Anthony Averbeck, Joe Brookover

An Hour West of Omaha, Nebraska aims to catalogue typologies of small towns, settlements, and structures in the territory around Omaha, Nebraska. Through applied research, mapping, and field work, the project aims to reveal the unique social, cultural, and economic forces that shape the built environment in the rural Midwestern United States. The project will develop this catalogue through three primary methods: analytical research, mapping, and field work. 

The focus of architects and urbanists on cities leaves a significant hole in our understanding of the impact of the built environment and urbanism on a territory that comprises over 75% of the American landmass and is home to roughly 50% of its inhabitants. Paradoxically, while the rural occupies the majority of the American landmass, it contributes less than 50% of the national GDP and is finding itself in the midst of a 25% (and growing) population loss to metropolitan areas. 

As a result, rural communities across the country find themselves heavily subsidized and in a struggle to maintain cultural and economic relevance amidst an almost universally-declining economy, loss of social and political capital, and cultural identity in question. Despite bleak prospects characterized by reports of poverty, deteriorating infrastructure, and physical abandonment, the countryside is also a place of immense opportunity for innovative future development. 

Rem Koolhaas asserts that “the countryside is now the frontline of transformation. A world formerly dictated by the seasons and the organisation of agriculture is now a toxic mix of genetic experiment, science, industrial nostalgia, seasonal immigration, territorial buying sprees, massive subsidies, incidental inhabitation, tax incentives, investment, political turmoil, in other words more volatile than the most accelerated city.” (Koolhaas, Rem. 2014)  The central question is, if the rural is worth saving, what will define the rural of the future? How can the future rural town develop new models for providing housing, infrastructure, services, and cultural identity to a changing demographic and economic base?

Moreover, beyond the domestic focus of our research, we are broadly interested in re-framing the international discourse on the rural; from a bucolic and pastoral vastness that simply provides resources for cities (rural production, urban consumption) to a model of the rural as a region of opportunity and innovation that is developed in a model that is less distinct from and more complementary with the city (urban-rural synchronization). In doing so, we aim to challenge the prevailing sharp distinction that is made between ‘urban’ and ‘rural’, and as a result open the door to propositions for new, radical models for human occupation and use of the countryside.

Research Methods

I. Mapping / Preliminary Research

II. Field Work

• interviews

• observation

• sketching

• photography / videography / drone imagery

III. Catalog, Analysis, Publication

Outcome

The outcome of the research will be a survey comprised of two catalogues; (1) town typologies and (2) common building typologies along the transect from the peri-urban edges of Omaha, following the Lincoln Highway (U.S. Route 30) westward to Schuyler, Nebraska, which is just over an hour away by car. Supplementary essays, news reports, data, reflections, photography, literature, and art will augment the catalogue and establish the milieu.

People

Anthony Averbeck, Joe Brookover