Proceed and Be Bold:
Rural Studio After Samuel Mockbee
Andrea Oppenheimer Dean , Timothy Hursley

"Everyone, rich or poor, deserves a shelter for the soul." —Samuel Mockbee

Based on this simple premise, in 1992 Samuel Mockbee launched the Rural Studio to create homes and community buildings for the poor while offering hands-on architecture training for coming generations. Choosing impoverished Hale County, Alabama, for his bold experiment, Mockbee and his Auburn University students peppered this left-behind corner of the rural South with striking buildings of exceptional design. Most use recycled and curious materials: hay bales, surplus tires, leftover carpet tiles, even discarded 1980 Chevy Caprice windshields. The publication of Rural Studio brought this innovative work to the public, and—five printings later—continues to affect the way people view architecture.

Since Mockbee's death in 2001, the Rural Studio has continued to thrive, a tribute to its founder's vision. In 2004, the American Institute of Architects posthumously awarded Mockbee its highest honor, the Gold Medal for Architecture. Under Mockbee's successor, Andrew Freear, the studio has seeded southwest Alabama with an additional seventeen architectural landmarks, and all are shown here. With thoughtful text from Andrea Oppenheimer Dean and stunning photographs by Timothy Hursley, this new book explains the changes the studio has undergone during the last four years and its continuing ability to "proceed and be bold," as Mockbee counseled.


Andrea Oppenheimer Dean is author of several books on architecture including Rural Studio and editor for journals including Architecture, Architectural Record, Preservation, and Landscape. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Timothy Hursley is an award-winning photographer who established his own office in 1982. His books include Rural Studio and Brothels of Nevada. Hursley lives in Little Rock, Arkansas.
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Editorial Reviews

LA Architect:
"There's more to lift the heart of an architect in this backwater than in all the affluent suburbs of American cities. " (July/August 2005)

Architectural Record:
"Rural Studio was never about carrying out one person's designs, just his ideas. And his greatest idea-that architecture students could learn while creating shelters for some of America's poorest citizens-has taken root, as documented in this thorough and thoughtful volume." (September 2005)

ID International Design Magazine:
"This is the second time the author and photographer have partnered on a book about Samuel Mockbee's community-works architecture studio at Auburn University. Yet much has changed since their first collaboration-namely the founder's death from leukemia, in December 2001. Oppenheimer Dean examines how Rural Studio has dealt with the loss of its inimitable leader. . . . Hursley's photographs, shot in a visually arresting documentary style, emphasize the studio's good works no matter who's at the helm." (June 2005)

Publishers Weekly:
"This book documents the studio's work under Andrew Freear in the years since Mockbee's death, including the gorgeously simple Antioch Baptist Church in Perry Co., Ala., which rose like a phoenix from within its century-old predecessor, and a totally heterodox, perfectly calibrated house for a man called Music Man." (2/28/05)

CHOICE:
"Between 1992 and his untimely death in 2001, Samuel Mockbee achieved legendary status for his Rural Studio . . . Proceed and Be Bold handsomely documents how that program has persevered over the past several years.Summing Up: Essential" (September 2005)

San Francisco Chronicle:
"In an age when "important" architecture means big-budget projects by celebrity designers, the saga of Rural Studio is a joy...This elegantly written and vividly photographed book looks at 17 recent projects (that show) how ingenuity can overcome scarce resources--and make peoples' lives better as a result." (Nov 20, 2005)

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