Fall 2019
The Frost LookIn is designed to be a place of solitude and inspiration for the great American poet and Dartmouth alumni, Robert Frost. Located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the pavilion is isolated from society to provide room for deep reflection without distraction. As opposed to a lookout, the Frost LookIn’s purpose is to provide a space for the user to make connections between nature and humankind to better understand themselves and the world, as Frost once did.
The atelier was inspired by the poem by Frost, The Sound of Trees, which uses the simple plant of nature to create a metaphysical conceit describing traits of human nature. In this designed tree structure, Frost, as well as other artists can observe nature from a higher perspective with 360 degree view with panelled plexiglass walls. Since many of Frost’s poems are sensory, there is an upper deck which has no walls or ceiling to fully immerse the writer in nature. Continuing up the ladder, there is also a smaller deck as well as a hanging chair for multiple seating options at varying heights.
A recurring theme of Frost’s work was man’s relationship to the natural world around him. Because of this attention, it was important that, in creating the LookIn, the tree remained unharmed. To do this, I used a treehouse security method that uses friction and tension fasteners so that no screw or bolts are in the tree. Around the trunk are threaded steel rods that connect the wooden beams and tighten the base of the platform. Wooden beams below act as a support to distribute the weight.
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