Date published: 01.09.08 - not release date

FIRST GARDEN CELEBRATING SOUND COMES TO HAMPTON COURT PALACE FLOWER SHOW

‘The Widex Hearing Garden – celebrating sound’ will be the 1st garden created at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show to be designed around enjoying the sounds found in gardens. The Hearing Garden is designed by Selina Botham, sponsored by Danish hearing aid manufacturer Widex and supported by the Association of Independent Hearing Healthcare Professionals.

The Widex Hearing Garden also includes some key features including another first for Hampton Court - an interactive ‘Listening Wall’ – where visitors will be able to listen to garden sounds. Its purpose is to help visitors understand their hearing ability and to celebrate the pleasure it brings them. The garden will also include a water feature and sound sculptures.

This garden explores the important contribution sound makes to our natural environment and the enjoyment people get from their hearing sense. It also highlights how gardens can be experienced on another sensory level by being attuned to the ‘sound-scape’ all around.

As people’s hearing diminishes some lose the auditory richness and texture this ‘sound-scape’ provides. However, many hearing impaired people describe enjoying nature’s sounds again – birdsong, leaves rustling in the wind – when they first wear the latest digital hearing aids.

The design will represent a typical sub-urban courtyard garden and provide an al fresco retreat in which the rhythms of the garden can be enjoyed. The atmosphere of the garden is intended to be relaxing and happy.

Garden designer Selina Botham, of Designs for All Seasons, says she was inspired by the fact that people do not always appreciate the sounds around them. “Being in a garden, immersed in a full sensory experience is one of the great pleasures of life,” she said. “I hope my design will help people to appreciate and celebrate those every day sounds that are so important in our enjoyment of the world around us.”

Hampton Court Palace Flower Show runs from 8 - 13 July 2008. Further information about the show can be found at www.rhs.org.uk/hamptoncourt

To find your nearest Widex hearing aid dispenser or any further information on hearing aids please Freephone 0800 093 0947 or visit www.widex.co.uk.

For further info on the Association of Independent Hearing Healthcare Professionals visit www.aihhp.org


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Press Enquiries (and to obtain drawings of the garden), contact:

Simon Brookes or Susan Rowlands at CComs PR
Telephone: 020 7378 3430
Email: simon@ccomspr.co.uk / susan@ccomspr.co.uk