Reflecting Photonics, a Garden of Light, is the International Year of Light garden sponsored by the University that was voted Best Garden in the People’s Choice Awards at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) show at Tatton Park.
The garden was conceived as part of UNESCO’s International Year of Light, which raises awareness about how light-based technologies can promote sustainable development and provide solutions to global challenges. It is sponsored by the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), and the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Photonics.
The Reflecting Photonics garden was inspired by a visit to the University’s ORC’s speciality fibre production facilities and clean rooms. Designer Helen Elks-Smith, of Elks-Smith Garden Design, detailed:
“We were struck by the parallels between the cross sectional patterns of this next generation of fibre optics and vascular bundles: the transport and mechanism of plants. We were also interested in how light, although it travels in straight lines, reflects internally along these fibres and so appears to ‘curve’.”
The garden had already been awarded Gold at the show and featured in two BBC2 programmes about the RHS Tatton show on Thursday 23 and Friday 24 July, that attracted 80,000 visitors. Pearl John, Public Engagement for Physics and Astronomy and team leader of the project, said:
“I’m very glad that we’ve had such an enthusiastic response from people visiting the garden and talking to our outreach team. Winning the People’s Choice Award for Best Garden reinforces how inspirational the garden is and it’s a great outcome for our collaboration with Elks-Smith Garden Design.”
Special thanks go to the energetic and talented outreach teams from Physics and Astronomy and Optoelectronics Research Centre.