Water for Travellers

Placemaking is one of the key elements of the Imagineering art. The designers of a set or location strive to fill it with details, some subtle some not, to help make it look lived in and authentic. In the words of Disney's Animal Kingdom Executive Designer Joe Rohde, "Detail is there to make you believe in the reality of the story you're immersed in."

The land of Asia has some of the finest examples of this work. The visitor doesn't feel that he or she is in an artificial theme park environment. Asia provides an escape into another world. Everything contributes to the creation of that illusion. Take the scene above as an example: the old stone floor, the crumbling brick and plaster walls, the layers of prayer flags, the harvested bamboo, the bicycle. This is a place inhabited by real people going about their daily lives.

One important aspect of daily life in Anandapur is the need to acquire fresh water. Since good sources of potable water are scarce, locals come to a place like this to stock up. Rather than standing in a long line and waiting for the water, though, they simply leave their vessels here. Different colors and designs identify individual owners, and since this is a community water source, people work together in a spirit of cooperation. When someone passes by and notices that a jug is full, he will replace it with another. If you left an empty jug in the morning, come back in the afternoon, and it's likely to have been filled.

Of course, this sort of detail is only possible because the team working on the Asia project for Disney's Animal Kingdom actually travelled throughout Asia for research. Observing a cultural practice such as this, unique to that part of the world, inspired designers to add another layer of detail and storytelling to what otherwise would have been a simple theme park drinking fountain.