Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio

Citizen Architect chronicles the life and work of the late teacher/organizer/architect Samuel Mockbee and his radical educational program known as the Rural Studio. The Rural Studio, situated at Alabama’s Auburn University, which is surrounded by one of the poorest communities in the country, charges its students with creating innovative structures out of salvaged materials for the betterment of the community they inhabit. The film features numerous interviews with Mockbee along with such architectural heavyweights as Peter Eisenman, Michael Rotondi, and Cameron Sinclair. (60 mins., video)

Following the Friday screening, stay for a panel with Ohio State Architecture Professor Mike Cadwell and Keoni Fleming and Steve Winter, advisors to the Ohio State Solar Decathlon team, who will talk about the influence of the Rural Studio on their own work.

Michael B. Cadwell
Michael Cadwell is a professor and architecture undergraduate studies chair at Ohio State's Knowlton School of Architecture. He received his bachelor of arts (with honors) in English literature from Williams College and his master of architecture from Yale University. Cadwell's buildings have been published extensively and received design awards from the New York Architectural League and the American Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). He has been a fellow at the Woodstock Arts Colony, the McDowell Arts Colony, and the American Academy in Rome. Since moving to Columbus in 1989, Cadwell has practiced in partnership with Jane Murphy, an associate professor at the KSA, focusing on residential commissions and winning American Institute of Architecture (AIA) Awards in 1998 and 2006. In all domains—small buildings, teaching, and architectural practice—Cadwell is interested in construction as a transformative cultural act. He has elaborated on this interest in a series of essays on canonical works of 20th-century architecture titled Strange Details (MIT Press, 2007), which Kenneth Frampton has said "should be required reading and re-reading in every school of architecture."

William Keoni Fleming
Keoni Fleming is a registered architect and provides architecture and project management for a variety of projects at DesignGroup in Columbus. He has worked on projects with widely varying technical demands and requirements and is experienced in the coordination of varying disciplines throughout design and construction. A LEED-accredited professional, Fleming has not only worked on sustainable design projects but taught sustainable design at the School of Architecture at Ohio State, where he has also taught architectural design, landscape design, and building construction as an adjunct faculty member. He is an advisor to the university’s team competing in the Solar Decathlon, a prestigious an U.S. Department of Energy program that challenges 20 collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. Fleming holds a master of architecture from Princeton University and a bachelor of architecture and a bachelor of arts from Rice University.

Steve Winter
Steve Winter is currently the materials laboratory coordinator at the Knowlton School of Architecture and a faculty advisor for Ohio State's 2011 Solar Decathlon Team. He teaches a seminar on sustainability and assists architecture students in physically implementing their conceptual designs. Winter received two degrees from Ohio State University, a bachelor of arts in history (magna cum laude) in 2006 and a master of architecture in 2009. As a graduate student, he acted as a project manager for Ohio State's first ever Solar Decathlon Team which competed on the National Mall in October 2009. Prior to, and during his studies, he worked as a carpenter, achieving journeyman status in 2004.

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