Boring Environments

I’ve recently had some design work that has thrown up a big question in my mind…

I believe that there are some narratives that would be powerful and interesting journeys to take guests on, but their associated visuals are just dull. Is that my personal taste, or is there some objective fact in this?

Instinctively, I want to tell you that theme parks, unlike film, are in danger of their stylistic qualities being misunderstood. I’ve discussed this phenomenon quite often on this blog when I talk about realism. Functional objects used as theming will be read not for their implied stylistic connotations but as functional objects, because theme parks, zoos, restaurants, museums and the like are, above all else, functional spaces.

The Swarm at Thorpe Park... One Year On

One year ago, I posted my review of Swarm. Despite being 4500 words or so, there was a lot I didn’t cover and, more importantly, an awful lot has changed in a year….

Photo by author.

…Which is a point worth noting in itself. A lot has changed. Literally, in a physical sense. Throughout 2012, theming elements were added to Swarm. Effort was made to improve the already better-than-average presentation, some of which are solutions to previous criticism. The open plaza is now home to an ambulance perched precariously on its rear and telephone box turned on its head, pummeled into the ground. Together, those elements help to combat the open blandness of that area, but they also added audio to Swarm’s already impressively chaotic soundtrack.

Walt Disney World… Some Initial Thoughts

Having only just visited Walt Disney World Resort in Florida “properly”, I thought it would be apt to jot down some of my initial thoughts.

Epcot was our first park. We arrived in Orlando fairly late in the day, so it seemed logical to pick the park with the least to actively do. To my surprise, Epcot would be a park we would revisit. I struggled to be impressed with the dull Future World section of the park at it’s entrance, though visiting in January without the foliage displays I’d seen in photos was disappointing. I enjoyed how the landscape doesn’t feel like a theme park in places, but more akin to a resort or recreational park. But I couldn’t get past how dated parts of it look. I gather that might be half the charm for many, or perhaps the entire point – but I find that somewhat unconvincing logic based not on personal taste or experiences, but someone else’s preconceived idea. Like the nonsense of “its classic, therefore it’s good”.  The aquarium especially looks incredibly dark and brutalist, reminiscent of London Zoo’s aged architecture. I always thought of Disney attractions as being timelessly relevant and not appealing to contemporary designs of when they were build, but we found more outdated environments at the Transport and Ticket Centre and in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom. I felt like the intentions of this section of Epcot were no longer relevant, and possibly never was? I know little of the park’s history, so my opinions are purely objective to my experience in early 2013. Who in their right mind would pay that much for what is essentially a museum?