Ever wonder what the theme park of the future will look like? A group of UCLA architecture students, with help from world-renowned designer Greg Lynn and Walt Disney Imagineering, is about to show you.

 

Lynn, a UCLA professor of architecture and urban design and winner of the Venice Biennale's Golden Lion architecture award, and a team of experts from Imagineering, together with other industry leaders, are directing 15 exemplary graduate students as they explore the history, design and fabrication technologies of theme parks and resorts — as well as where they might be heading in the years to come.

 

"Walt Disney Imagineering is already designing the rides of the future," Lynn said. "Our students will develop the artistic and contextual experience that goes along with those rides: the eating, shopping, even waiting in line."  

 

The project, this year's UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Master of Architecture II program, also known as a Suprastudio, is a yearlong studio course designed to examine the impact of new manufacturing and digital technologies from the aerospace, naval, automotive, defense and entertainment industries on architectural form and theme park and resort experience. 

 

"Gateway to Tomorrow" — an exhibition showcasing recent work created by the Suprastudio — will be on display from Jan. 8 through March 19, 2010, in the Perloff Gallery on the UCLA campus. The exhibition will feature innovative theme park entrances designed around iconic landmarks. 

 

"All of us at Walt Disney Imagineering are excited about the possibilities that could result from this partnership with UCLA Architecture and Urban Design," said Bruce Vaughn, chief creative executive for Walt Disney Imagineering. "Walt Disney Imagineering has collaborated successfully with other areas of UCLA for the past several years, and we look forward to working with Professor Greg Lynn and other talented minds participating in this Suprastudio program."

 

Lynn, a world leader in computer-aided architectural design, won the 2008 Golden Lion award at the 11th International Venice Biennale of Architecture. In 2005, Forbes magazine named him one of the 10 most influential living architects, and in 2000, he was listed as one of the 100 most innovative people for the 21st century by Time magazine. 

 

Walt Disney Imagineering is the unique, innovative organization that creates — from concept through construction — all Disney theme parks, resorts, attractions, cruise ships, real estate developments and regional entertainment venues worldwide. Imagineering's unique strength comes from the teamwork and syntheses of creative and technical professionals representing more than 140 diverse disciplines. 

 

Because California has the largest concentration of high-technology industries in the world and is a global center for entertainment and animation, the Suprastudio will also focus on the use of new digital tools, design mediums using animation, robotics, and the spatial, formal and material expression of Southern California popular cultures.  

 

After completing several discrete projects related to family entertainment venues, the students will complete the year with a large-scale, multi-use complex that includes entertainment venues; rides; retail, food and beverage functions; hotels; pools; and landscape. These projects will integrate state-of-the-art digital imaging, augmented reality, building-scale robotics, smart building control sensors and energy systems, all of which are available today but have never before been combined into an architecturally considered total environment.