Inhabiting Light is a site-specific outdoor installation at the University of Michigan Nichols Arboretum that offers a transformative space for grief, rest, and reflection created from bespoke prismatic cast glass forms

Dedicated to care and reflection, the Inhabiting Light installation will be nestled among the trees planted each year by the C.S. Mott Foundation for the annual A Walk to Remember and Tree Planting Memorial.

Creating a sanctuary, the Inhabiting Light installation will create a space for rest and privacy as a powerful spatial moment of pause and healing. Both physically strong and transmissive to light, the prismatic qualities of glass allow a visitor to be within nature, while also allowing for visual privacy.

Glass walls intersect to form four distinct alcoves, each offering visual privacy while remaining permeable to the shifting quality of natural light and color throughout the day. Different positioned benches and seats allow both individual introspection as well as conversations among close companions. While visitors can have their own space to sit and reflect, these seats, made from trees that have fallen in the arboretum, hold all of them together.

Inhabiting Light is constructed using Light Forms — a patent-pending bespoke prismatic cast glass module developed by the project team. Light Forms aggregate in variable tessellations to produce unique patterns and light effects responsive to time of day, season, and weather. The Light Forms modules are already supported by rigorous testing for structural performance, weather resistance, light transmission, and constructability.

Partnerships and Team:

Bowling Green State University

University of Michigan

C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital

Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum

Poesia, LTD

TYLin Structural Engineers

Generous sponsorship of this project to date:

Bowling Green State University

University of Michigan

TYLin Structural Engineers