Auburn University Rural Studio

Catholic Social Teaching stresses the importance of human dignity and the option for the poor. Decent housing is an important right in CST and contributes to the dignity of families. A project at Auburn University, in Alabama, was featured at the National Building Museum in Washington DC; it was a sign of hope and demonstrates the fact that talents and skills should be used for the common good.

In 1993, two Auburn University architecture professors, Dennis K. Ruth and the late Samuel Mockbee, established the Auburn University Rural Studio within the university's School of Architecture. The Rural Studio, conceived as a method to improve the living conditions in rural Alabama (one of the poorest regions of the U.S.) and to include hands-on experience for architecture students, began designing and building homes that same fall. They have provided homes and community buildings during the last ten years; see pictures at the Rural Studio Web Site.

The mission of the Rural Studio is to enable students to use their skills as citizens of a community. The Rural Studio seeks solutions to the needs of the community within the community's own context, not from outside it. The students must take up residency in Hale County, Alabama. In doing so, the student joins a poverty-stricken region and "shares the sweat" with a housing client who lives far below the poverty level. The goal of this exercise is to refine the student's social conscience and to learn first-hand the necessary social, cultural and technological concepts of designing and building.

The Rural Studio has four main goals:

• To give students of the School of Architecture the opportunity to learn the critical skills of planning, designing, and building in a concrete, practical, and socially responsible manner.
• To form leadership qualities in students by instilling the social ethics of professionalism, volunteerism, individual responsibility, and community service.
• To help communities, through partnerships with state and local welfare agencies, provide suitable and dignified housing.
• To develop materials, methods, and technologies that will house the rural poor in dignity and mitigate the effects of poverty upon rural living conditions.

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Discussion Questions
Catholic Social Teaching stresses the importance of participation of all people in decision-making on issues which directly effect their lives. How does the Rural Studio promote participation? Do you know about other projects that involve community participation to solve social problems?

Dorothy Day, who was a champion of social justice, liked to quote the line: "we will be saved by beauty." Should beauty, the arts, good architecture, etc. be reserved only for the wealthy? How can those in poverty have better access to beauty, the arts, etc.?

How can people with God-given talents and skills be directed to offer some of their gifts to those in poverty? Can you think of anything that can be done in your community to promote human dignity through projects that involve sharing beauty with those in poverty?

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Prayer Creator, we thank you for all of the gifts and talents you have bestowed upon us. Help us to use our gifts and help others to use their gifts for the good of the entire community, not just for ourselves and a select few. Bless those in poverty and grant, through our efforts, beauty and dignity in their lives. Amen.