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player ready...After her 20 campers constructed a Prairie-style, multi-room home from cardboard, Cate LiaBraaten was struck by the details the children chose to include.
Some of her favorite touches within the home included a newspaper in the bathroom, or ice cream sandwiches in the freezer — “things that aren’t necessarily Prairie style, but things they think, ‘This makes a home,” LiaBraaten, the camp’s outreach educator, said July 1.
The cardboard house and its furnishings were built and designed at Holmes School as part of the two-week “Big House: Frank Lloyd Wright Architecture” camp, offered by the Oak Park Education Foundation’s BASE Camp, in partnership with the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust.
BASE Camp, which has 40 hands-on camps this summer with almost 1,000 children participating, focuses on STEAM concepts: science, technology, engineering, art and math, said BASE Camp Director Lindsay Bruce.
The group of upper elementary campers from Oak Park and surrounding areas toured Wright’s home and studio twice during the camp, LiaBraaten said, and identified details that embodied the Prairie style of architecture Wright is known for, like cantilevers, art glass and blending in with nature.
LiaBraaten said the children worked together on all aspects of the home, from choosing the number of rooms and the layout of the house, to the design of the windows and furniture, as Wright did in the homes he drafted.
“The students shaped it themselves,” LiaBraaten said. At 8 feet by 16 feet and 4 feet tall, the home was made from cardboard, tissue paper, construction paper “and a whole lot of tape.”
Eggs and bacon cooked on the stove, “Charlotte’s Web” and an Elephant and Piggie book sat atop the bedside table, and brightly colored tissue paper flowers filled the planter boxes. Each child created his or her own art glass-style window for the home.
Although not a typical element of Prairie style, the children felt strongly an arcade game machine should be in the home, and found a spot for it in the hallway, LiaBraaten said with a smile.
Ten-year-old camper Jentille Dallas said she liked the coal-filled fireplace and the living room’s couch with pillows. She said the process was “kind of hard, I guess.”
“I was surprised that we could build all these house materials and it could seem realistic,” Dallas said.
As the camp wrapped up July 1, children gave their parents and Celeste Adams, president and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust, a tour of the home.
“I think these students are extraordinary,” Adams said after being taken through the various rooms of the house. “Their ability to organize a project of this scope and carry it out with every detail is incredible.”
Their creativity and the skills used on the project are applicable to other areas of learning, Adams pointed out. In addition to the hallmarks of Prairie style, LiaBraaten said she hoped students took away broader information, too, like how to build a floorplan or use an X-Acto knife.
“These lessons are lasting,” Adams said, adding that the detail in the home was impressive. “They really have created a lifestyle.”
Parents Ben DeBerry and Alicia Perla of Oak Park were shown around the home by their daughter, 8-year-old camper Cecilia DeBerry, who said proudly that her favorite element of the home was the fireplace, “because I made it.”
Parent Lisa Smith of Westchester, who took photos while her daughter, 10-year-old Trinity Smith, showed her around the house, was impressed by the math skills the children had to use to design the house, and the thought that went into its layout.
“They didn’t look at it as like school. It was fun for them,” Smith said of the experience.
Kian Gharavi, 8, gave the camp a ringing endorsement: “He said he liked it even more than the Lego camp!” said his mom, Yasmin Gharavi of Oak Park.
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Caitlin Mullen is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.