Designed to promote ecology research through a unique experiential lens, the Missouri State University (MSU) Ozarks Education Center in Cedarcreek, Mo., is immersed in the landscape of the Ozark Mountains. It sits on approximately 3 acres and is adjacent to approximately 1,200 acres that fronts Bull Shoals lake, all within the Drury-Mincy Conservation. The center provides a new resource for the school to expand both educational and ecological research initiatives, as well as outreach for the College of Natural and Applied Sciences.
New education center is inspired by the Ozarks
Photo: Kelly Callewaert
BNIM, Kansas City, Mo., designed the 4,310-square-foot center as a simple form that is nestled into the surrounding topography. Inspired by the Ozarks region, the building features local materials and natural textures, while also reflecting the area’s ecology. Architects were guided by the concept of designing with a light touch, both physically and sustainably on the natural environment.
Photo: Kelly Callewaert
At the heart of the education center is a dog trot that orientates visitors to the site’s natural elements. The sunrise and sunset can be enjoyed by this space, which is designed on an east-west orientation, while a roof oculus creates a multi-sensory experience. A pair of barn doors allow the dog trot to be closed off, as well as acting as dampers for the wind that naturally cools the space. The dog trot acts as the threshold to both the main building and the broader site. A roof oculus is the focal point of the space that seeks to emphasize connection to sky, earth and cardinal directions, a design concept guided by Native American values and an acknowledgement of the Indigenous Land on which the project is built.
“The project is rooted in both the natural context and the vernacular building context,” says Josh Harrold, AIA, NCARB, associate principal at BNIM. “We developed a series of diagrams that started with the basic parti of a rural Ozark residence we simply called the Hillbilly Shack and seen thorough out the hills and hollers of the Ozarks. We took that basic prosaic massing and through a series of operations manipulated that basic parti to suite our project specificity with the basis remaining that initial understanding of the Ozark from.”
Approximately 3,400 square feet of 1-inch Tee-Panel standing seam panels in Matte Black from Berridge Manufacturing Co., San Antonio, as well as Colorado Springs, Colo.-based S-5! Color Guard integrated snow retention system. Berridge’s FW-12 formed metal wall panels without grooves in Matte Black are used on the barn doors and cabin siding.