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Just build it! The Buildings of the Rural Studio Press Conference: Wednesday, 05 March 2003, 11am Opening: Wednesday, 05 March 2003, 7pm Exhibition: March 06 - June 02, 2003 Press Release Hale County, Alabama – a region in the United States where the poverty rate is almost 40%, a place that has been forgotten: the early settler"s developments lie cheek by jowl with the banal and more recent. Shanty towns lie alongside the vast pools of the industrial catfish producers, random arrangements of mobile homes surrounded by rusty cars and semi-derelict cabins represent the last traces of what was formerly a flourishing agricultural region. Hale County is the district that was selected by Samuel Mockbee (1944-2001) together with Dennis K. Ruth for the founding of the Rural Studio at the beginning of the 1990s. Since then students of Auburn University have been planning and building simple but inventive single-family houses, community centres, churches and sports facilities for underprivileged residents of Hale County. In the meantime around twenty buildings and several conversions have been completed using donated and recycled materials such as railway sleepers, old bricks, used timber, car tyres and number plates, balls of hay and cardboard or colourful bottles. Imaginative architecture showing sustainable social and ecological commitment has been realised in the no-mans-land of Alabama beyond the "gems" of international star architecture focused on by the media. The Rural Studio offers a programme for architecture students that draws them away from the abstract academic curriculum, educating them to deal with the problems of real life. As a project the Rural Studio combines useful work for the community with a redesigned architecture course on real architectural practice. "This is still a curriculum-based, education-based programme," Mockbee emphasises. "We"re not contractors, we"re not architects or philanthropic do-gooders. This is about teaching students the practice and art of architecture". According to Mockbee, the Rural Studio takes education out of the realm of theory, making it real and demonstrating the life-changing power of architecture to students: "Through their own efforts and imagination" Mockbee said, "students create something wonderful – architecturally, socially, politically, environmentally, aesthetically. That"s the mission of the Rural Studio." The Exhibition The exhibition provides an insight into the self-sufficient world of the Rural Studio, cut-off from civilisation, where a new generation is being educated to become dedicated architects with an awareness of their social responsibility. Extensive background information explains the basic situation in Alabama, its history and present, the social conflicts inherent there and the inequalities. The Rural Studio phenomenon is presented in the form of a large collage of photographs, sketches and plans, models, student videos and interviews showing the full scope of their work, and the interaction between the innovative use of found or recycled materials, social commitment and architectural practice. Viennese architecture faculties The architecture faculties in Vienna have accepted the Architekturzentrum Wien"s invitation to allow themselves be inspired by the Rural Studio"s vision, and to examine the current range of courses for possibilities to integrate this vision more strongly in the architecture curriculum here. Seminars are already being offered for the summer semester 2003 on a diversity of themes that are then to be pursued in more depth and include practical experience with a social orientation. A presentation of the proposals and concrete projects themselves is in planning, to be held at the Architekturzentrum Wien both during the run of the exhibition and afterwards. Lectures Monday, 10 March 2003, 7pm Andrew Freear, co-director of the Rural Studio "Let"s talk dirty - the legacy of Samuel Mockbee" Wednesday, 19 March 2003, 7pm Wednesdays 39: Just build it in Wien? A presentation and discussion of the current situation and prospective possibilities for developing architecture education in Vienna in the light of the Rural Studio"s work. Special issue of "hintergrund" A special issue of the journal "hintergrund" is being published to accompany the exhibition, including presentations of the projects and supplementary texts. Approx. 80 pages with numerous b/w illustrations. Published by the Architekturzentrum Wien. In German only, 4.40 Euro. Concept: Johannes Porsch, Katharina Ritter Exhibition design: Paul Petritsch, Nicole Six and Annja Krautgasser (Graphic design) Sponsors: Geschäftsgruppe Stadtentwicklung und Verkehr; Bundeskanzleramt Sektion Kunst; Wien Kultur; Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur; UNIQA Versicherungen AG, Zumtobel Staff Österreich Vertriebs-GmbH |
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© Timothy Hursley |
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Press page Current events Past events Gallery: Press images Just build it! Dates: Just build it! Information: Ines Purtauf Tel.: +43 (1) 522 31 15 - 25 Fax: +43 (1) 522 31 17 Email: purtauf@azw.at |
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