The new “Magic Dream Castle” at Hong Kong Disneyland is an architectural vision of diversity

Much has changed in the 55th anniversary of Walt Disney’s death – not only in the wealth of his brand, now one of the most influential corporations in the world, but in the characters he creates and the values ​​he promotes.

So when the company began building a new fairytale castle at Hong Kong Disneyland, it considered something that would have barely taken into account the discussions at the opening of the first resort in Anaheim, California, in 1955: diversity.

The new Castle of Magical Dreams, completed in November and reopened last month after Hong Kong’s Covid-19 restrictions eased, nods to the wider variety of female characters now featured in Disney movies. Unlike the Cinderella castles in Florida and Tokyo or the Sleeping Beauty castles in California and Paris – all inspired in part by Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, nineteenth-century Germany – the design is not just a heroine, but over a dozen.

The new structure was built above the existing Sleeping Beauty Castle, the central element of Disneyland in Hong Kong since the resort opened in 2005. Therefore, Princess Aurora still has a special place in the new castle, with a tower dedicated to “Sleeping Beauty”. the tallest standing protagonist.

But the other 12 towers pay homage to a variety of different princesses, queens and heroines, including fictional historical or popular Disney figures, such as Chinese warrior Mulan and Native American figure Pocahontas. (Anna and Elsa from “Frozen” share a tower with each other).

The diversity is also reflected in the eclectic architecture, which sees rose gold domes mixed with embossed turrets and towers. Disney’s so-called “Imagineers” – the artists, designers and engineers behind the theme parks – incorporated the characters’ stories into the design of each tower, such as an apple lattice pattern in Snow White’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” ) “), scalloped details for Ariel (” The Little Mermaid “) and a water lily motif for Tiana (” The Princess and the Frog “). Elsewhere, the structure boasts gold-tipped finishes, stained glass rose windows and columns with hand-carved ornaments.

Design challenges

Hong Kong’s Sleeping Beauty Castle was directly inspired by California’s first Disneyland resort. This castle had been dreamed of in the 1950s by Walt Disney, who imagined an amusement park for the whole family, complete with a replica of an old-fashioned American high street and distinct “dream countries.”

To honor the vision of its founder, Disney decided to keep the Sleeping Beauty Castle in Hong Kong when it began a major expansion in 2016 – instead of demolishing it entirely, the designers built on and around it.

“The original castle is a Disney foundation, so we wanted to build on that,” said Hilcia Pena, a senior architect at Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) in a video interview.

The result is a kind of palimpsest, in which the versions of many castles – the original from California, the replica from Hong Kong in 2005 and the new Castle of Magical Dreams – come together as one. After the multi-annual expansion of 10.9 billion Hong Kong dollars ($ 1.4 million), which saw the park receive several new attractions, the reimagined castle is more than twice the height of the old one.

According to Pena, this means that the castle is no longer dwarfed by the mountainous landscape of Lantau, the island where Hong Kong Disneyland is located. The imagers even used helium-filled balloons to help them visualize the height of the prospective structure relative to its background. Then they used 3D technology to model how the old castle and the new castle will connect.

One of the biggest challenges was finding a way to build on top of the existing castle, while keeping the park open to visitors. The team landed on a modular construction, which sees individual parts of a building or “modules” built in a factory before being transported to the site. In this case, the castle was built of 15 large parts, each prefabricated, painted and assembled off-site. The individual towers and other components were then shipped and erected in place over a period of three months.

Together, the towers form a mosaic of cultures through color, symbols and patterns, each offering different elements of the world to their respective characters. Jasmine’s fuchsia tower is embellished with an Arabic fabric pattern and crowned with a turquoise dome. Mulan’s tower is embossed with a cherry blossom motif. And Merida’s tower is full of Celtic models, a reference to the four clans in the 2012 movie “Brave”.

Each tower culminates with a unique gold-tipped finale for each character: a golden shell for Ariel and an enchanted rose for Belle. Meanwhile, inside, guests will find 13 columns covered with details dedicated to the protagonists’ friends, such as Ariel’s Flounder and Sebastian, Merida’s triple brothers and the pet pig Moana Pua and the rooster HeiHei.

“We understand different parts of the world, so we can’t just focus on one group, or a princess, or a location,” Pena said. “Our stories continue to grow and we will learn about different cultures around the world. So how can we put that into the buildings and stories we’re trying to tell?”

The only direct representations of the 14 heroines are inside, where Imagineers designed bronze statues of each. Their evolution – from Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, whose lives are based on a man’s kiss, to assured and empowered characters like Merida and Moana – tells a story about how Disney has repositioned itself over the years. But even the statues of older characters were designed with contemporary values ​​in mind.

“Instead of portraying them in a very submissive way, we portrayed (all of them) as strong women in a very attractive way,” said Amanda Chiu, a producer with WDI Asia, pointing to Ariel’s appearance in proud legs while exercising her newfound. freedom and Jasmine riding solo on the magic carpet.

Local inspiration

According to the characters’ origins, Imagineers was inspired by Europe, China and the Pacific Islands. “A European castle has the same style and details everywhere,” said Pena. “It has different architectural styles – even the domes are very different in style.”

It is appropriate, perhaps, for such an eclectic castle to exist in Hong Kong, one of the most diverse cities in Asia. “Hong Kong is a city with a rich cultural fabric and cultural diversity,” said Chiu, who was born and raised in the country.

In addition to inspiration from around the world, Disneyland Hong Kong was also built in accordance with the principles of feng shui, an important aspect of design and architecture in parts of Asia. Based on an ancient Chinese system, ancient practice involves positioning objects or buildings in relation to each other and their surroundings to encourage happiness and luck. In 2005, for example, the angle of the front gate of the resort was shifted by 12 degrees, believing that it would keep the positive energy or “chi” flowing through the park. Feng shui also informed the design of the new castle.

“Feng shui is about the balance of the five elements,” Chiu said, referring to wood, fire, earth, metal and water. “We want to build on that harmony and apply it to the castle.”

Wood and earth are symbolized by the arrangement of the castle’s territory – a mixture of live plants and artificial foliage – which helps it to blend in with its surroundings; the fire will be used in pyrotechnic performances at night; the metal can be found in the gold finishes of the towers; and the water is used in the castle ditch and in the dancing wells. “All these elements come together in good harmony,” Chiu added.

Although still rooted in gender traditions, Hong Kong’s Castle of Magical Dreams still symbolizes Disney’s attempts to modernize. With an increasingly global customer base and more resorts in Asia, diversity could be not only a matter of value, but also good business.