UCLA, Walt Disney Imagineering partner on theme park inspired architectural program

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.