Field Center: Under One Roof, 2024Designers: Kelly Bair, Kristy Balliet
Location: Oak Park, Illinois
Production Team: Malvin Bunata Wibowo & Alex Harrison
In 1926, the Oak Park Park’s District ran a design competition for a one room building. In 2024, with the same competition run anew, BairBalliet joins Frank Lloyd Wright in the losers circle. The circle, often located by its center but defined by its perimeter, is a symbol of unity and inclusion. Under One Roof is a proposal for a Field Center that encourages its users and visitors to both occupy the center and find overlaps in its contextual, spatial and programmatic tangencies. The Prairie Style, an architecture long embraced by Oak Park, is defined by strong geometries, natural materials, asymmetrical floor plans and characteristics that reinforce the horizontally of the midwestern prairie such as low roofs and deep eaves. Under One Roof suggests an updated prairie style through the large circular roof that envelopes the building massing below and blurs the line between interior and exterior as it offers playground visitors, school children, and Field Center users respite from the midwestern elements. Together, the building form, material use/reuse, and construction type reflects the innovative spirit associated with the Prairie Style movement.
