Architecture Commons^™

Covid-19 And Immersion: Physical, Virtual, And Home Spaces, Scott Lukas

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

This article considers the dramatic adaptations that have occurred in themed immersive spaces as they have dealt with the challenging dynamics of COVID-19. As COVID-19 has been a respiratory disease, it has impacted the operations of theme parks, casinos, cruise ships, and other immersive spaces, especially as such spaces have relied, traditionally, on physical forms of entertainment and immersion. The writing begins with a consideration of the COVID-19 challenges noted in the theme park and cruise ship industries. OceanMedallionTM and MyMagic+ technologies are considered for their possible positive role in addressing the operational dynamics during the pandemic. Issues of guest …

Brighter But Not Clearer: Entertainment-Dependent Destinations Dealing With Long Covid, Louis-Etienne Dubois, Frederic Dimanche

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we explored a range of very different possible outcomes for destinations that rely heavily on their entertainment sector (Dubois & Dimanche, 2021). Several months later, this article seeks to revisit those outcomes, while also highlighting the ongoing recovery efforts and evolving strategies of entertainment-dependent destinations (EDDs). To do so, we reconnected with the panel of respondents from various destinations (i.e., Las Vegas, Nashville, New Orleans etc.) to take stock of both new challenges and opportunities, as well as emerging factors impacting their respective markets. Our results show that while EDDs are facing a …

Theme Parks, Staycation Practices, And Covid-19: Opportunities And Uncertainties, Salvador Anton Clavé

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

The effects of COVID-19 on the market transformation of the theme park industry has been significant in the short term because of travel restrictions. Challenges, impacts, responses, and strategies might vary from one region to another and even from one theme park to another. However, it can be assumed that domestic travel will continue to have an effect on the theme park industry during the months to come and likely beyond the pandemic. In this context, the “staycation” is becoming a booming trend in the leisure, entertainment, and tourism industry, creating new, current, and future unexpected economic winners and losers. …

Disney During Covid-19: The Tourist And The Actor’S Nightmare, Jennifer A. Kokai, Tom Robson

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

In this essay, we argue that the experience of being at Disney theme parks in COVID times was a waking version of what is sometimes called “The Actor’s Nightmare.” Due to safety regulations, theme parks either dropped live entertainment that structures the day as a show with a clear beginning and end (e.g. park-opening rope drop performances, and the fireworks), attempted to include references to COVID in live entertainment (like in

the Frozen Ever After singalong, which added some COVID jokes), or to ignore it (like the Festival of the Lion King). In any case, due to these measures the …

The “Politics Of Inclusion/Exclusion” In Times Of The Pandemic, Florian Freitag

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

As commercial enterprises that depend on attracting a maximum number of visitors in order to be economically successful, theme parks have generally been careful to avoid unpleasant, sensitive, or controversial themes (or aspects of a theme) that might offend or alienate potential customers. Due to official regulations concerning e.g. the wearing of masks in waiting lines and during rides, however, the pandemic cannot simply be “excluded” from the parks and remains constantly visually present, thus seriously undermining the companies’ efforts to keep the park grounds rigidly separated from the rest of the world. Particular operational decisions by some theme park …

“It Takes People To Make The Dream A Reality”: Disney’S Hr Strategy In Response To Covid-19, Jaime L. Williams, Allison A. Toth

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

From January 2020 to the beginning of fall 2021, theme parks around the world have been required to engage in abnormal, abrupt, and major shifts in operations caused by the ongoing global pandemic (COVID-19). Through the process of sensemaking, this paper will focus on the human resources related decisions made by The Walt Disney Company in an effort to better understand the organization’s responses to changes in the external environment and the resulting outcomes during the pandemic. The overall management of Cast Members in the United States during this time period with specific focuses on the layoff and re-hiring of …

Are European Theme Parks Likely To Suffer From Long Covid?, Pieter Cornelis

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

COVID-19 has had a major impact on the theme park industry. Visits to European parks were significantly lower in 2020 than the year before. This article discusses the short-term and long-term economic consequences of the pandemic for the theme park industry. Attitudinal loyalty, inertia effects of guest satisfaction on repeat visits, (deferred) reinvestments, and the difference between theme and amusement parks will be considered. To compensate for losses in 2020, many parks increased their visitor numbers in the 2021 season to the maximum permitted capacity, especially in the summer months. As a result, analysis of waiting times at 22 investigated …

Introduction: Theme Parks And Covid-19, Salvador Anton Clavé, Florian Freitag

Journal of Themed Experience and Attractions Studies

In the tourism industry, “crises” have been conceptualized as local and temporary phenomena, interval states that may require imminent action, but that can eventually be overcome, with business simply resuming. At the moment of writing, however, it is not at all clear when or if the theme park sector can simply return to a pre-pandemic state of affairs. Even if tourism may once again attain pre-COVID numbers, it may well be through entirely new and different forms. The essays collected here provide scholarly and professional snapshots of the current (winter 2021/2022) state of the theme park industry, with special attention …

2022- The Twenty-Sixth Annual Symposium Of Student Scholars

Symposium of Student Scholars Program Books

The full program book from the Twenty-sixth Annual Symposium of Student Scholars, held on April 19, 2022. Includes abstracts from the presentations and posters.

Reconstructing The Aural Heritage Of The Historic Rochester Savings Bank, Sungyoung Kim, Xuan Lu, Doyuen Ko, Miriam Kolar

Frameless

In cultural heritage preservation, visual and architectural aspects of heritage sites are emphasized while little attention has been given to sensory and acoustic features. Because human experience is holistic, the contribution of auditory information is significant. In fact, many built environments have been specifically designed and used for conveying particular auditory information. For example, concert halls and recording studios are constructed to create pleasing acoustics for musicians and audiences. In such buildings, acoustics translate to auditory information that can uniquely identify a space. Moreover, visual information is dominant for ‘informatic’ experiences, while auditory information has been strongly associated with the …

Exploring The Psychological Consequences Of Distances In Virtual Reality, Gary D. Jacobs

Frameless

This presentation will examine common concepts of traveling between formalized spaces inside virtual reality (VR) experiences.

The common method for traveling in virtual reality is to click on an area or trigger and be transported to that location. These “teleportations”, however, remove the notion of distances from our virtual worlds. This is akin to a magic wand that eliminates the consequences of travel in VR. Often heralded as a boon for the virtual worlds we can create, wherein we can travel to far away lands without lag in time and without effort on the part of the participant. We posit …

Cultural Preservation Using Game Architecture, Atia Newman

Frameless

This talk is an overview of the Lahore Fort Digital Preservation Project, which offers a new approach to the field of Digital Preservation of Cultural Heritage Sites by using game technology. The resulting digital preservation technique will allow us to preserve historic sites and objects in a manner that is scientifically appropriate but also accessible to general audiences, regardless of economic and geographic restrictions.

History And Technique In Reinforce Concrete Formworks: A Study Of Pier Luigi Nervi Approach, Moritz Meditz

Symposium of Student Scholars

The last hundred years in architecture and civil engineering have been widely dominated by the use of concrete, which became the second most consumed commodity after water. The traditional use of rigid, flat formwork panels has defined reinforced concrete members as a uniform cross-section, prismatic structural elements in both design codes and construction methods. These resultant shapes have become practically an inevitable conclusion for concrete constructions. This presentation focuses on alternative formwork construction looking at the work of engineer, architect and builder, Pier Luigi Nervi (1891–1979). Nervi was an adjunct professor at the University of Rome and a prolific writer, …

Using Anaerobic Digesters As A Sustainable Approach In Creating Sustainable Cities In Egypt, Rania Rushdy Moussa, Laila Atef Elsawaf

Architectural Engineering

The first digestion plant was built in Bombay, India, in 1859. But since 1895, anaerobic digestion has been used to recover gas as a waste management system in England. Anaerobic digesters are one of the most well-known systems that are used worldwide to get rid of waste and generate energy, yet they have never been employed in Egypt. This research aims to determine the economic, social, and environmental impacts of anaerobic digesters in Egyptian cities and districts. From an economic perspective, the study estimates the energy produced from storing organic wastes in anaerobic digesters, using a quantitative approach to measure …

Albuquerque Public School’S Vision Zero For Youth Initiative: Engaging Student Youth In Designing A School District Transportation Safety Program, Cordell S. Bock

Architecture and Planning ETDs

The APS (Albuquerque Public Schools) Vision Zero for Youth Initiative adopts the global Vision Zero traffic safety movement’s goal of eliminating traffic fatalities and injuries to pedestrians and cyclists from vehicular crashes. The APS Vision Zero for Youth Initiative is comprised of a traffic-safety curriculum for K-8 students, an action plan that sets traffic-safety goals and progress evaluation frameworks for the school district, and a campaign to build a new culture of traffic safety for students, families, and local communities.

This project employs participatory methods that build the capacity of students enrolled in local public schools to produce and share …

Landscapes Are Cornerstones Of Sustainability Programs, Don Spence

Sustainability Conference

Typical American landscapes are not sustainable in an economic or biological framework. The essence of the idea of sustainable growth and development are centered on the idea that those activities are not degrading natural resources or that they are outstrip budgets. A significant piece of any sustainable management plan is tied to how we manage our landscapes, how we use plants; specifically, how much grass there is, and how many native plants there are. Sustainable landscapes should require less chemical and financial inputs, which in the end, saves money and increases the biological value of the land and creates a …

Surface Urban Heat Island In South Korea’S New Towns With Different Urban Planning, Kyungil Lee, Yoonji Kim, Hyun Chan Sung, Seung Hee Kim, Seong Woo Jeon

Institute for ECHO Articles and Research

A new town is strategically built within a short period compared to naturally developed cities. It is considered an appropriate study area for analyzing the urban climate problems such as surface urban heat islands (SUHIs) that is differently generated according to urban planning and development. In this study, we suggest comprehensive method for determining and comparing changes in surface UHI distribution during 1989–2048 in two new towns with different urban planning. First, a substantial increase in built-up areas was observed from 1989 (< 5%) to 2018 (> 40%) in both new towns. However, SUHI phenomenon-increasing patterns were different of about 12.25% depending on urban …

Feasibility Study Of Implementing Gamma-Ray Computed Tomography On Measuring Aggregate Distribution And Radiation Shielding Properties Of Concrete Samples, Omar Farid, Nima Farzadnia, Kamal Khayat, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Aggregate segregation is one of the key defects that impair the performance of concrete at fresh and hardened stages. This study aims to assess the feasibility of using an advanced technique to identify/scan/determine the aggregate segregation of concrete elements and determine radiation shielding properties of the concrete. The gamma-ray computed tomography (γ-CT) technique was employed to study aggregate distribution/dispersion in self-consolidating concrete (SCC). Accordingly, two SCC mixtures with moderate segregation (MS) and high segregation (HS) levels were cast and compared with highly stable SCC with no segregation (NS). The γ-CT scans were located on three different levels of concrete specimens …

Parametric Design In Landscape Architecture: Exploring Visual Scripting In Grasshopper As A Tool For Landscape Design Innovation, Derek Jenson

Student Research Symposium

Parametric design is a tool that emphasizes the relationships between elements in the design and modeling processes. It combines the power of visual computer scripting with the design process. Unlike the fields of architecture and engineering, parametric design has been relatively nonexistent in landscape architecture until very recently. The objective of this project is to explore how parametric design can be used as a functional tool in a typical landscape design project - in this case, a trail design. The result of this study is a coded model that can serve as a tool to improve design efficiency in professional …

Mapping The Impact Of A Trailway System On The Amount Of Trash Present Within Two Watersheds Of Lynchburg City, Virginia, Lillian Smith

Student Scholar Showcase

Transportation of trash debris within water systems is a prominent occurrence which has been linked to natural and artificial processes such as wind, rain, and littering. Recreational areas, such as activities along greenway trails, have been determined to be a source of debris found in waterways. This study examines whether the presence of an established recreational trail system limits trash accumulation in the entirety of a watershed. Trash data collected at Blackwater Creek, which contains an established trail system, was compared to trash data collected at Fishing Creek, containing a non-established trail system, to answer this hypothesis. A distance of …