Theme Park Design vs. Architecture

Theme Style vs. Architecture

By

Peter Alexander
Completely Enjoyable Company

www.totallyfuncompany.com

So you want to design a theme entertainment project?

Okay, so where do you begin?

You start out by deciding on an architect, proper?

Well, not necessarily! Asking an architect to generate a theme project is like asking a multiplex theater designer to direct a film: you happen to be putting the cart just before the horse.

In a theme resort, store, restaurant or any themed entertainment project you are making a "show," a 3 dimensional movie you can smell and really feel. You are not producing a 'place' as architects do…you are creating sets, and populating them with actors, as in a film. In a theme entertainment project, the function of the actors is played by the guests (called guests) and workers (called "the cast"). You boost these actors' performances with props, particular effects, lighting and theme architecture…the sum total of the encounter is called "the show." The "show" is almost everything the guest sees, hears and experiences throughout his or her visit. The architecture can be noticed as the "stage" upon which the "show" is performed.

Given that theme style is about making a "show," one of your 1st acts must be to pick a "show designer." This "show designer" should certainly be a person with confirmed expertise in the theme style field. They will employ style principles originally pioneered in the theme park business to create your project. Regardless of whether the project is a resort hotel, restaurant, shopping center or theme park does not genuinely matter. Regardless of the land use, it will be the show designer's job to produce an atmosphere that immerses the guest in an emotional expertise. If they do their job well, your guests will be immersed inside a planet that may intrigue, amuse, or even frighten them, but consistently entertains them a planet your guests will want to check out again and once again.

So, what are the principles of theme design that your show designer will employ
to make this world? Well, there are too a great number of to enumerate in a single brief article, but I can talk about a few, starting with the 1st stage of theme style, concept development.

Square 1: Concept Development

Architects start with a phase known as "schematics." Theme style begins with a phase known as "idea development."

In schematics, the architect works with the client to develop a "program" (i.e. determining the building's functions and size) and then develops schematic drawings that show the layout and general appearance.

In theme style, we normally begin with no much more than the thought that the project requirements to be entertaining and ought to attract a certain number of men and women in a particular market place. Sometimes the client will bring a fundamental "notion" to the show designer, other times we commence with a blank page. The method of filling in the blank page is named idea development. We can fill that blank page with words, drawings, illustrations, plans, models or mock-ups or any combination of them, but when the idea is total, the client will have an understanding of what the project is all about.

One particular of the main differences among theme style idea improvement and architectural schematics is the "invention element."

In schematics, architects do not have to have to invent the developing type, i.e. thousands of hospitals or workplace buildings currently exist. Even so, in theme park concept improvement we occasionally require to invent some device or system just to make "the show" operate.

For instance, during the idea improvement for the Back To The Future Ride at Universal Studios, we needed to produce a flying De Lorean, as featured in the film. The notion to accomplish this was invented out of "blue sky:" I figured we would put a dozen or so De Loreans inside a substantial format, domed film theater, each and every De Lorean would ride on best of their personal simulator motion base, and by cutting off the webpage-lines to the rest of the theater, guests inside every auto would really feel like they had been flying. My boss (fearless Universal Executive Jay Stein) stated, "That will in no way perform. It is such a beneficial concept, if it could operate, an individual would have thought of it already." Then Jay, who knew how to motivate his design team, bet me a thousand dollars it would not function.

In order to prove out the idea (and get my thousand dollars), throughout concept improvement we created a foam core mock-up of a De Lorean Ride Automobile, and took it to the Omnimax Dome at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. Even moments just before the initial test, my friend (and later, a single of the producers of the ride) Craig Barr bet me an further twenty dollars the "invention" wouldn't work. Then again, as soon as the lights went down and the film rolled, Craig put a twenty dollar bill in my outstretched palm. What we saw from inside the foam core mock-up was awesome. Just by cutting off site-lines and isolating our automobile from the stationary parts of the theater, we made the sensation of flying. I'm still waiting for that thousand dollars from Jay, but for richer or poorer, we had invented a new ride program crucial to the development of that concept.

It was only following we were able to develop this "initial of its sort" ride, and assure ourselves that it worked, that we had been in a position to begin designing the actual Creating that housed the ride. Two items drove that procedure: the want to accommodate two eighty foot diameter Omnimax domes, and the require to break the guests up into groups of eight-the capacity of every single De Lorean. What we ended up with was a futuristic building we called "The Doc Brown Institute" (following the crazy scientist in the film) that maximized efficiency in terms of loading the ride.

In summary, first we came up with the "show," then we developed the building in which to stage the show. Also, it's significant to note that we created a ride method crucial to the improvement of the concept, and not the other way about. In theme style, technologies is produced to support tell a story, while superior stories are rarely, if ever, developed by technologies. Therefore, the ride method invention flowed from the story, and not the other way around.

This raises an important question: what stories do we want tell in concept improvement? Are there any guidelines about what kinds of stories are perfect told in theme environments? Are there any lessons we have learned that may possibly prevent your brainchild from turning into "Seed of Chuckie?"

Picking A Theme: The Tale of Too Several Smurfs

A couple of years ago, I was operating with the Walibi Theme Park chain, which at that time owned a quantity of parks in Europe. We had helped improve the profits of a couple of their parks by applying our brand of theme park show style, so they asked me to come up with concepts to aid the "dog" of the program, the 1 park that had in no way verified favorite, the Smurf park near Metz, France.

The Smurfs, as you could recall, had been small blue cartoon characters (Papa Smurf, Smurfette, Brainy Smurf, and so on.) who were wildly favorite back in the seventies. Sadly, the character's good results on tv had not translated into theme park attendance: only 700,000 guests had attended in the course of the park's to begin with year (1989) versus the projection of 1,800,000, and attendance had declined thereafter. By the time I got there, the park was virtually empty.

As I walked by way of the park with the General Manager I noticed some thing: everything was Smurf-themed. They even had a "Future Smurf" world, like Tomorrow Land, only filled with Futuristic Smurfs. When I to begin with entered the park I type of liked the Smurfs, but by the time I left, I was sick of them: they had too quite a few Smurfs. "And if you don't like Smurfs," The General Manager said sadly, "You do not come to the park."

From that I learned a lesson: choosing a single theme for an whole park, resort, shopping complicated or entertainment center can be risky. The preferred bet is to supply a variety of themes and thus appeal to the largest attainable demographic. Disneyland is a very good example. Walt could have themed the entire park to his cartoons, but instead he themed one particular land to Major Street USA, a different to the future, a further to the American frontier, etc. The bottom line: if your project is of big enough scale, follow Walt's lead and attempt to consist of numerous themes.

Once you choose your themes, you have produced a roadmap which you use to discover the rides, shows, restaurants and shops that will make up a land, and from there, style both the buildings that property them and the "location development" or public spaces the guests will flow via to access them.

Selecting A Theme: Brand In The Right Format

In the early nineties, Time Warner acquired the Six Flags chain, which then consisted of seven theme parks. At that time, the parks had gone by means of many owners and had been decreasing in worth and attendance for years. Although the parks had originally been developed as family members adventures, the addition of roller coaster following roller coaster had turned them into teenage amusement zones, and as the families left, the revenues and the earnings of the chain declined.

The new Time Warner-appointed Six Flags CEO, Bob Pittman, wanted to turn that about. Time Warner had just released the initial Batman film, which had been a large hit, and there had been sequels in the offing, so I recommended we use Batman as the theme of many family-oriented attractions. I "pitched" a simulator ride and a stunt show, but it was the stunt show that excited Bob Pittman. "So you can get the pyrotechnics and the heat of the flames ideal in the audience's face, eh?" Bob asked excitedly.

I mentioned yes, and about seven months later we opened the Batman Stunt Show in three theme parks. The impact on Six Flags was immediate and substantial. Attendance elevated at all 3 parks, but a great deal more importantly, the stunt show format brought the households back to the parks, which elevated the per capita spending, and turned the parks around. Bob Pittman told me later that the Batman Stunt Show had positively affected Six Flags success far far more than the (a lot more expensive) Batman (roller coaster) ride considering the shows had changed the character of the parks and the demographics of the guests.