Add a Fountain to your Landscape

Over the past ten years or so, water fountains have almost become a craze. More indoor and outdoor water fountain models are available in more choices of styles, sizes, colors, and materials than ever before! Office desks may sport miniature water fountains, logo water fountains are used for corporate signage; hospitals and dental offices use water features to calm visitors; outdoor water fountains are increasingly called for in residential developments, parks, even children’s playgrounds. Municipalities are incorporating water fountains in high-traffic locations.

Everyone loves water fountains! Why?

We live in an increasingly stressful world…the sound of water flowing from a water fountain has a magically relaxing effect. Imagine yourself at the ocean, or by a babbling brook, and you may start to unwind… Ambient noise–traffic sounds, sounds of appliances, televisions–all take their toll on our nerves, sometimes without our realizing what’s going on.

How about the sound of water? That question can only be answered subjectively. In general, water fountain sound will be influenced the materials used in making the fountain, the size of the water fountain, the height from which the water falls, and the number of surfaces to which the water falls. External ambient qualities will also come into play…is the location for the fountain very “live” acoustically, i.e. do sounds bounce off the surfaces and echo, or does the space muffle sounds…with acoustic design elements, or just lots of carpets, soft furniture, and the like? How loud are the sounds that the fountain will be used to mask? You can see that the criteria are numerous to determine a fountain’s sound.

Of course, water fountains also disperse more water into the air, and we all know how much better our skin feels in a room with the appropriate humidity level than in a dried-out environment. Negative ions are produced by falling water…and they have a calming and cleansing effect…notice how clean the air smells after a thunderstorm! A water fountain will have a similar effect.