Congratulations to our eight 5th-year students on their graduation from @auburnu@au_cadc@au_apla this month! We’re so proud of y’all! #WarEagle
👏👏👏 Lawson Faulk, McAllister Tucker, Tanner Wallace, Emma Johnson, Mac Harlow, Julia Van Pelt, Kati Warner, Caitlin Ranheim (not pictured)
#2026PigRoast Day 2. We had all the usual suspects: Parents, honorees, clients, visitors, faculty, chefs, musicians, you name it. But the show stealers? The students, by far. (Well, maybe tied with Mark of Mark’s Home. Really!) They explained a semester or a year+ of complex design, research and testing, decision making. We’re very proud! More sharing of Pig Roast moments to come.
Pig Roast weekend is here! About last night…we only now have a breather to share. Loretta, her family, and the team cut the yellow ribbon and let us tour her beautiful CLT Core space. Dinner at Horseshoe Courtyard was capped by the tarts, cakes, and brownies that put big cities to shame. The PechaKucha-style Alumni Lectures knocked our socks off, even though we quickly changed venues to indoors, avoiding the downpour. Day 2 just kicked off. Stay tuned!
#2026PigRoast
The Dining House team has been multi-tasking like pros. They’ve been designing and working on the mock-up, but they’ve also been busy with on-site construction and working with contractors to mitigate drainage issues. Impressively, they milled 4” x 6” pine timbers from trees that stood on site. They’ve now taken care of the underground work (utilities), have completed the first pour, and developed a lighting scheme. They have many details to share; visit the Dining House blog to read and to see pictures.
>>ruralstudio.org/lesson-on-multitasking
Link in bio and highlights too!
The Deborah’s Home project is progressing nicely. The 5th-year team worked with feedback from a whole series of consultants, a process that, deceptively, sounds easy. It isn’t. Each expert brings an invaluable perspective and raises new questions, factors to consider, or ways of addressing a given challenge. And sometimes solutions lead to fresh challenges. One vital lesson: architecture is not about finding a one “right” solution because there is no single correct answer. After analysis and more feedback, the team received approval to build. Learn more about the process and their work on the pod on the Deborah’s Home blog.
>>ruralstudio.org/four-peas-in-a-pod
Link in bio and highlights too!
Our 3rd-year students have made excellent progress on Mark’s Home, all while learning to use tools in the Woodshop, learning from visits to regional historical homes and other structures, and making pigments for the History class. They completed the detail-oriented work to ensure that the trusses fit properly, positioned the first one manually, and tapped “Crane Shane” from Stillwater Machine to help install the others. Check out their blog for not only these details but also a peek into their “Pod Dinner” Mondays and the team members’ favorite songs for on-site work. Play list, anyone?
>>>ruralstudio.org/moving-on-up-2
New blog post alert from the First Congregational Church Hall 5th-year team: Emma, Lawson, McAllister, and Tanner!
>>ruralstudio.org/getting-into-the-weeds
Meet Tricia Smith, a 5th-year “leftover” on the Dining House team!
How would you describe yourself in three words? Crafty, creative, and friendly
Tell us about your project, your role! I am one of four working on a new Dining House for the 3rd-year students on Morrisette Campus. The project is centered on using reused, reimagined, and raw materials, so we do a lot of milling our own lumber and scrounging! My role? Quiet leader and organizer, keeping the team on track and making sure everyone’s designs are seen! I also am also the designated comic drawer—I love illustrating people!
Why did you decide to come to Rural Studio? In my experience as a 3rd-year, I learned how meaningful, rewarding design-build was. I knew that 5th year would be an even richer experience, with following a project from start to finish and working even closer with a team and client.
Something surprising or big that you’ve learned here? How to work with multiple voices. Realizing what makes each person different, learning to listen to each other, being open to others’ different ideas.
Your favorite thing about living in a rural place? Feeling more connected to the seasons. The landscape around us seems to change daily. Noticing when things are blooming and transitioning—beautiful!
What’s your favorite past RS project? The Newbern Firehouse
What do you do for fun locally? I love morning runs around Greensboro and playing Frisbee with Horseshoe Farm Fellows.
What’s one thing you’ll miss about Rural Studio? Definitely the friends and community here in Greensboro.
Your favorite experience as a 3rd-year student? Living in the cardboard Pod with two classmates, Ellis and Amanda. One night we made a makeshift projector and had a movie night in the Pod. I now have two lifelong run-buddies and friends!
What’s next? Maybe a road trip out West with car camping. I’d stop in as many places as possible, finding as many knit shops and bakeries as I can along the way!
Favorite Tool? Table saw
It’s mock-up madness for the Dining House team. The first step in creating the “greatest mock-up” was testing the design and construction of the piers for the new Dining House. Next came the elevated slab, flashing, and framing. The final round of testing focused on the oak cladding salvaged from a past project. The team is moving right along, Onwards and Upwards. Read all about it on their blog!
>>>ruralstudio.org/onwards-and-upwards
This Monday!
March 30th, 530pm-630pm
Nave Presentation Space
Please join us for the Spring 2026 Sandra Vivanco Memorial Lecture with Andrew Freear
In this lecture, Andrew Freear will present the work of Auburn University’s Rural Studio, a long-standing design-build program rooted in Hale County that combines architectural education with hands-on community building. Drawing on decades of work in rural Alabama’s Black Belt, the talk will explore how design-build practice can serve as both a mode of architectural education and a tool for advancing sustainable, equitable living and civic engagement in under-resourced communities.
#studiolife #Architecture #Oakland #InteriorDesign #publicarchitecture
Newcomer alert! Cait McCarthy and Jordan Young visited Newbern just before Spring Break, their first time joining Rural Studio Lectures & Workshop series. Cait and Jordan are assistant professors of architecture at Auburn and co-founders of office office in Auburn, AL. We loved having them here and look forward to having them back again soon!
@officeoffice_
Rural Studio’s Front Porch Initiative is currently collaborating with 19 housing partners throughout the South, building beautiful, resilient, and efficient homes in urban, suburban, and rural communities. The team’s latest blog post highlights their work with two of those partners, both of whom have featured the Sylvia’s House product line home.
HomeSource East Tennessee (HSET) is located in Knoxville, TN and is part of the NeighborWorks America, a federally chartered network of housing development organizations. East St. Tammany Habitat for Humanity (ESTHFH), in Slidell, LA, is a Habitat for Humanity affiliate working to rebuild in Slidell were neighborhoods were affected by during Hurricanes Katrina, Isaac, and Ida. Check it out! ->>ruralstudio.org/helping-housing-partners
@fordphotographs@homesourceet@esthfh
