Home run: three students designed this scheme, taught themselves to work in metal, and made it - Design Review - Auburn University's College of Architecture, Design and Construction - Brief Article

Architectural Review, The, June, 2002 by Catherine Slessor

The Rural Studio at Auburn University's College of Architecture, Design and Construction was founded in 1992 by the late Sam Mockbee (AR February 2002), with the aim of extending the study of architecture into a socially responsible context. Every quarter, groups of students elect to and live and work off campus in impoverished parts of western Alabama. The students produce architecture that challenges convention in terms of methods, materials, and forms (AR March 2001). They inventively scavenge and incorporate discarded objects such as tyres, scrap timber, bottles and even car windows and number plates. The result is an architecture that combines vernacular archetypes with more adventurous form making, grounded by a strong sense of place.

The recently completed renovation of Newbern Baseball Club is more than a simple physical improvement. Baseball occupies a hallowed place in American culture and in Newbern, a tiny country hamlet, the baseball field acts as strong civic focus for the community. Lying to the north-east of the hamlet (Newbern consists of just six buildings), a small piece of farmland has been the site of regional baseball games for the last 100 years. Under the auspices of the Rural Studio, three fifth-year architecture students planned, designed and built a new fence, seating and other general site improvements. Part funding was provided by the Alabama Civil Justice Foundation.

The main element of the refurbishment is a tall steel chain link fence that surrounds the playing area. The aim was to create a protective, permeable enclosure without horizontal bracing, which might impede views of the game. The outcome is a structure made up of a series of chain-link sheets moored by horizontal tensile cables. The form of the backstop (the place where the batsman stands) encourages close interaction between fans and players.

Materials used are common to the area. Black tube steel was sourced from local foundries, together with telegraph poles and guy wires which were donated by a power supplier. Methods of construction are derived from several trades, such as telegraph workers, machine shop welders and farmers. The site had no electricity or water, so everything was built using hand or gas powered tools by the three students, who learned how to weld, operate heavy machinery and survey, together with basic turf maintenance and carpentry.

Typical of the Rural Studio capacity to elevate and transform everyday materials, the chain link billows and wafts lightly around the ground, like mesh sails. The unusual geometry was dictated in part by the trajectories of baseballs flying through the air. Detailing is simple and economical, yet the entire construction has a curiously lyrical quality.

The renovated field has proved extremely popular with the local community, who avidly flock to it every Sunday afternoon to watch games and enjoy picnics. Mockbee was no sentimentalist; this project is rooted in reality, yet like all Rural Studio work, it somehow brilliantly transcends its unassuming surroundings. C. S.