Senses Series: Sound
September 2025
In this first edition of our Senses Series, we take a deep dive into sound. We discuss the role of the auditory in the landscape, uncover its profound effect on well-being, and explore ways to harness its power to create dimensional outdoor spaces.
5 minute read
One of the earliest inscriptions of a sound wave from Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville’s Phonautograph via Society D’encouragement Pour L’Industrie Nationale
As summer slowly moves into fall, the auditory experience of the natural world transforms. In the Bay Area, coyotes yips at dusk fade and make way for the calls of migrating geese. On the East Coast, the humming of cicadas softens and the sounds of fallen leaves crunching underfoot becomes the tune of the new season. While sight often seems to take center stage in our reading of a landscape, the more subtle sense of sound sends us gentle, yet powerful, signals.
Benefits of Nature Sounds
The sounds of nature can have a deep effect on mental health & well-being and can provide an opportunity for our bodies to ground in the physical world. In a study reviewed by the NIH, researchers found that natural sounds like birdsong, running water, and rustling leaves reduce anxiety, stress & worry and have positive effects on relaxation. Another study found that the sounds of nature can physically alter the brain’s connections, reducing the body’s natural fight-or-flight instinct.
Taking some time to settle back into nature can pull us out of our patterns of inward-focused attention, like rumination and worry, and back to more external, grounded rhythms.
The Drawbacks of “Artificial Sound” & The Benefits of Silence
While the sounds of the natural world work to help calm our nervous systems, so too, does the kind of silence we can access in natural environments. Our modern worlds are often filled with “artificial” sounds that are produced by humans or technological activity like computer keys clacking, the rumble of distant cars on a road, or the low hum of an appliance. A study from the UC Davis Center for Occupational & Environmental Health (COEH) suggests that these “artificial” or human-produced sounds actually have a negative effect on human health and well-being. According to the COEH, “In 1981, the EPA reported that half of the US population lived in areas with traffic noise from road, rail, or air significant enough to cause health problems. More recently, researchers in the European Union identified traffic noise as the second leading cause of environmental health risk after air pollution- contributing to a loss of 1 million life years annually, according to the World Health Organization.”
So it’s not just that nature sounds benefit our bodies and contribute to the health of our whole systems, but it’s also that being immersed in nature shields us from some of the more toxic soundscapes that so many of us, as urban and suburban dwellers, are exposed to daily. Studies show that silence offers significant benefits for the human body, like lowered stress hormones, improved immune function, and stimulation of new brain cell growth. Silence can also help regulate the body’s stress response by activating the parasympathetic nervous system functions.
Find a nice place in nature to settle in and listen to the sounds of the Earth.
A great way to tap into the benefits of silence & the sounds of the natural world is by going on a walk around your neighborhood or at your nearest hiking trail. The further you can go away from artificial sounds, the better. Studies show that the benefits of forest bathing, like lowered cortisol & decreased blood pressure, can be felt within just 15-20 minutes.
If hiking or outdoor movement isn’t available to you, playing recorded birdsong has been shown to provide almost all of the benefits of forest bathing.
Garden Design & Sound
How can garden designers and stewards of the land cultivate environments that limit our exposure to artificial noise and increase our access to silence and beneficial nature sounds?
A great start is to design with plants that support native wildlife ecosystems. Creating plant palettes out of materials that provide food and shelter for beneficial insects and the birds that feed on them encourages those creatures to make regular visits (or even a home) of your garden. Soon, you’ll start hearing birdsong where there was none, or the rustling of insects under fall leaves. Minimizing outdoor lighting and providing water access will also help encourage visitation. Water elements are also a great way to quiet artificial noise in urban environments and create calming conditions. Our studio loves to opt for a solar-powered or low-flow pumps in fountains made of natural stone. It’s amazing how quickly bustling ecosystems materialize when we provide the right conditions. Successfully designed gardens engage all of our senses, no matter how subtly, and allow our bodies and our spirits to settle naturally into a space.
There is so much expansiveness to find in silence and in stepping into attunement with seasonality and with the chorus of the nature from which we came.
Cover Photo: ‘Phonautography of the Human Voice at a Distance’ included with Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville’s 1857 patent papers for the phonautograph