INTERNATIONALLY-KNOWN CREATOR OF RURAL STUDIO TO VISIT FAYETTEVILLE NEXT WEEK

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Sam Mockbee, creator of the well-known Rural Studio and widely regarded as one of the great visionaries in architecture, will visit the University of Arkansas School of Architecture Monday, March 5.

Mockbee, a professor of architecture at Auburn University, takes a team of his students to Hale County, Alabama, one of the poorest regions in the United States, each year as part of the Rural Studio to build for communities in need. Since 1993, Mockbee and his students have built homes, a chapel, pavilion and playground using cast-off materials like old tires, hay, license plates and bottles.

Mockbee is teaching the students to contribute to the community and to use architecture to help improve the quality of life. As he states, he is creating "citizen architects."

In the past year alone, Mockbee has received the Use Your Life Award on "The Oprah Winfrey Show", the $500,000 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Award, the Mississippi Governor's Lifetime Achievement Award for Artistic Excellence, the Caring Institute Award and was a nominee for the Cooper Hewitt Environmental Design Award.

Mockbee will lecture at Vol Walker Hall Monday, March 5 at 6 p.m. His lecture on the Rurual Studio is entitled, "Praying Pigs in Alabama: An Invisible World in the Observable Universe." The lecture is free and open to the public.

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Niki Himmer, Communications Coordinator, School of Architecture, hhimmer@uark.edu, 479-575-4704