Citizen Architect showing at CMA - May 5th

Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio

Wednesday, May 5, 7:00

Directed by Sam Wainwright Douglas, with Peter Eisenman, et al. This new documentary profiles late architect and educator Samuel Mockbee, whose groundbreaking Rural Studio at Auburn University created low-cost, innovative housing for the impoverished residents of Hale County, Alabama. Cleveland premiere.

USA, 2010, color, Beta SP, 57 min.

Cleveland Museum of Art

Citizen Architect Website (w/ trailer)

At some point the idea of architecture took on the burden of developing an idealistic fortitude wherein the welfare and benefit of mankind (or society) became an identifiable and paramount goal. The indemnification of aesthetic goals was more than merely conjoined with an over-reaching attitude to how the built environment can shape the wellbeing of its users. The idea of occupying space (and the emotional bindings created by this occupation) pushed buildings from being merely designed as representations of strength, wealth, power and religious fealty.

The proposition of shelter has always been a necessity coupled with such cloyingly sweet sentiments of "home is where the heart is" and "a man's home is his castle" whereas the burden of manageable shelter is shifted to the occupant. The idea of "making due" with the hand dealt freed designers from having to prepare responsible and fitting solutions. Soon the ideals of the built environment decided that design could help shape the social consciousness, lift the human spirit and attempt to react to needs of an ever shifting and changing family (and community) dynamic.

The argument that the grand social experiments of the 1950's (demonizing Bacon and Moses, perhaps properly) concentrated on large public works (demanding large amounts of capital) which tore apart the urban fabric to support the great sprawling suburbs while attempting to reshape "urban" life was a massive failure and resulting in stratification of economic class and the death of our great city's can be fought, the idea that the mechanization of human life on a grand scale does little to further instill a sense of our humanity. The grand projects (apartment blocks) destroyed the identity of our ethnic ghettos and displaced thousands of families who could not prosper without the support of their community (which was replaced with highways, interchanges and "proper" urban streets).

It was those that felt that the residential palette on an individual level, the small home, the tiny community centers and halls, could be made welcoming, well built and not interject an unwelcome or alien dialog to an already existent community that are currently making their mark on the world. They have decided that the small budget projects which require deliberate care and choice making in their crafting represent the most common of the human condition, those without the wherewithal to completely annihilate their history and start over from scratch. It is the current flock of design build studio's, Rural 804, Badanes Design/Build and University of Washington (Seattle) and perhaps the most touching and famous of them all, Samual Mockbee's Rural Studio of which the film Citizen Architect centers.

There is a place for the common sense of design and wonder we all seek and enjoy. The smooth contours of the iPhone, the felicitous curves of a 911 but there is room for wonder in design to be available to everyone, the hard part is finding the designers who are willing to sacrifice the time and ego to fulfill someone else's dream.