Andrew Freear ‘18
Andrew accepted the Cooper Hewitt award on behalf of the Auburn University and the Studio at the National Design Awards event, hosted by the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York on Sept. 21, 2022. “We are delighted by this recognition because it acknowledges the quality of our design work, and we are humbled to be honored alongside the roll call of extraordinary architects and designers. I hope this Award sends the message that everyone, wherever they live, deserves the benefit of beautiful, dignified, equitable design.”
Rural Studio also took part in Cooper Hewitt’s National Design Week, including participating in the Design Career Fair on October 19, 2022, at the High School of Art and Design in New York City.
From Cooper Hewitt’s award statement: “Given to an individual or firm for their contributions to the built environment that advance the understanding of spatial experiences, this year’s National Design Award for Architecture / Interior Design goes to Rural Studio. Through almost three decades of hands-on, place-based teaching and learning, Rural Studio is regarded as one of the oldest, most influential and well-respected design-build programs in the world. It is located in Hale County, Alabama, and led by professor and director Andrew Freear. As part of the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture at Auburn University, the core mission of Rural Studio is the education of architecture students who live on-site and design and build structures for residents and communities in the under-resourced, persistently impoverished rural region known as the Black Belt. Rural Studio has educated over 1,200 students who have designed and built more than 200 projects in the West Alabama Black Belt. The design-build projects are driven by research into efficient, healthful housing along with the vital community systems necessary to support sustainable rural living. Rural Studio continually questions what should be built, rather than simply what can be built.”