Do you ever feel that while the world is rushing headlong toward destruction, a sizable portion of the people around you seem to be feverishly investing their resources and energy in projects that contribute nothing to the common good - almost as if determined to speed us all on our way? Do you ever wonder why some of that good old "American" ingenuity, that inventive creativity of which we are always hearing, can't be applied to solving some of the social and environmental ills that plague us, rather than serving to line someone's pockets?

I know I have. Every time I pass some glitzy new high-rise going up here in New York, with ads promising luxury living, I think of how desperately we need affordable housing. And every time I pass a public housing project, complete with row upon row of tiny windows, I am struck by the monotonous uniformity of the structures we inflict upon the poor. At such times, caught between the ugliness of wealth and the ugliness of poverty, I am almost in despair at the sheer stupid waste of it all.

It is at moments such as these that I most need to read about people like Samuel Mockbee, and his wonderful Rural Studio. An educational project begun in 1993, and run under the auspices of Auburn University, Rural Studio puts students to work building innovative and affordable homes for the rural poor of Hale County, Alabama - a locale many readers may know through Walker Evans and James Agee's celebrated book, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Here the students learn about social responsibility, and the needs of the poor, while working in a cooperative, learn-as-you-build environment.

I'm not much of a modernist, in architecture or any other field, and my "dream-house" probably looks something like a Tudor, but I found many of the projects profiled in this book quite beautiful. They definitely embody Mockbee's idea of local culture and available materials shaping architectural form. The emphasis on responsiveness, to the needs of the client and the environment, gives this program real transformative potential. I was impressed by the fact that Mockbee and his students don't feel forced to choose between beauty and economy - that they reconcile these two concerns, all while designing structures that are environmentally sound. ( )

Each reading of this book reminds me why I got into archiecture in the first place; that architecture at its best is ingeneous and beautiful; that architecture is as relevant as its practicioners make it; that there is a greater good to be adressed by all in the field; that shelter is architecture's raison d'etre; that there are more important things in the architectural world than the latest Prada opening. ( )