When do we celebrate students, serve a hearty soup lunch, and roast the students? Why, Soup Roast, of course!
Soup Roast has long been a tradition at Rural Studio, and it’s not really a roast but a deep critique that pushes our 5th-year students’ projects forward. It’s also as a recognition of both 3rd-year and 5th-year student accomplishments. Director and Wiatt Professor Andrew Freear sets the tone of the celebration with his opening remarks.
We have so much to applaud and to achieve at the end of each Fall Soup Roast that in 2022, we added a second day to the event. Parents of our 3rd-year students come to mark the conclusion of this class’s studio semester, but professional visitors—largely consulting architects—also join us. On the first day, they critique the 5th-years’ work and give a presentation on special topics; then, the next day, they lead workshops and charrette with these students (engage in a rapid discussions, sketch, critique, “rinse and repeat” cycle).
The critique falls at a critical time on the 5th-years’ project timelines. The larger group of eight has been building two new Pods (self-contained living spaces for students) that test how to design and build structures that are insulated on the outside rather than in between the studs. These pods are being used as mini versions of the structural solutions for the students two main projects for the year.
In mid- to late October, the group divided into two teams of four, with one team taking on the project of Jessica’s Home in Newbern and the other, the First Congregational Church Hall in Marion. The teams are still working on the Pods together, and the Jessica’s Home team is exploring how to best use cross-laminated timber, while the Hall team is using glue-laminated timber, a.k.a. glulam. (They presented this work at our temporary Whelan St. studio space in nearby Greensboro.) The teams have had time to gel, but they are still early in the design process, so the consultants’ and faculty’s feedback is formative and tough.
Around Soup Roast, the 3rd-year students are wrapping up their semester-long design-build work at the Studio. They don’t complete a home in a single semester; instead, they either begin a project or complete a new phase, with each semester’s cohort contributing until the project is done. Our current 3rd-year project is Mark’s Home, begun in Fall 2024. The Mark’s Home team presented their work and showcased it on-site. From among them, Summer Sescila presented the Honors component of her Rural Studio work, which entailed continuing to collect data for the Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation Research Project for our colleague Salmaan Craig and Remy Fortin at UCLA.
A favorite of parents is the informal exhibition of 3rd-year students’ work in our Morrisette-campus classes, which are led by faculty members Dick Hudgens and Steve Long. Each introduced the work: Dick Hudgens talked about the sketchbooks from his intensive history course, a course that has students study, sketch, and render in watercolor elements of regional historical architecture, and Steve Long talked about the chair reproductions that students created in Woodshop after extensive research into the original chair design history and architectural/design context. These smaller, fully completed projects appeal to our sense of craftsmanship and elegance and our appreciation of artfully completed work at a smaller scale.
Most of our Rural Studio cohort from the Front Porch Initiative drove in from Auburn’s main campus to attend: Associate Director Rusty Smith, Betsy Farrell Garcia, Mackenzie Stagg, Laurel Holloway, and Tim Tamulonis. This year’s visiting consultants included our regulars Joe Burns, structural engineer and Managing Principal at Thornton Tomasetti, and Kim Clements and Joe Schneider, who co-own and are the creative directors of JAS Design Build. Our consultants also included regulars Jake LaBarre, Associate with the Miller Hull Partnership and faculty with the University of Washington Neighborhood Design Build studio, and Jim Adamson, Partner at Jersey Devil design/build, who each prepared a short lecture for us. Sandy Bishop, Executive Director of Lopez Community Land Trust, attended as our newest visiting professional and also treated us to a lecture.
We cannot thank everyone enough for their generous support, both those who came out to Newbern to work with students and those who support behind the scenes. Rural Studio wouldn’t be here—students wouldn’t be here—without you!
