Andrew Freear discusses the Rural Studio, an off-campus design-build program of Auburn University’s architecture program. Freear explains how students get a hands-on educational experience through immersive team projects that are intricately linked to an under-served rural population in West Alabama. The program gives students the skills to negotiate projects outside of architectural academia, including with subcontractors and the local community. Freear describes how this type of education and experience gives architecture students a chance to develop imagination around rural design as well as empowers them to be agents of change and solution-makers with the ability to impact society for the better. 

Learning objectives: 

1. Explain how the Rural Studio design-build program works. 
2. Discuss how students at the Rural Studio engage with the local residents and contractors. 
3. List some reasons Freear thinks architects can benefit from working in rural communities. 
4. Describe what Freear means when he says “architecture is a political act.” 

Credits: 0.5 AIA LU/HSW  

Speaker: Aaron Prinz