Sketching our Premise

"For every architect there is a creative moment when he or she plugs into the Muse and generates, from Chaos, a sketch that builds order. The sketch is a mark that suggests the possibility of an idea and an ideal. Taking this act further and applying it to all of us is about making some mark in one’s lifetime that can be given the title of Architecture; a mark that will remain after the power of one’s living Imagination is gone."

- Samuel Mockbee, "The Rural Studio"

As I read and re-read this paragraph at the beginning of Mockbee's writings on the Rural Studio at Auburn, it really began to hit me how powerful a statement it was.

In one way, he comments on the nature of the sketch as an idea generator. When proposed with a design, it doesn't seem logical to throw yourself directly into CAD work or even a regulated hand-drafted sheet. A sketch is the best way to generate ideas because we are allowed to make rough generalizations that aren't held back by the straight lines and hard angles that are inherently found in the digital world. This sketch could become the main driving force behind the design, even at the end of the project. It becomes a representation of the design and, as Mockbee says of our own "marks," could live on even after the project is gone.

A page of sketches from Mockbee's Rural Studio

On a deeper level however, Mockbee makes a comment about our personal ideals. What your goal is as a designer, your premise, your sketch, will follow you and will become the driving force and representation of your designs forever. I don't think there's any person that could be a better example of this than Samuel Mockbee himself. He began the rural studio on his own premise, one that will remain in architecture history forever. The quote that follows, taken from his writings on The Rural Studio is not only the driving force behind the curriculum of the studio, but is the premise of his own work. Just look at some of the projects that he's done on his own and it's easy to see the cultural awareness that is evident in his designs.

"Architecture, more than any other art form, is a social art and must rest on the social and cultural base of its time and place. For those of us who design and build, we must do so with an awareness of a more socially responsive architecture. The practice of architecture not only requires participation in the profession but it also requires civic engagement. As a social art, architecture must be made where it is and out of what exists there."

The Barton House; a modern design in the southern vernacular