It's small spaces season around these parts, and we have a socially responsible gem to share with you. Not only is it under 600 square feet, it also comes in at $20,000.

Baltimorean Will Homan, along with Pernilla Hagberth from Sweden and Clementine Blakemore from England, took on the Auburn University Rural Studio challenge: plan, design, and build a $20K house in Hale County, Alabama that could potentially be produced as a viable alternative to trailers in the area and purchased with a 502 Direct Loan. Above you see the project, from beginning sketches to one finished house. After the inaugural project in 2005, this structure marks the program's ninth iteration. Now for the details...

Stats:

504 interior square feet (plus 96 square feet for the porch); about $29.50 per square foot
One bedroom (can expand to house more)

$20,000
$12,500 to materials
$8,500 to labor (and presumed contractor profit)

Instructors:
Andrew Freear
Danny Wicke

Student team:
Pernilla "Penny" Hagberth (Sweden)
Clementine "Clem" Blakemore (England)
Will Holman (USA)

Sponsor:
Regions Bank

Can you give us the Rural Studio elevator speech?
The Rural Studio was founded in 1993 by Samuel (Sambo) Mockbee and D.K. Ruth, as an extension program of the Auburn University School of Architecture. Sambo and D.K. set up shop in Newbern, Alabama, and their work was (and still is) premised on two basic assumptions: Architects have an ethical obligation to provide dignified shelter for people who can't afford it, and that the process of designing and building projects is a better way to educate young architects and make more beautiful architecture.

Starting small, mostly with houses, the studio began to design and build structures for residents in Hale County, sticking to Sambo's edict that "Everyone, rich or poor, deserves a shelter for the soul." The Rural Studio has continued this legacy into the 21st century after Sambo's death in 2001 and D.K.'s passing in 2009 under the leadership of British-born architect and educator Andrew Freear.

Three programs are run every year: a third-year studio, where two classes of 12 to 15 students, one per semester, take on a smaller-scale project, usually a house; a thesis studio, where 3 or 4 teams of 3 or 4 students each take on a year-long (or more) design/build project as a culminating thesis for their 5-year B.Arch from Auburn; and the Outreach studio, where 3 or 4 students from all over the world who already have degrees in design fields take on the perennial research project known as the 20K House.

The studio has since taken on larger-scale, civic-minded projects such as museums, a fire station, bridges, pavilions, community centers, municipal parks, and the on-going research project for affordable, sustainable rural housing—the $20K House. 

You had a career before the program. What brought you to Hale County?
I first heard about the studio as an undergraduate and was immediately taken by the concept—design for the greater good—and wanted to find a way down there. It was always in the back of my mind, and in 2008, while tooling around on the internet, I found out an old friend on Facebook, Obie Elechi, was down there as part of the outreach team for 2008-09. I got in touch with him and followed his blog, and ended up applying in the spring of 2009.

Before that, I grew up in Towson, Maryland, just north of the Baltimore City line, and went to Virginia Tech, where I graduated with a B.Arch in 2007. After graduation, I lived and worked at Arcosanti, an experimental design/build project in the desert about an hour north of Phoenix, Arizona, where I did heavy concrete construction and welding. Then I moved back to Baltimore and worked in a custom cabinetry/concrete countertop shop, LukeWorks, for a year as a shop assistant/spray finisher/installer. After that, I came to the Outreach program at the Rural Studio, and here I am.

The three structures that were on the client's property before the 20K house.

What was the schedule like for the planning and building process of the $20K house? Since you worked in a team of three, how did you split it all up?
The first month of the semester was a sort of round-the-clock "boot camp" that begins with "Neck-Down," a week of manual labor working on current and past studio projects, aiding in new construction and maintaining older buildings. Then we spent several weeks doing intensive charrettes on the prospective projects for the thesis and outreach teams under the supervision of guest lecturers from around the world. In late September, the thesis students picked their projects/teams, and we got down to work.

At this point, we split off from the thesis students (except for group critiques) and began with broad research on vernacular forms, previous 20Ks, trailer homes, financing low-income home ownership through government and private means, and so forth, and shaped this into a PowerPoint presentation that allowed us to grasp, organize, and coherently present our findings.

We usually had about two critiques a week in-studio, and larger, more formal ones once or twice a month, usually coinciding with guest lecturers. At Halloween, Christmas, and in mid-spring, we had even bigger reviews.

The design process was collaborative, with sketching and discussions first about the floor plan, then rooflines, structural systems, passive heating/cooling strategies, materials, etc. We also tried to address larger questions such as the universality and site-less, client-less nature of the house, as well as long-term concerns for financial viability such as financing, durability/maintenance, and the broader implications of rural development.

We split the work up according to the strengths of the individuals, be it construction documents, hand drafting, computer rendering, graphic design, model-building, etc., then worked together as a construction crew beginning about the first of April through the middle of June.

The walls are going up! The group began construction in April and finished up in June.

What did you want to do differently from previous $20K houses? What did you want to expand upon?
Our main thesis through the year was based on our critique of the previous $20Ks—that it was nearly impossible for more than one person to live in them and/or to expand them. We also took a much harder look this year at making sure that the construction methods and means and documentation would make this a viable model for replication across the rural south by local contractors with local materials.

To these ends, we designed a model that was both spacious enough and had enough privacy to accommodate a couple or, if you put a curtain across part of the living room, two or even three people. We also designed a back deck that could one day be built out as another room—building extra studs into the back wall so a new addition could easily attach and so forth. A second extension, coming off the living room wall, would require more extensive new construction to add.

Here's the view from the living room into the kitchen.

How did you decide on the materials? Where did you source them?
The frame is conventional stud-frame (2 x 6) construction out of southern yellow pine because Alabama is a huge timber-producing state, wood is cheap, and it is widely available all over the south. The tin roof is cheap and durable, and does not require sheathing as the tin is rigid enough to span between purlins—a big cost savings. The siding was a source of great debate, as we went back-and-forth between siding and painted tin, but ultimately went with siding for durability, fire-resistance, and vernacular reasons despite a significantly higher cost.

We bought local whenever possible, at Hale Supply and Dozier Hardware, and the rest we got from Home Dept and Lowe's in Tuscaloosa, about 40 minutes north.

What was the most challenging part/aspect of the project?
I think the biggest challenge for all of us was working in a group and trying to reconcile different ideas, cultural backgrounds, experience levels, and pre-existing prejudices into a design that didn't look like a battlefield of ideas but a clean, beautiful, dignified home.

Making good use of the new porch after the opening festivities. 

What was the most rewarding?
I think the most rewarding aspect is that MacArthur Coach, a decent fellow who has worked very hard his whole life, is living in a new house that he can be comfortable, safe, and healthy in for the rest of his life.

What does MacArthur think of his new digs?
So far, so good!

Have a small space you'd like to share with us? Hit us up here. And for other RM Rural Studio articles, click here and here.

[Images via 20K House Flickr page]

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