Samuel Mockbee (December 23, 1944 – December 30, 2001) was an American architect and a co-founder of the Auburn University Rural Studio program in Hale County, Alabama. After establishing a regular architectural practice in his native Mississippi, Mockbee became interested in the design and construction problems associated with rural housing in Alabama and Mississippi. Soon after joining the faculty of Auburn, Mockbee established the Rural Studio with educator Dennis K. Ruth to provide practical training for architecture students in an environment where their efforts could address the problems of poverty and substandard housing in underserved areas of the southern United States. Mockbee went on to receive numerous awards for his work, including a MacArthur Foundation grant that he used to further the work of the Rural Studio.
Early life, education and design practice
Mockbee was born on December 23, 1944, in Meridian, Mississippi, to Samuel Mockbee and Margaret Sale Berry Mockbee. His father, contracted tuberculosis when Mockbee was twelve, and was unable to work from that time until he died. Mockbee's father and mother both succumbed to cancer, as did his sister.
Mockbee served two years in the U.S. Army beginning in 1957. Following his discharge, he married Jacquelyn Johnson in 1970. He enrolled at Auburn University and graduated from the School of Architecture in 1974 with a Bachelor of Architecture degree. Mockbee worked in Columbus, Georgia before returning to Mississippi in 1977, where he formed a partnership with his classmate and friend, Tommy Goodman. A few years later he partnered with Coleman Coker, forming Mockbee/Coker.
Rural Studio
thumb|Perry Lakes Canopy Tower by Rural Studio
Mockbee searched for a location in which to expand the program of working with architecture students to give them practical experience while actively addressing poverty and substandard housing. In order to remove students from the distractions of campus life and to fully immerse them in the rural environment, Mockbee and Ruth set up the Rural Studio in 1992 in Hale County, Alabama, about two hours' drive from Auburn, and between Mockbee's home in Canton, Mississippi and Auburn. Hale County, in the Black Warrior River valley of the Alabama Black Belt, was a deeply disadvantaged area. It was the setting of James Agee and Walker Evans's 1941 book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, which sought to document white rural poverty in prose and images.
The Rural Studio program received acclaim for introducing students to the social responsibilities of architectural practice and for providing safe, well-constructed, and inspirational buildings to the communities of West Alabama. In many cases these buildings, designed and built by students, incorporated novel materials which otherwise would be considered waste. The buildings often consisted of a combination of vernacular architecture with modernist forms.
Death
Mockbee was diagnosed with leukemia in 1998. After treatment, in which his sister donated bone marrow, Mockbee recovered and returned to the work of the Rural Studio, In 2001 the cancer returned. Mockbee died on December 30, 2001, aged 57.
Some of Mockbee's work was selected by Lawrence Rinder to be part of the Whitney Museum of Art 2002 Biennial. A series of exhibits and lectures on the Rural Studio were hosted in Vienna and Barcelona.
Mockbee's drawings and paintings are included in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art the Cooper Hewitt Museum, and the Carnegie Museum of Art.
Notable projects
- Barton House, Madison County, Mississippi (1991) (Mockbee/Coker)
- Cook House, Oxford, Mississippi (1991) (Mockbee/Coker)
- Bryant House, Hale County, Alabama (1994) (Rural Studio)
- Harris House, Hale County, Alabama (1994) (Rural Studio)
- Yancey Chapel, Sawyerville, Alabama (1995) (Rural Studio)
- Akron Pavilion, Akron, Alabama (1996) (Rural Studio)
- Goat House, Sawyerville, Alabama (1998) (Rural Studio)
- Hero Children's Center, Greensboro, Alabama (1999) (Rural Studio)
- Thomaston Farmer's Market, Thomaston, Alabama (2000) (Rural Studio)
- Supershed and Pods, Newbern, Alabama (1997-2001) (Rural Studio)
- Akron Boys and Girls Club, Akron, Alabama (2001) (Rural Studio)
- Sanders-Dudley House, Sawyerville, Alabama (2001) (Rural Studio)
- Mason's Bend Community Center (2000) (Rural Studio)
Projects associated with Rural Studio were jointly designed by architecture students under Mockbee's supervision.