OUTREACH.
The Outreach Program at the Rural Studio is currently run by the current Interim Director, David Buege and his assistant, Mark Wise.

The Outreach Program was conceived as a way to bring outside students and collaborators into the fold of the Rural Studio: to bring more voices to the conversation and more color and life to the Studio. Its first project was a summer program for non-architecture students exploring Hale County, working on individual non-architectural projects, along with a small design-build basketball court in Mason’s Bend.
Most recently it has evolved into an exploration of the 20K house, where a team of 4-5 non Auburn University design based graduates explore the future of this provocative and important model. The 20K house is the most challenging of all Rural Studio projects. It deals with the question: what can be designed for 10k in materials when the other 10k goes for labor costs and profit?

Unlike the traditional charity home projects that the Rural Studio constructs, the $20K project involves architecture students developing a range of home plans and prototypes that can be built by local contractors under the USDA’s Rural Housing Service Section 502 Guaranteed Rural Housing Loan Program for construction and homeowner financing.  This program serves rural residents who have a steady, low or modest income, and yet are unable to obtain adequate housing through conventional financing.   

The students apply to the program with a letter of intent, a CV, recommendations and a portfolio. The students will work together as a team under the umbrella of the thesis program and alongside the thesis projects. The Outreach Program is taught by the Rural Studio Director. There is also an Outreach Fellow and former Rural Studio member of the thesis program who acts as a team captain and “hand-holder”.

Rural Studio Outreach Program is a professional residency program for holders of bachelor's degrees, typically design-based, wishing to participate in and contribute to the programs of the Rural Studio. Participants are admitted to, and enrolled as, outreach participants in this non-credit experiential certificate program. Upon successful participation in this program and all its activities participants receive a certificate of completion.

As with the 2nd Year and Thesis students the Outreach students are expected to work as a team, be respectful of their teammates, the Rural Studio opportunity, its legacy and most importantly its conscious roll as a neighbor in Hale County.