Suikinku - sound gardens

Suikinku is a sound garden for focus: a small isometric island where every object you place, whether rain, a river, birds or a wind chime, becomes a sound source positioned around the listener. With headphones, the scene surrounds you in full 360°. A river on your left is heard on your left, a bird behind you is heard behind you.

The project turns an ambient-sound tool into something more personal: a gift. Each gift garden is composed for one person, in their own image: their places, their small rituals, even a silhouette dressed like them. It’s revealed through a printed card with a QR code. Alongside it, a collection of free world gardens inspired by real places, from a Kyoto temple in the rain to a Moroccan spice souk, invites visitors to explore. Partner cafés, coworking spaces and holiday rentals each get a signature garden of their own. The visual identity takes its colours from a blue bedroom and a wrapped present: tissue-paper pink, deep navy, ultramarine and sunflower yellow. It pairs a soft rounded typeface with a handwritten one, and hand-drawn illustrations bring the “made with love” spirit into every page.

Under the surface, nothing is recorded and nothing loops. Every sound is synthesised in real time and placed with binaural (HRTF) spatialisation, so the soundtrack never repeats. Sound design follows one rule: pleasant before realistic. Each instrument is tuned to feel soft and ASMR-like. Placement is checked by measuring each source’s level and direction rather than only by ear, using tools built for the project. Browsing gardens also works on mobile, where you swipe from one garden to the next and zoom with one finger. Composing a garden and the Pomodoro work sessions are designed for desktop.

Suikinku is built with TypeScript, the Web Audio API and Vite. It is deployed on Cloudflare Workers with a D1 database for partners and the moderated community gallery, and every push to main ships automatically. A private admin area behind Cloudflare Access handles moderation, showcase curation, sound reviews, printable partner kits and gift cards, and the planning of social media content.