index
The evil empire
click on images for full-size:
Disney headquarters building, designed by Michael Graves
England themed at Disney's Epcot
An architecture student told me that she had enjoyed Disney creations until she came to architectural school and learned that Disney was the Evil Empire. Themed places sin against modernist canons of honesty. They also reek of the commodification that offends postmodernists who would otherwise approve of fantasy. For almost everyone themed places seem an emblem of what it means to live in a fast-paced, image-drenched society that leaves unsatisfied some basic need for contact with reality, even though the themed place's reality assaults us at every turn.