design-build course for Chicago teens, but has since morphed over the years into a truly fascinating series of teen-led planning and design workshops. So, I am currently a small business owner with SHED Studio, a main contributor to Black Spectacles, a Senior Lecturer at SAIC, and the Board Chair at Territory. WHY DO YOU LOVE CHICAGO? Katrina: Chicago has always represented to me the best and worst of the United States. Amazing architecture, great theater, and cool spots like the Hideout while also deeply segregated with a devastating violence and gun problem. There is so much that is wonderful and so much that needs to be fixed. To me it is the most American of the large cities. Chicago is the City of Big Shoulders. It values hard work and sacrifice and welcomes you in with wide arms, but it also continually reminds you that there is more you need to

do to make it better. Mike: What she said. HOW DID YOU DISCOVER RURAL STUDIO? WHEN DID YOU FIRST

Mike knew Andrew from UIC and was deeply influenced by his and Tom Forman’s studio classes that took an unusual look at the relationship between the student, the site, and the details—it was a very memorable time. Later, Andrew came a-calling to Auburn and he dragged us down there. We came for the first time in the winter of 2002. It was right after Samuel Mockbee died. Our first visit included attending his memorial in Auburn. We have been coming down ever since. VISIT US IN HALE COUNTY?

AT LEAST ONCE PER YEAR, YOU BOTH TRAVEL TO WORK WITH AND TEACH OUR STUDENTS. WHAT DO YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT VISITING

We love Rural Studio. The crazy optimism that the students bring to their projects. The amazing determination to see them through to the end. The wholehearted belief in the value of architecture, from the collaborative process, the deep inclusion of the stakeholders, the telling detail, and the crazy attention to financial opportunities. We love Alabama and try to travel to other spots when we can. It has opened up our eyes and our hearts to the South. In some ways Alabama is like Chicago, it is both the best and the worst that we have in this country. Rural Studio is like a utopian ideal of an architecture program. WEST ALABAMA EACH YEAR?

HOW HAS COVID-19 IMPACTED YOUR LIVES, BOTH PERSONALLY

We’re both working from home. Katrina’s work has continued with the same sense of urgency, but now all remotely focused. If any one positive has come out of this, it is that the inequality of housing, station, and income, has become clear to all and therefore a part of the national discussion. Whether this will lead to meaningful changes in policies and the funding of more equitable communities remains to be seen, but there is a lot of work to do. Hopefully the country does not fall apart first. And hopefully we do not fall apart first. So far, it is a lot of together time (thankfully we have two floors, so Mike works downstairs and Katrina works upstairs, yet her cackling while on conference calls can still be heard on all of Mike’s recent video lectures). A crisis like this can create new opportunities, but it is darn hard to know how all the chips will fall. AND PROFESSIONALLY?

need to re-imagine housing that allows us to feel linked together, while creating distance and safety. We will have to completely reconsider how work and offices provide flexibility without losing efficiency. Think of even one change—operable windows—and what a difference that would make in the look, efficiency, and feel of being in a (semi) crowded office. Some of the hardest questions will be issues of transit (after years of increasing acceptance of public transportation and weaning folks off of the individual car, have we lost all that we had gained in just these past months?). How do we revel in the advantages of density while not falling into the traps of claustrophobia? It would be quite sad if the end result of all the architects’ hard work following the pandemic was just to increase suburban sprawl and the driving of cars. MIKE TELL US ABOUT BLACK SPECTACLES AND HOW YOU BECAME

I am indeed an online “celebrity” fish in the tiniest of ponds. As I mentioned, I had started teaching review classes for recent grads to get ready to take the ARE back in 2004, and over the years they became more and more well known. Eventually Black Spectacles approached me to put the whole thing online. As an experiment, we did a test run where I looked and talked straight into the camera. Every person we showed it to liked the serious, intimate directness of the solo videos. This has created a fascinating experience where recent test takers often feel intimately connected to me during a period of prolonged difficulty in their life (taking the tests is a serious endeavor), but of course I have never met them. This has led to many interesting encounters of surprise hugs and selfies, and more than a few angry “if I have to hear that voice again . . . ” diatribes. AN ONLINE CELEBRITY!

IN YOUR OWN WORK, WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD TO DO OR

YOU BOTH LOVE TO TRAVEL AND HAVE BEEN ALL OVER THE

Mike: Providing learning experiences that were unexpectedly intriguing and entertaining, and providing on-ramps for a wide variety of folks to consider themselves designers so they feel like they can impact their world . . . that is where my heart is. Katrina: I love that my work creates homes for people. At its heart, whether it’s through policy or technical assistance or by changing how a system operates, having a home is the foundation on which people can transform their lives. I’m most proud that my work has helped people who were homeless move into housing.

WORLD. WHERE DO YOU SECRETLY WANT TO PACK UP AND

KATRINA, TELL US ABOUT YOUR FAVORITE NIMBY (NOT IN MY BACK-

Why, Andrew and Elena’s house in Florence of course. We could very comfortably live in the tree-house should it become available . . . Recent trips to Cambodia, Vietnam, and Berlin have renewed our wanderlust, but it looks like we will be on travel lockdown for a bit, so, sadly, the tree-house will just have to wait for us.

YARD) STORY. The

MOVE?

THIS YEAR HAS BEEN CHALLENGING, BUT WE ARE HOPEFUL. IN YOUR OPINION, HOW CAN ARCHITECTS MAKE POSITIVE CHANGES IN THEIR COMMUNITIES TO BETTER SUPPORT BLACK COMMUNITIES?

Rural Studio has always had a deep belief in understanding who you are building for and what feels like home to them. It has always been about having an authentic relationship based on time spent together to build trust and to work on building what someone wants (rather than assuming what they want). This Rural Studio training of engaging in a true relationship is one of the essential ways to support Black communities. Beyond Rural Studio, architects need to keep finding ways to support diversity by exposing high school students to the field, creating internships, and hiring BIPOC architects. Even simple mentorship programs can have profound impacts on all involved. There are so many ways to support Black communities, on both the personal and the professional level. Participating in Black Lives Matter’s marches, choosing not to participate in the architecture of correctional systems, and questioning what your work is doing to create a better world. Often the best thing to do is to suggest NOT to build something. Architects must see the wider array of issues, beyond just the next client, and attempt to be a positive influence on the national discussions. HOW DO YOU THINK COVID-19 WILL CHANGE THE ARCHITECTURE

How we teach remotely, how we work together remotely, how we strengthen our communities through design are all up for grabs. We are in for a complete re-thinking of the public sphere and, just as important, the semi-public arena—those spaces in between. Who would have thought that balconies and sidewalks would be the saviors of the pandemic? We PROFESSION AND EDUCATION?

BE PART OF?

type of housing I work on, Supportive Housing, relies on government funding and therefore is required to have public meetings for input every time you try to site a project. It is continually surprising and heartbreaking to me how much people don’t want to live next to people who aren’t like them. My favorite NIMBY story would be that people choose to live in diverse communities that include people of different races, ethnicities, and economic levels. For a brief shining moment, we lived in a neighborhood like this in Chicago when the neighbor next door was renting a house for $450 and the house across the street sold for $1 million. Over the last 15 years our neighborhood has gentrified and everyone around us has become more like each other, and that is a huge loss. WHAT INSPIRES YOU? Katrina: I’m inspired by people who face failure and find a way to keep going, who motivate others to do the right thing when it isn’t always the easiest path, and who feel that helping others is how they help themselves. Mike: I love being surprised by people. Sometimes, there is a moment where a jaded, long-time designer like me realizes that that high school kid just said something amazing, and those moments are amazing. ANY ADVICE FOR STUDENTS? Katrina: Worry less about the future and take the leap into work you love. Mike: Take the time to make a careful and considered plan for your career and write it down in list form in discreet, simple steps; this will allow you to start right away on fulfilling your goals. Then, once you are in motion, you may realize that wasn’t the right plan at all, and your life/career plan is completely upended. And it’s great! But you need to start with an idea first to get you in motion, just be open to the surprises along the way. FAVORITE TOOL? Katrina: KitchenAid Mixer and a small Rabbit reusable cork that expands to seal the bottle to keep my sparkling rosé bubbly. Mike: Damn, too many to mention, but . . . chop saw (I love the simplicity and power . . . and danger).

MASTER’S PROGRAM

2020 20K HOME LOCATION

Newbern, AL STUDENT TEAM

Charlie Firestone & Devin Denman INSTRUCTORS

Xavier Vendrell & Steve Long The 2020 20K team built upon the Studio’s long-running research of the 20K Project to develop rural affordable housing models. They studied previous 20K homes, observing the needs to add space and customizability while managing rising costs. Accordingly, they developed a small one-bedroom starter home with a big floor slab and big roof that allows for inexpensive and less complicated expansion. The project investigates using a pole barn construction method rather than traditional stick-framed construction: erecting the roof first (supported by poles), thus eliminating the need for an extensive foundation, and providing cover from the elements during construction. Pole barns can be faster and less expensive to build than conventional stick frames and provide flexibility beneath the roof for future additions and alterations without compromising the building’s water protection or structural integrity. These inherent properties make future expansion more cost effective and accessible. In lieu of building, the team produced detailed construction documents and instructions for future execution of the design.

BREATHING WALL MASS TIMBER RESEARCH PROJECT LOCATION

Newbern, AL STUDENT TEAM

Anna Halepaska, Fergie Ferguson, Jake Elbrecht, & Preston Rains INSTRUCTORS

Andrew Freear & Steve Long

Breathing Wall Mass Timber Research Project, in partnership with McGill University, investigates designing the building envelope as a heat exchanger in mass timber construction. The Breathing Wall maximizes the thermal, structural, and ecological properties of wood to design an envelope as a heat exchanger so that incoming fresh air can be tempered with low-grade heat while conduction losses, energy expenditures, and ecologically damaging materials are kept to a minimum. This past year the team conducted a rigorous series of small-scale experiments and submitted their findings in a research paper to the journal, Building and Environment, for peer review. At the end of September, the team completed construction of two full-scale mass timber test buildings on the Morrisette campus.

The Breathing Wall maximizes the thermal, structural, and ecological properties of wood to design an envelope as a heat exchanger.

THE NEWBERN TIMES, VOL. 9

RURAL STUDIO FARM

FARM UPDATE In January of this last academic year, Rural Studio Farm finished its first full year of reinvigorated row cropping vegetable production, exceeding expectations at nearly 5,300 pounds of fresh organic produce grown intensively in under one-third of an acre. Rural Studio Farm grows about 30 main crops—such as okra, watermelon, kale, blackberries, and tomatoes—as sustainably as possible in a completely no-till system. From planting the seeds to harvest, all of that food was grown with the aid of Rural Studio students, all of whom work 10–15 hours per semester on the farm. As such, the Farm has quickly become an integrated part of the culture here at Rural Studio, enhancing students’ experience and education. This academic year we continued to improve the solar greenhouse’s winter efficiency. The greenhouse, a 100-foot structure central to our farm, uses passive architectural elements, including a thermal mass wall built with waterfilled metal drums, a glass roof working as a large-scale solar collector, a gravity-fed irrigation system with underground tanks, and a 12-foot-tall water tower. An extension of the greenhouse also acts as a seed house where most all the crops begin. This year, Visiting Professor Elena Barthel led a mixed group of graduate and 5th-year students in constructing missing greenhouse elements and optimizing performance. In the greenhouse, they tightened the envelope, completed the external stairs, and installed insulation in the thermal mass wall. Next spring, the Studio will build metal tables as well as construct an herb garden using reclaimed cow troughs. Catherine, the Studio’s cook, is vital to realizing our food model within the context of our food desert. Along with preparing daily fresh meals using the food grown on the Farm, Catherine also works during the summer months—when students are largely absent— to can, freeze, and otherwise preserve the food crops for the upcoming academic year. To enhance the food culture during the spring, Elena also hosted special weekly lunches with 5th-years and graduate students to highlight the quality farm-fresh produce, which they had a hand in growing, as well as other locally sourced ingredients, like organic meat from nearby BDA Farm in Uniontown, AL. Our cooking and eating model minimizes waste and challenges students to consider how we relate to our surroundings via food choices.

As the Farm moves into its second year of production, Farm manager Eric Ball had to say goodbye to his main support team: two student workers, Caleb Munson and Lauren Barnes, who worked closely with him to maintain and build the Farm and to manage other students. Their help made the new Farm rollout possible. Though we are all sad to see them depart, 5th-years Ingrid Stahl and Cory Subasic joined the team. Moving forward, we want to keep production levels high and continue to promote a healthy soil ecosystem. One of the primary goals for the second year was to add 33% more growing area, which was reflective of the original Farm design. In addition to expanding growing space, we have also begun to diversify crop production away from just the core triedand-true crops, which will help keep the Farm more sustainable and resilient, as well as add a little something extra to Studio meals. Some new crops being grown in the second year are hakurei (salad) turnips, salsify (a root vegetable), leeks, parsnips, potatoes, and artichokes. We are ever forward looking. Another of the Farm goals is to improve pockets of the campus grounds that are adjacent to growing area. These areas are often difficult to manage, as well as being insect habitats and vectors for weed seeds; but, once replanted, they can augment the Farm in various ways, such as providing landscaping that attracts pollinators and beneficial insects and makes the campus more beautiful and more like a thriving ecosystem. Finally, we continue to invest in future production by expanding perennial crops, like asparagus, and by planting more fruit trees and berry bushes.

RS FARM PRODUCE

Auburn University Rural Studio PO Box 278 Newbern, AL 36765