Architect Andrew Freear Presents 'Rural Studio' Lecture on Sept. 22

Photo Submitted

The Newbern Volunteer Fire Department and Town Hall, built in 2004, was the first new public building in Newbern, Alabama, in 110 years. It houses three fire trucks and satisfies the town's needs for a place to house elections, council meetings, volunteer firefighter classes, and fund-raising and community gatherings. (Photo by Timothy Hursley)

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Architect Andrew Freear will present a lecture titled “Rural Studio” at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 22 in Ken and Linda Sue Shollmier Hall, Room 250 of Vol Walker Hall, on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville, as part of the Fay Jones School of Architecture lecture series.

Freear describes his lecture as a critical insider’s reflection on 20 years of designing and building in west Alabama.

Freear, originally from Yorkshire, England, works at Auburn University Rural Studio as the Wiatt Professor. He became the director of the studio in Newbern, Alabama, in 2002.

Rural Studio is a hands-on architectural pedagogy that enables students to design and built charity homes and community projects to ultimately improve the living conditions in west Alabama. In the program, students present projects on sites such as urban and rural parks, community centers, churches, fire stations and even houses.

Freear was educated in London and has practiced in Italy, England and the United States. He has taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago, as well as the Architectural Association in London and is now a project advisor to fifth-year undergraduate students.

Among his work, Freear has designed Rural Studio exhibits in Chicago, Cincinnati, Vienna and Barcelona. He also has designed for the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2002 Biennial, the 2005 Sao Paulo Art Biennial, the 2008 Venice Biennale, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Freear has lectured across the United States, Europe and Australia and has served as a member of the board of the Alabama Rural Heritage Foundation in Thomaston, the Perry Lakes Board Marion and the Newbern Volunteer Fire Department in Newbern. He is an Honorary Citizen of Marion, Alabama, due to his work on the Perry Lakes Park Project there.

He was awarded The Ruth and Ralph Erskine Nordic Foundation Award from Sweden in 2006. This honor strives to promote urban planning and architecture that is economical, functional and beautiful, while serving underprivileged people in society. He is the first American-based architect to be awarded this honor.

Freear was a Laureate in the second edition of the Global Awards for Sustainable Architecture in 2008. He also helped write a book, titled Rural Studio at Twenty: Designing and Building in Hale County, Alabama, alongside Elena Barthel, Andrea Oppenheimer Dean and Timothy Hursley. The book, published by Princeton Architectural Press in May 2014, is about the Rural Studio educational process.

This is the Charles Thompson Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Cromwell Architects Engineers.

The public is invited to attend. Admission is free, with limited seating.

For more information, contact 479-575-4707 or architecture.uark.edu.