Good question. If I had freedom to travel, and the inclination and a budget, I would consider visiting any number of buildings of interest and duplicating the original photo angles with new shots, showing better and worse examples of weathering and wear -- and such incidentals (?) as deteriorating or enhanced landscape and hardscape, etc.
Now Michael Reynolds out in New Mexico (Garbage Warrior covers his work) is actually trying to create communities off the grid using recycled materials as middle class exurbs...somewhat similar to mockbee with a completely different focus.
I was lucky enough to see him speak at my architecture school. He was great. Everyone walk out of his lecture just blown away The stories of the extremely poor people he helped were amazing
For the full story, find a copy of "Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and an architecture of decency" by Andrea Oppenheimer and Timothy Hursley (Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2002).
If one were to take ideas from The search for order, 1877-1920 (Wiebe, 1980), Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril Among the Black Middle Class (Pattillo-McCoy, 2000), Money, Morals, and Manners: The Culture of the French and the American middle classes (Lamont, 1992), The Emergence of the Middle Class: Social Experience in the American City, 1760-1900 (Blumin, 1989) and The City: American Experience (Trachtenberg et al, 1971), one can make some basic assumptions on why Mockbee's work is particular popular:
1) For most of the 19th-century and early 20th-century, many Americans are unable to differentiate between the malevolence and benevolence of the status quo. As power began to wain from the aristocratic classes of Europe and the Americas, which were due in large part because of war and rapidly changing [industrializing] socioeconomic trends, many responsibilities the aristocratic classes were being unfulfilled and challenged by a growing middle class.
For instance, many individuals lacked the knowledge of what their taxes actually went (roads, bridges, churches, military et cetera).
What this ultimately means for America is that while many of the Founding Fathers were bonafide gentry, almost none of them had peerage (meaning they were not granted any privledges under the crown).
The Stamp Act was passed (being the first direct tax) to finance the incredible cost that England had suffered financing the Seven Years' war. Of course, mostly no one knew that the war was being directly financed by the British government, the sums of money involved and so forth because no one was privvy to that information.
Two things-- the majority of the land in British America was privately owned, either by crown or corporation and colonists had no valid claim to that land and the colonists failed to voted any members into parliament or create any titles of peerage in British America. That's right-- America had access to titles of nobility and representation before the revolution!
Excluding the Townshend Act and Declaratory Act... we can make on assumption-- the American middle class assumed entitlement without responsibility.
This is a concept that is wildly prevelant throughout society today. That America, the land, should and will provide endless and bountiful resource and wealth while little concern is given by its inhabitants with regards to facilitation or responsibility to it.
It is a mildly unfair assessment of the mindset of the middle class but a necessary one as the foundation of individuality is rooted in landed ownership (that is questionable in authority).
In regards to Mockbee's work, this intertwines mostly in the fact that his work exudes both a gentile, landed quality but with an impression of self-- that is, the projects reflex the notion of hard work and being self made; a quality Americans' price themselves on despite the fact that it was handed to them on a silver platter for nearly two centuries, three if you count antebellum slavery.
2) Many of the original settlers of America were intellectually closed off from the Age of Enlightenment and parts of the European Renaissance.
While protestant beliefs spread quickly throughout Europe in the early 1500s, other intellectual pursuits rarely left cities and counties. Because this re-ignition of religion lead to ostricization quite rapidly, religious ideals quickly fractured European states.
Many people who followed new-found religious ideologies became isolated from the intellectualism in what was becoming "Modern" Europe. When many protestants were either voluntarily or involuntarily relocated to the Americas, this division grew greater.
Many of the early colonists held values and ideals that were more in line with those of medieval Europe than that of "cosmopolitan" modernizing Europe.
For instance, the realization that working was a necessity rather than an opportunity was a pretty big socioeconomic realization of modern European. This realization of obligation verse benefaction was pretty substantial as this realization of responsibility over mercy proved to be quite successful for wealth creation.
If one treats a job as charity, one must be grateful and appreciative of it. If one treats a job obligation, one realizes that others including one's self cannot profit without preforming that job-- i.e., the betterment of society cannot move without everyone employed and one cannot stay rich without employing others.
Weber, de Tocqueville and Morison have all written their own selective works on this idea. But what the jist of the concept is, that gracious and gratefulness (of God's benevolence) is gained through faith and hard work being key to salvation. While the contradiction (of catholic and catholic-like views) is that salvation comes from good work and good will.
The division and key point here is good work versus hard work. Continental values played at different points-- good work, whether charity or excellence, was frowned upon by puritanical values because pride and ostentatious displays are and were viewed as sin and affront to God. There was an inherent limitation present in puritanical values-- various artistic and scientific pursuits (good work) were absent from the American landscape for quite some time.
This is seen particularly the book about the division of the French and American middle classes that illustrates various choices each individual culture has made in "modern" times from housing selection, economic choices (both nationwide and personal) and particular values each culture holds as "important and worthwhile."
In addition, the concept of "just" that was present in puritanical societies played out in different was. Equality and egalitarianism, which lead to democracy, are particular points of both modern protestant and medieval catholic ideology. But, like said above, this limited what we could consider "advancement." There is no need to demonstrate class or wealth in a puritanical society. European standards were rejected for simple, plain things that "got the job done" versus decoration and expression deemed to pervasive for "godly" living.
What does this have to do with Mockbee? This reflects values he has expressed in architecture. He comes from a place of highly protestant (and somewhat purtanical) views about personal expression and the display of wealth. While wealth was often displayed in the South, it was far less acceptable in the Deep South.
His designs evoke that old time image people have of America that reject continental European values in favor of more puritanical values of justness and hard work. This very middle class view strikes at the hearts of many Americans who come from similar values where simplicity and hard work are favored over expression and "good work."
I mean... do I have to go on? I have written a 5,000 word essay on this exact topic in one of my art classes.
Sambo Mockbee
Whatever happened to him?
He died 9 years ago.
Could be a luxury shack for Haiti ?
I wonder how his projects are aging....patina...patina...patina!
Good question. If I had freedom to travel, and the inclination and a budget, I would consider visiting any number of buildings of interest and duplicating the original photo angles with new shots, showing better and worse examples of weathering and wear -- and such incidentals (?) as deteriorating or enhanced landscape and hardscape, etc.
but why Sambo Mockbee?
Why Sambo Mockbee?
His designs appeal highly to the American middle class.
really?
I am with b3ta...I like mockbee but his buildings were more about making something out of nothing - not creating middle class housing solutions.
Now Michael Reynolds out in New Mexico (Garbage Warrior covers his work) is actually trying to create communities off the grid using recycled materials as middle class exurbs...somewhat similar to mockbee with a completely different focus.
I was lucky enough to see him speak at my architecture school. He was great. Everyone walk out of his lecture just blown away The stories of the extremely poor people he helped were amazing
For the full story, find a copy of "Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and an architecture of decency" by Andrea Oppenheimer and Timothy Hursley (Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2002).
If one were to take ideas from The search for order, 1877-1920 (Wiebe, 1980), Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril Among the Black Middle Class (Pattillo-McCoy, 2000), Money, Morals, and Manners: The Culture of the French and the American middle classes (Lamont, 1992), The Emergence of the Middle Class: Social Experience in the American City, 1760-1900 (Blumin, 1989) and The City: American Experience (Trachtenberg et al, 1971), one can make some basic assumptions on why Mockbee's work is particular popular:
1) For most of the 19th-century and early 20th-century, many Americans are unable to differentiate between the malevolence and benevolence of the status quo. As power began to wain from the aristocratic classes of Europe and the Americas, which were due in large part because of war and rapidly changing [industrializing] socioeconomic trends, many responsibilities the aristocratic classes were being unfulfilled and challenged by a growing middle class.
For instance, many individuals lacked the knowledge of what their taxes actually went (roads, bridges, churches, military et cetera).
What this ultimately means for America is that while many of the Founding Fathers were bonafide gentry, almost none of them had peerage (meaning they were not granted any privledges under the crown).
The Stamp Act was passed (being the first direct tax) to finance the incredible cost that England had suffered financing the Seven Years' war. Of course, mostly no one knew that the war was being directly financed by the British government, the sums of money involved and so forth because no one was privvy to that information.
Two things-- the majority of the land in British America was privately owned, either by crown or corporation and colonists had no valid claim to that land and the colonists failed to voted any members into parliament or create any titles of peerage in British America. That's right-- America had access to titles of nobility and representation before the revolution!
Excluding the Townshend Act and Declaratory Act... we can make on assumption-- the American middle class assumed entitlement without responsibility.
This is a concept that is wildly prevelant throughout society today. That America, the land, should and will provide endless and bountiful resource and wealth while little concern is given by its inhabitants with regards to facilitation or responsibility to it.
It is a mildly unfair assessment of the mindset of the middle class but a necessary one as the foundation of individuality is rooted in landed ownership (that is questionable in authority).
In regards to Mockbee's work, this intertwines mostly in the fact that his work exudes both a gentile, landed quality but with an impression of self-- that is, the projects reflex the notion of hard work and being self made; a quality Americans' price themselves on despite the fact that it was handed to them on a silver platter for nearly two centuries, three if you count antebellum slavery.
2) Many of the original settlers of America were intellectually closed off from the Age of Enlightenment and parts of the European Renaissance.
While protestant beliefs spread quickly throughout Europe in the early 1500s, other intellectual pursuits rarely left cities and counties. Because this re-ignition of religion lead to ostricization quite rapidly, religious ideals quickly fractured European states.
Many people who followed new-found religious ideologies became isolated from the intellectualism in what was becoming "Modern" Europe. When many protestants were either voluntarily or involuntarily relocated to the Americas, this division grew greater.
Many of the early colonists held values and ideals that were more in line with those of medieval Europe than that of "cosmopolitan" modernizing Europe.
For instance, the realization that working was a necessity rather than an opportunity was a pretty big socioeconomic realization of modern European. This realization of obligation verse benefaction was pretty substantial as this realization of responsibility over mercy proved to be quite successful for wealth creation.
If one treats a job as charity, one must be grateful and appreciative of it. If one treats a job obligation, one realizes that others including one's self cannot profit without preforming that job-- i.e., the betterment of society cannot move without everyone employed and one cannot stay rich without employing others.
Weber, de Tocqueville and Morison have all written their own selective works on this idea. But what the jist of the concept is, that gracious and gratefulness (of God's benevolence) is gained through faith and hard work being key to salvation. While the contradiction (of catholic and catholic-like views) is that salvation comes from good work and good will.
The division and key point here is good work versus hard work. Continental values played at different points-- good work, whether charity or excellence, was frowned upon by puritanical values because pride and ostentatious displays are and were viewed as sin and affront to God. There was an inherent limitation present in puritanical values-- various artistic and scientific pursuits (good work) were absent from the American landscape for quite some time.
This is seen particularly the book about the division of the French and American middle classes that illustrates various choices each individual culture has made in "modern" times from housing selection, economic choices (both nationwide and personal) and particular values each culture holds as "important and worthwhile."
In addition, the concept of "just" that was present in puritanical societies played out in different was. Equality and egalitarianism, which lead to democracy, are particular points of both modern protestant and medieval catholic ideology. But, like said above, this limited what we could consider "advancement." There is no need to demonstrate class or wealth in a puritanical society. European standards were rejected for simple, plain things that "got the job done" versus decoration and expression deemed to pervasive for "godly" living.
What does this have to do with Mockbee? This reflects values he has expressed in architecture. He comes from a place of highly protestant (and somewhat purtanical) views about personal expression and the display of wealth. While wealth was often displayed in the South, it was far less acceptable in the Deep South.
His designs evoke that old time image people have of America that reject continental European values in favor of more puritanical values of justness and hard work. This very middle class view strikes at the hearts of many Americans who come from similar values where simplicity and hard work are favored over expression and "good work."
I mean... do I have to go on? I have written a 5,000 word essay on this exact topic in one of my art classes.
In addition to what SDR said, you can read Mockbee's pretty expressed views in an essay he written on this exact subject:
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/ruralstudio/mockbee_ruralstudio.shtml
i believe there is also a newer film titled "snakebit"
and possibly a case for the other thread on democratic design
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