Halloweenreviews

Hale-oween

November 1, 2022

Students and faculty in costume

Here in Hale County, Halloween is the time to work hard and play hard. This year was no different, with a week full of pumpkins, presentations, and of course, costumes. We started the week early, with carving and displaying pumpkins at Red Barn on Tuesday evening. Friends and families from town came to join in on the fun too!

Students carving pumpkins
Red Barn and lit pumpkins
Students carving pumpkins
Students outside Red Barn with pumpkins

After a long week of rushing to finish costumes and drawings, our students presented for Halloween Reviews on Friday. We had familiar faces return this year, including Marlon Blackwell from Marlon Blackwell Architects; Emilie Taylor Welty, Director of Architecture at Tulane University and Design-Build Manager of the Albert and Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design; Emily Neustrom from Material Institute; and the Front Porch Initiative’s Rusty Smith, Betsy Farrell Garcia, and Mackenzie Stagg. We also hosted visitors who came a long way to see the work: Kent Hicks from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Kelly Gregory all the way from San Francisco. Our good friends Timothy and Jeanie Hursley surprised us with a visit and a quick photoshoot of the special day. We can’t wait to see those images soon!

Students presenting in costume
Students presenting in costume
Reviewer commenting on student work

Of course, everyone was dressed for the occasion. Costumes are a must on review day!

C
Cubes
Students in costume
Flat-head and Phillips-head screwdrivers
Students in costume
Spicy Girls
Students in costume
Toilet-Trees
Students in costume
Rural Studio Third Graders

To end the day and the week, students and visitors showed off their costumes for each other and our friends in town. This year was tough competition, but Logan Lee was named as pumpkin carving winner, and Rural Studio Bathhouse team won with their Toilet-Trees costumes. Thanks to the Newbern Library and the Newbern Mercantile for wonderful judges and prizes! Check back in on team blogs to see how students move forward next!

Faculty posing in costume
The cast of Jaws and “Sam with SPAM”
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The Emerging Story of the Emergency Shelters

November 5, 2021

Every year during spooky season, the Studio hosts visiting architects and professors for a day of “boos” and reviews. This hallowed event has come to be known as Halloween Reviews, and every student was “working like a dog” to prepare. Let’s look at “a day in the life” of the C.H.O.I.C.E. House team leading up to the big review, shall we? (Ps. Can you guess what the team’s costume was by the end of this post?) 

The team began by preparing all the drawings they would need for their presentation. They consolidated the existing plans, sections, and diagrams from “here, there and everywhere,” and completed any new drawings that were needed.

  • transportation diagram

Next up, the team needed to make edits to their presentation and practice presenting to other teams in preparation for Halloween Reviews. This task is a never-ending process that the team seems to be working on “eight days a week!” But, they got it done, “with a little help from my friends.” 

team revises presentation
cohort meeting at cat drop

Once the team was confident in their presentation, they decided to “let it be.” Next, they started to “bang bang” their “silver hammers” to build full-scale mock-ups of two out of the four units. These mock-ups allowed people to experience the small space inside and the different porch conditions created by the units. 

  • davis acquires wood
  • davis and hailey assemble wall
  • moving cardboard couch
assembling walls from abov

On Wednesday night, the team took a break to celebrate the annual Pumpkin Carve, an Auburn Architecture tradition. Everyone from the community is invited to “come together,” outside Red Barn to carve pumpkins and eat foot long hot dogs… because “all you need is love,” pumpkins, and hot dogs, right?!”

The day before Halloween reviews, the team spent “fixing a hole” and “filling the cracks” of the mock-ups and their presentation. After “a hard day’s night,” the big day had finally arrived. Under a “sky of blue and sea of green,” teams dressed in costumes the students presented and the reviewers, “speaking words of wisdom.”

team presents

The team received a lot of helpful feedback on their work that really help to “shake it up, baby!” Now, the C.H.O.I.C.E. House team is ready to get back to the drawing board and “work it on out!”

the beetles as beatles
Four beetles as Beatles: Ringo, John, Paul, and George!

“We hope you have enjoyed the show. We’re sorry but it’s time to go. We’d like to thank you once again.”

Did you guess our costumes by the end? 

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Houses and Haunts

November 3, 2021

Déjà vu? The Patriece’s Home team stumbled and waddled into reviews on Friday dressed as the Perry Lakes Park Restrooms and Boardwalk, a 2003 Rural Studio project in Marion, Alabama. 

Halloween reviews is the time of year when the team presents (in costume) to a mix of outside reviewers. This critical feedback brings the insight needed to push the project design to the next stage of development. 

Aside from crafting stylish bathrooms from cardboard and duct tape, the team received and did inventory on their tool trailer. Most importantly the Patriece’s Home team has been hard at work analyzing plan options and room relationships that make a buildable, beautiful, and adaptable home.  

This set of iterations was focused on what has been called pivot points, or design-driving decisions, such as porch type and house orientation. With so many options and variables, these decisions allowed the team to test and compare multiple different approaches to designing a multi-generational home. 

In addition to parsing through pending plans and pivot points, the team worked with the other two 5th-year student teams to build and refine a presentation for reviews, and it wouldn’t be Halloween week without a few necessary breaks for pumpkin-carving! 

Halloween reviews were extremely helpful for the team. The reviewers gave insight about how the stairs can be expressive on the home’s exterior, better utilized, and how the potential second unit in the home could be on the first floor. Wait and see where the Patriece’s Home team takes these ideas next!  
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Moundville Mud Pies For Sale

November 2, 2021

Analyzing the Pavilion’s Structure

After Fall semester break, the Moundville Pavilion team focused on moving the design forward and shifting the narrative from the physical boards to a digital presentation for Halloween Reviews. This process included looking back at all the work we have done up to this point and learning how to begin talking about the narrative of the project. Some of the first steps we took were to understand the previous team’s motivations through their drawings and to diagram them.

The pavilion is designed to shed water and protect while also allowing light in and emphasizing views outward

The structure is composed of wood lattice trusses, 3-ply columns, and steel plates for a light connection to the ground

Pumpkin Carving!

Wednesday night, the Studio participated in the College of Architecture Design and Construction’s Annual Pumpkin Carve tradition (in Newbern!) by trading our pencils for carving tools and having fun with our neighbors.

Dressed for Success

By Friday, the costumes were sewn, or in some cases taped, and the presentation was ready. The team created a familiar scene for the viewers, a Girl Scout (Caitlyn) selling cookies (Collin) at Publix (Jackie), while her mother (Brenton) supported her entrepreneurial spirit. The Studio welcomed Marlon Blackwell, Meryati Johari Blackwell, Jen Pindyck, Emilie Taylor Welty, and the Front Porch Initiative team to participate in the festivities and provide feedback that will help the team move forward. Forward to what exactly? Well, you’ll just have to catch us next month on the Moundville Pavilion team blog!

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Halloween in Hale

November 2, 2021

Happy Halloween! Rural Studio wasn’t the same last year without our annual traditional Halloween celebration. This year, we made up for it tenfold by carving pumpkins with our neighbors and friends again, and holding outdoor reviews during which everyone could show off their elaborately-handmade costumes.

  • the front facade of a two-story old red barn with a group of people carving pumpkin on a blue tarp underneath the porch
  • the front face of an old barn with rows of pumpkins underneath the front porch, the candle-lit pumpkins glow in the nighttime darkness

Our annual Pumpkin Carve was held on Wednesday at Red Barn, and the event would not have been possible without our partnership with the incredible Newbern Library Team. Thank you to Barbara Williams and Mary Jane Everett for helping put together a successful event, and shoutout to the Braxton family and Chris Carter for providing hotdogs fresh off the grill!

  • two row of glowing candle-lit carved pumpkins
  • two rows of glowing candle-lit carved pumpkins
  • a group of people of all ages sit together under porch roof and smile at the camera with pumpkins and carving tools in their harnds
  • a girl and a boy stand smiling in front of two carved pumpkins

We held Halloween Reviews on Friday, where current student teams presented their projects to special guest reviewers. Our fantastic crew of reviewers included Marlon Blackwell and Meryati Johari Blackwell of Marlon Blackwell Architects; Tulane University’s Assistant Director of the Small Center, Emilie Taylor Welty; Auburn University’s Assistant Professor, Jen Pindyck; and Auburn’s Front Porch Initiative Team: Betsy Farrell Garcia, Mackenzie Stagg, and Rusty Smith.

four costumed people stand in front of drawings and a large tv screen while talking to an audience wearing sweaters and jackets

Most importantly, students all wore their costumes while presenting their projects to the talented team of reviewers. There’s nothing like presenting design work to an AIA Gold Medalist while wearing a fake mustache and bowl-cut brunette wig.

  • a large group of people in colorful costumes stand clustered together on a set of stairs
  • a male student covered in brown leaves leans over and another student holds a large cardboard cutout of a leaf blower
  • a red pepper and two human-sized cactus cardboard cutouts stand in front of three people
  • three costumes made of cardboard boxes to look like the wooden and steel bathrooms at perry lakes, one male student uses cardboard to make the paths between the other boxes
  • a group of four people stand in a row, dressed in colorful jackets and homemade beetle ears
  • a man dressed in pink with a blonde wig stands next to a woman with a cardboard costume that reads "publix" stands next to a man in a box that reads "girl scout moundville mudpies" stands next to a sitting woman in girl scout attire
  • a woman in a black dress and purple headpiece stands and a man stands in a purple skirt and blue shirt costume with gold accents
  • a man, a woman holding a baby in a dragon costime, and two children in dragon costumes stand smiling together
  • a group of 16 people stand together wearing assorted colorful costumes

At the end of the day, we announced winners for the Pumpkin Carving Contest and the Costume Contest. Thanks to the Newbern Mercantile and the Newbern Library for providing amazing prizes! Congrats to all and thank you to our judges!

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