Fast Company

This House Costs Just $20,000—But It’s Nicer Than Yours

Rural Studio’s $20K House has such innovative design that it’s changing the entire housing system–from mortgages to zoning laws.

Fast Company

This House Costs Just $20,000—But It’s Nicer Than Yours

Rural Studio’s $20K House has such innovative design that it’s changing the entire housing system–from mortgages to zoning laws.

By Adele Peters

For over a decade, architecture students at Rural Studio, Auburn University’s design-build program in a tiny town in West Alabama, have worked on a nearly impossible problem. How do you design a home that someone living below the poverty line can afford, but that anyone would want–while also providing a living wage for the local construction team that builds it?