(2009-07-28) Rural Studio20k House

Andrew Freear, running Rural Studio after Samuel Mockbee's death, has students aiming for houses that can be built for $20k in labor and materials (Real Estate). Each class has constructed at least one $20,000 home, but none have been ripe for cloning until this year. Drawing on lessons learned from their forebears--big porches, yes; tin siding, which for residents conjures farm buildings and poverty, no--Charity Bulgrien, Ian Cook, and Obinna Elechi have alighted on the consummate $20,000 home. It's modest--not much more than a box, with a generous front porch and a steep, sloping roof. From the road, it'd barely rate a second take. And yet it's the Rural Studio at its most ambitious. Freear expects the 20K project to result in three or four homes that can be reproduced anywhere Section 502 Direct Loans are available... "You know," he says, "I hate it when people say the work's more Professional in the Rural Studio. God. The last thing I want to be is professional. I hope it's more rigorous and built to last, I hope people feel more comfortable in it, but don't tell me it's professional. Fuckin' 'ell." Perhaps sensible is a better word.

May'2014: They're still doing it. There's a book coming out, with an excerpt.