Founded by Samuel Mockbee in 1993, the Rural Studio is an architecture studio and educational program run by Alabama's Auburn University. It puts students to work building homes and community structures in the poor, rural areas of the state - predominantly Hale and Perry counties. Here the students meet and befriend community members, design buildings to meet the needs of the client, and balance the economic, aesthetic and environmental concerns of their projects.

The sub-title of Oppenheimer Dean's first title devoted to Rural Studio, Rural Studio Samuel Mockbee and an Architecture of Decency, captures the appeal of this program very neatly. There is an essential decency to the idea that the field of architecture does not exist solely for the benefit of the wealthy, that beauty does not belong to the privileged, and that, as Mockbee once expressed it, "Everyone, rich or poor, deserves a shelter for the soul."

This second volume devoted to Rural Studio focuses on the years after Mockbee's death in 2001, when the program struggled to find a balance between inevitable change and the need to carry on Mockbee's vision. The projects highlighted include a community ballpark, a pavilion and restrooms for a newly re-opened park (the only public recreation area in all of Perry County), and a highly idiosyncratic house built for the equally idiosyncratic (and charming) Music Man.

Proceed and Be Bold is a beautiful book, both visually and thematically, and a worthy follow-up to the first title. It left me with the comforting feeling that while so many of us seem determined to sink our efforts into projects that do little to benefit the common good, there are people who are confronting some of our social ills with creative solutions. ( )