Obituary.

SAMUEL MOCKBEE: AN APPRECIATION

It was with great sadness that we heard of the passing away of Samuel Mockbee on 30 December 2001. In an architectural age still obsessed by form and fashion, the work of Sambo was tragically under-represented in the media, with the notable exception of articles in The Architectural Review (AR March 2001).

His importance was better recognized outside the limited architectural world, with the award of a MacArthur Foundation 'genius' grant which, typically, he spent not on himself but on enabling others. His work had two strands. With his partner Coleman Cocker, he ran a practice in Mississippi which developed a modern vernacular sensitive to his home state. The second aspect of Sambo's work was as a teacher and enabler. In 1993 he founded the Rural Studio at Auburn University. This was a pioneering educational and architectural experiment, in which Sambo worked with his students among the rural underclass in Alabama. Together they designed and built an inspiring set of buildings on tiny budgets, driven by the imperative of the architect's social and political role in society. Sambo was clear in these intentions, saying that 'architects should always be in the initial critical decision-making position in order to challenge the power of the status quo'. The resulting architecture was far from the hair-shirt worthi ness often associated with community initiatives. It was innovative spatially and technically, using and reinventing a whole range of everyday technologies and scavenged materials. Most importantly, it was entirely appropriate to the place and to the people who were to use it, creating a truly empowering environment. It is by any standards architecture of the highest quality; given the circumstances of its making it is really extraordinary. In years to come, it is likely that the work of the Rural Studio will be held up as an exemplar of how to respond to a world of diminishing resources and increasing poverty gaps. In its dialogue with the local, the architecture, as product and process, will also be seen as a pioneering counterpoint to the crushing homogeneity of globalization, a critical regionalism in the true sense of the word critical.

For the students, Sambo set the ambition that the experience would help them 'to be more sensitive to the power and promise of what they do, to be more concerned with the good effects of architecture rather than with "good intentions"'. As an educational model, this is truly radical, far surpassing the reactive demands of the profession for education to conform to the status quo. As an architectural model, it is equally radical, placing the architect at the heart of social issues rather than 'consigning them to problem-solving after the fact'. For us, Sambo was the most important architect and educator operating in the world; in his mixture of humility and aspirational ambition for others, he provided a role model that will be sorely missed. Who else could have said: 'Go above and beyond the call of a "smoothly functioning conscience"; help those who aren't likely to help you in return, and do so even if nobody is watching'?

JEREMY TILL AND SARAH WIGGLESWORTH

The quotes are taken from Samuel Mockbee's article, 'The Rural Studio', in 'The Everyday and Architecture', Architectural Design, vol 68, July 1990. Rural Studio; Samuel Mockbee and the Architecture of Decency by Andrea Oppenheimer Dean will be published by Princeton Architectural Press in Spring 2002.