Rather than visualizing sound on a screen, Light House turns it into architecture. The installation behaves like a light organ, translating audio into an inhabitable field of illumination that rises, falls, and pulses through space. As visitors move inside, sound is no longer directional or external, but experienced as a spatial condition—one that surrounds the body and responds in real time.

Light House is an interactive light and sound installation created for Sonos that translates audio into architectural form. The work consists of a grid of six hundred fluorescent light tubes suspended at varying heights and lengths, forming a dense volume that can be entered and navigated. Instead of enclosing space with walls, the installation constructs atmosphere through repetition, rhythm, and light.

Sound from Sonos components is captured across four channels and processed live. Variations in amplitude drive a series of programmed behaviors that propagate through the grid, with each fluorescent tube acting as an individual pixel. An array of Arduino boards and custom relay-based circuitry allows every bulb to be addressed independently, enabling precise control across the field.

As sound moves through the system, light spatializes it—making volume, rhythm, and intensity legible through brightness and motion. Audio is embodied within the architecture itself, passing through and around visitors rather than being projected toward them. The installation responds continuously, producing a dynamic environment shaped by listening as much as by movement.

A simple interface allows behaviors to be adjusted in real time, altering how sound is translated into light. Despite the technical complexity behind the system, the visual language remains intentionally restrained. By working with a minimal vocabulary of fluorescent tubes, Light House prioritizes clarity over spectacle, allowing subtle shifts in illumination to define space.

Through this pared-down approach, light becomes a building material rather than an effect. Rhythm, animation, and interaction operate as architectural elements, constructing an environment where sound and light merge into a single experiential system—immersive, precise, and quietly responsive.

Find out more about the process:
Technical development
Photos of the installation