Built To Last

A world-renowned student architecture program celebrates more than 30 years of community work in the heart of Alabama's Black Belt

- TARA MASSOULEH MCCAY

IF YOU DRIVE south down State 69 from Tuscaloosa and look out your window, you won't see much. The University of Alabama's grand campus of stately brick buildings and megamansion sorority houses fades to farmland. Cemeteries, a sprinkling of churches, and little else blur by until you finally reach Greensboro, Alabama's lively but diminutive main street.

From there, turn onto State 61, and traverse another 10 miles of countryside to Newbern (with a population of about 130), where Auburn University's Rural Studio springs up like a dandelion in a clover field.

From this 5-acre plot deep in Alabama's Black Belt, more than 1,250 undergraduate architecture students have dreamed up the plans for 220 homes and public buildings that, over the past three decades, have become part of the fabric of Hale County.

Rural Studio is a proven experiment in symbiotic cohabitation. Students in their third and fifth years of Auburn's architecture program receive an invaluable education with hands-on work and civic engagement, while locals benefit from a welcome influx of affordable housing and imaginative community spaces.

Rural Studio's campus is dominated by an 1890s farmhouse that's supplemented by modern additions (like a gabled dogtrot and commercial kitchen), a futuristic glass greenhouse, and a garden. Students live, work, play, and grow during their time here.

Under a grand pavilion, dubbed the Great Hall, they gather for family-style meals at an extra-long table crowded with their peers, faculty, and staff. Most days, the dishes incorporate fruits and vegetables harvested from the on-site farm.