Any study of Disney design will reveal a plethora of smart tricks and sneaky tactics to influence guests’ moods. You’ll find immersive sounds, enticing smells, and pleasing colors everywhere you turn. These are built into the landscape of the parks so masterfully that it’s almost impossible to pinpoint all the elements that are playing on your emotions.
Disney’s architecture plays a big role in enhancing your moods. These massive features can help you feel hopeful, excited, or imaginative. Consider these creative ways that Disney nudges your emotions in the right direction with its architecture.
Creating an exciting entrance
The Magic Kingdom uses forced perspective on Main Street to influence the way you feel when you first arrive in the park. Upon your entrance, you’re full of anticipation. You’re energetic and ready for an adventure. Main Street caters to this air of excitement by making it seems as though Main Street is a long expanse of towering shops, just waiting for you to explore.
Most buildings appear to be at least three stories high. However, if you were to climb the façade and measure, you’d find that only one level fits between the two rows of upper windows. The features of the buildings get smaller as you go up to make them appear bigger than they are.
Main Street angles inward toward the castle to make it look longer as you’re entering the park. The road also climbs slightly. You’re unlikely to notice it as you make your way toward that stunning castle in the distance, but the small bit of added incline builds more anticipation on your hike up to the castle.
Easing your exit
When you’re leaving the Magic Kingdom, you probably feel very different from when you entered. You’re tired, possibly hot and sweaty, and often wondering about your choice of footwear for the day. The same design features that gave you a heightened sense of excitement coming in will help you have a more comfortable exit.
The buildings are angled outwards slightly as you’re exiting the park. This makes the street look shorter than it did from the other direction. The street slopes slightly downward toward the exit to make it an easier walk on the way out. This is all designed to help guests feel happy and relieved as they near the exit. Just when you’re getting too tired to go on, you’ll find the street seems surprisingly short and easy to walk down.
Inspiring your emotions
Epcot’s theme of innovation and creation is meant to have a hopeful, futuristic feel. This is most noticeable as you enter the park and approach Spaceship Earth. This massive geodesic dome is an architectural masterpiece. It’s supported by angled arms that reach outward from the globe. Imagineer John Hench has mentioned that “The Columns of Spaceship Earth are constructed to reach out like beckoning arms,” saying, “It’s designed to say, ‘You’re OK. You’re going to be OK.’”
These columns seem to offer warm embracing arms that are both comforting and inspiring. This supports Epcot’s aim to create an optimistic and inventive view of the future. In this park, the horizon seems full of fascinating innovations and brilliant discoveries. This is emphasized as soon as you enter with Spaceship Earth. After passing beneath those outstretched arms, it’s difficult not to adopt some of that peaceful sense of hope and confidence for the future.
Recreating iconic eras
Disney is all about detail. When they’re creating a replica of a particular landmark, they’re true to every detail of the original. This is most notable in the Great Movie Ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This is one area where forced perspective gets no play. The façade that you see at the end of the street in Hollywood Studios is a full-scale reproduction of the original Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
The inclusion of the theater is meant to emphasize the park’s general air of a Hollywood studio. If you find yourself feeling a little caught up in the glitz and glamor of the Hollywood of days past, then the architecture in this area is doing its job perfectly with its towering façade.
Inspiring guests to slow down
When you’re in or near the street of Disney’s theme parks, it’s hard to escape the sense of perpetual movement. It’s difficult to find much rest or relaxation when you’re getting swept along in the flow of guest traffic from one attraction to the next. However, Disney has created several areas that offer a welcome respite from this frenzied feeling.
If you have a keen eye, you’ll spot these quiet courtyards everywhere. The courtyard in front of the baby care and first aid areas at Magic Kingdom is a peaceful little escape from Main Street. Head into countries like France in Epcot and you’ll find charming seating, landscaped gardens, and a truly immersive air that makes you feel as though you’re lingering in the streets of Paris instead of rushing to meet your FastPass+ reservation. It’s no coincidence that you can so easily find a peaceful corner when you’re starting to feel overwhelmed. Disney designed it that way.
The magical air of Disney often seems effortless, as though a sprinkle of pixie dust in the air keeps it all going. However, the ambiance that pervades that parks is far more intentional. Take note of these careful details and perhaps you can use them as inspiration to create a little more magic in your own spaces.
