In that context, Mockbee and the Rural Studio faculty have involved the students with materials investigations and technologies which have mitigated the effects of poverty upon rural living conditions. Mockbee presented architecture as a discipline which is rooted in community ... a principle that must be committed to environmental, social, political, and aesthetic issues. The Rural Studio is a demonstration to students that they can make a difference.

The work of the Rural Studio is well documented and it has won numerous accolades throughout the United States and worldwide. It has been featured prominently by both the popular and the professional media, including the 2001 Princeton University Press publication Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and An Architecture of Decency by Andrea Oppenheimer Dean. Television crews from ABC's Nightline, Oprah Winfrey, CNN, CBS, and PBS appear with regularity at the Rural Studio compound in tiny Newbern, Alabama. In 2000, Mockbee was the recipient of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant". The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York invited the Rural Studio to exhibit in its 2002 Biennial which opened on March 7. The Biennial exhibits the best in American contemporary art and marks the first time the museum has extended invitations to architects.

In 2001, Mockbee was one of eight recipients of the 2001 Mississippi Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts. And, in 2000 he was one of five national architects honored for environmental, social, and aesthetic contributions by the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum at a White House ceremony. In 1988 he was the first recipient of the National Building Museum's Apgar Award for Excellence. In addition to Auburn, Mockbee taught at Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, and the University of Virginia.