Cedarcreek, Missouri, USA
Led by Craig Scranton and his team at BNIM, the new Ozark Education/Bull Shoals Field Station supports the expansion of the school’s ecological studies and research through a unique experimental lens.
The Ozarks Education Center/Bull Shoals Field Station project recently won a 2022 Green Good Design Award and 2021 American Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The Ozarks Education Center/Bull Shoals Field Station offers applied research and education opportunities for Missouri State University’s (MSU) College of Ecology, the Natural and Applied Sciences Department, and other research and educational organizations.
This new location allows students to have an expanded and more diverse study of the southern Missouri natural environment and allows the Department to reach more students, more natural science organizations, and many high schoolers.
The main building houses a bathhouse and a multi-purpose community space that can accommodate small and large groups of up to 60 people.
The project houses sleeping quarters, a dining center, a residential kitchen, a classroom space, and multiple spaces for programs to help support the pursuit of education and research for its visitors.
The focal point is a dogtrot that separates communal and residential spaces, offering a direct visual connection to nature bringing in the full immersion of dawn and dusk by being oriented on the east-west axis.
A skylight placed in the dogtrot also opens the building up to the sky and water is welcomed into this space; with these, the building is connected to both the sky and the earth.
The opening space is protected by large barn doors that can provide passive cooling, and protect the interior space against harsh weather conditions.
Nestled within the forest trees, three individual cabins are located down the slope from the main building.
These cabins also give a multi-sensory experience to their visitors and are equipped with passive-cooling strategies through operable windows and large apertures that connect the cabins to the vast mountain-scape.
Project: Ozarks Education Center/ Bull Shoals Field Station
Architects: BNIM
Design Team: Craig Scranton, Josh Harrold, April Trotter, Barb Cugno,
and Adam Weichman
Client: Missouri State University
Photographers: Kelly Callewaert
