Pulse is a new conceptual piece developed by EBBA director Benni Allan for Houghton Festival. Pulse is about capturing and transmitting the resonance of trees and how they respond to their context, drawing on advanced environmental sensors that pick up signals and translate these into a dynamic composition of light and vibrations. The result is an immersive experience completely unique to the site at Houghton Festival, where technology allows for a bridge between human perception and nature.

Visitors find themselves enveloped in a responsive environment where light pulses and soundscapes shift in dialogue with the forest, encouraging a moment of introspection and wonder. Designed to respond to the environment in real time, the installation captures and interprets the connection between trees through an interplay of sound and light, creating a mesmerising, meditative journey that resonates with the festival’s ethos of discovery, creativity and connection.

Pulse will not disappear entirely with the end of the festival. It has been conceived as a permanent fixture at the Houghton site, offering ongoing access to this dialogue between art and nature. Over time, the installation will offer the potential to respond to the changing seasons, weather patterns and tree activity, evolving into a living monument to the forest’s vitality.

Team:
Houghton Festival – Commissioner
Benni Allan – Lead Designer
EBBA – Architects
Kevin Pollard – Sound Design
Our Department – Fabricators
Arup Engineers – Advisory Engineers
Public House – Engineers
Lighthaus Studio – Technical Production
Oliver Ellmers – Lighting Design
Kat Rothery and Katie Dufort – Fabric Seamstress
Abwb.carpentry – Carpentry