Sensory park designed to stimulate senses of elderly and disabled

Dec 14, 2007, 0:42 GMT

Singapore - A Japanese-inspired sensory park to be built in Singapore will be filled with sweet-smelling flowers designed to appeal to the elderly and Braille signs describing the plants for the blind, news reports said on Friday.

Scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2009, the 1.1- hectare pilot park near housing for many of Singapore's elderly is planned to include water features, sculptures to touch and pavement to create special sounds.

Garden herbs and fruit trees will also help create an environment aimed at rejuvenating the senses of people of all ages and abilities, planners said.

'People get more passive as they grow older, and to have things around you to stimulate your senses, is very soothing and has healing qualities,' The Straits Times quoted landscape architect Yoshisuke Miyake as saying.

Like Japan, the city-state has one of the fastest ageing populations in the world.

The concept of rejuvenating the senses by integrating features to stimulate them originated in the Japanese city of Osaka.

The Housing Development Board engaged Miyake, who pioneered the concept in Japan, to work with with an architectural firm to create a sensory park in the city-state, the report said.

Construction has already started. The park will also have an adjoining area for playgrounds, a jogging track and exercise facilities.

As the facility caters to people of all abilities, 'no one is left out, be it a grandparent or a grandchild or a disabled person,' said Judy Wee, vice-president of the Handicapped Welfare Association.