Welcome to EPCOT 2055! This is a conceptual overhaul of EPCOT based upon current events and past experiences. EPCOT, as we know it, is in a state of confusion. It's become a random mixture of 1980's, 90's, and 21st century futurism interlaced with intellectual property and world cultures. It's a textbook definition of an identity crisis. There are many threads out there with solutions to this problem, but I want to present my own spin on this park's future.
This thread will not be a vintage epcot wishlist of rides with no rhyme or reason. The park has had enough broken messages and it would defeat both my purpose and what I believe to be the purpose of the current overhaul: Thematic Unity. Everything designed in my concept will be based upon this slogan:
Rooted in the Past, Designed in the Present, Inspired by the future.
Rooted in the Past: Using knowledge gained from previous experiences and visions of the future. This pillar encompasses the EPCOT's history as well as how we've viewed the future in the past.
Designed in the Present: Using modern technology and innovation to provide unique guest experiences without creating excess material to cloud the message of the park. Elaborate, but efficient.
Inspired by the Future: A key element of EPCOT since day one, this pillar includes all the realistic visions of the future that will be represented in the park.
No single pillar will dominate the others. This will conceptually keep the park from becoming dated, at least not as quickly as in the past. I'll explain in further detail these concepts as the project rolls along.
Presentation
This project will be unveiled in three phases. Since it's a tribute to the Past, Present, and a Conceptual Future, it will be split up accordingly.
The Past: In order to establish the themes represented in this new concept, we'll be diving into the history of EPCOT Center all the way back to Walt's broadcast of The Florida Project. From there we'll experience important milestones of the park's development from the 80's through the 2000's. Along the way, I'll share elements of these past attractions that'll become "new" elements in EPCOT 2055.
The Present: Depending on what year I get to this phase, I'll either be referring to rides under construction, or brand-new attractions and spaces in the 2020's version of EPCOT. We'll talk about perceived problems with the new design and highlight the impressive parts. Ultimately some elements will cross over to EPCOT 2055.
The Conceptual Future: From this point, which will be from 2030-2055, we'll enter a conceptual future of the park, and my concepts will become fully realized through a visual model of the new park. I'll discuss each area in detail and explain how each land, attraction, restaraunt, and shop fits the three pillars I mentioned above.
Every historical milestone will be modeled in Minecraft for a visual simulation of how the future would progress from 1982 to 2055.
TO SUM IT UP: I plan for this concept thread to be a unique aspect of the forum. Because of the models I'll be making, this project will most likely take a couple years to complete. Once it's done, I hope it'll create a realistic blueprint of the future and a source of inspiration for future armchair imagineers dreaming of Tomorrowland/EPCOT-esque ideas!
Please feel free to comment on any part of this project! Conversation creates interesting dialogue and sharing of ideas!
I hope you're prepared, because we've just begun to dream!
To fully understand EPCOT as a concept, we need to dive into the history of its foundations: The World's Fair. "World's Fair" is an overarching term for large-scale festivals displaying new technologies and exotic cultures from around the world. It's meant to both entertain and inform the public with new advances in thinking and expose them to new ideas. It has always been an international effort as each country showcases what's unique about them and what they can produce. Think of a tradeshow (like IAAPA for example) mixed with a theme park of sorts for nations. That is a world's fair.
The concept of a world's fair dates back to 1791 with the industrial exposition in Prague, Bohemia (now Czech Republic). From then through the early 1800's, these expostions, which mainly took place in France, only featured the nation where it was held and it's accomplishments. (image) It wasn't until the 1850's that the "world" in World's Fair became more accurate. At this point these showcases were happening all over the world and featured many more countries. The idea became so popular that different countries hosted expositions, as they were called back then, in the same year.
I'd like to mention one fair in particular, the Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, that has an impact on the story of EPCOT. This fair is an excellent example of the kind of World's Fair EPCOT was designed off of. I say this because this exposition featured pavilions, which are large structures designed to house exhibits of a specific subject matter. These pavilions would be exhibits unto themselves as their architecture would be the "hook" to draw guests inside. One of the most famous pavilions structures include the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Space Needle in Seattle, and the Unisphere in New York City. The Columbian Exposition was no exception as it had multiple major pavilion structures (only two remain today). Apart from other technological and cultural exhibits featured, it's known for being the first exposition lit entirely by electricity, an incredible accomplishment for the time, and also featured an early form of an attraction called the Moving Sidewalk! This particular fair is also the first connection of the world's fair concept to the Disney family, as Walt's father, Elias Disney, was a construction worker for the exposition, It's believed that the fair had an impact on Walt and his future designs for Disneyland and the EPCOT City concept.
Fast forward to the 1939 New York World's Fair, and you'll find the General Motors Futurama Pavilion, a showcase of future transportation technology and highway infastructure. It was a slow-moving dark ride where guests rode in "chairs" and saw models of future cities and their transportation methods. It was a smash hit among guests and was rated the best pavilion of the fair by a wide margin. This exhibit would pave the way for pavilions Disney fans would be more familiar with.
Twenty-five year later, the famous 1964 New York World's Fair debuted. Disney fans will know this fair for Walt Disney's four major contributions: It's a Small World (Pepsi pavilion, was originally called Children of the World), The Carousel of Progress (General Electric pavilion, called Progressland), Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln (Illinois pavilion), and Ford's Magic Skyway (Ford pavilion). These pavilions were Walt's and Imagineering's first experience with the world's fair concept, and it would directly lead to the creation of EPCOT Center as a theme park.
EPCOT Center was the final evolution of the world's fair concept. Up to the 1980's, and today, world's fairs were temporary installations that would disappear after a year or two of operation. EPCOT Center would be a permanent world's fair, a constantly changing showcase of what our future lives would look like. Although this idea became more "permanently-replacable", it's spirit still lives on in how the park is structured. The farther away EPCOT strays from this idea, the more disjointed and confusing it becomes, and we've seen it unfold over the last thirty years.
As for world's fairs, the concept was ultimately decimated by the dawn of the internet in the late 90's and early 2000's. Now, people no longer need massive expositions of new technology because it can be found with a simple search on your favorite browser. It's also more economically feasible for companies to not have to spend millions sponsoring a pavilion only for it to disappear in a year. There are still world's fairs like Expo 2020, but their impact upon society is nothing compared to the old expositions of the 19th and 20th century. It is for these reasons that EPCOT 2055 will not feature any corporate sponsorships and will not be an exact copy of the world's fair format. It's already proven to not last. EPCOT 2055 will definitely use it as a main part of it's core ideas and park structure, but it will be blended with other concepts to become a park that will last longer than any previous version of EPCOT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EXTRA READING: For further reading on this topic, I've linked some Wiki articles down below:
The first model of this project has begun construction! The majority of the work has taken place in Future World East along with Communicore and a bit of Spaceship Earth.
These progress reports will appear intermittently between each posts about the project. After the first model (1982) is built, each year will be built off of the most recent model. For example, after 1982, I'll finish Horizons and open Imagination for 1983 instead of rebuilding everything from scratch.
These models will be available for anybody with Minecraft Bedrock edition. I also plan to convert these to Java edition once they're done.
You must be excited about the new Disney Minecraft DLC. Right now they have just Magic Kingdom, but hopefully they'll do the rest of the parks as well.
More progress has been made on the 1982 Model! The Communicore structures and the Universe of Energy have their roofs installed, the Fountain of Nations has been installed along with the accompanying waterways. World of Motion was relocated due to improper measurements. Construction started on Future World West with the Land pavilion going vertical. Spaceship Earth's rear show building is nearly complete and outlines for the sphere and general measurements for the entrance plaza are in place!
Happy Holidays everyone! New developments are happening with the '82 Model right now, and I'm ready to reveal the current state of things.
More pathway work as well as roofing and landscaping has commenced since the last update. Spaceship Earth's sphere has been framed out, Future World West pathways have begun construction, Communicore has a roof, Future World East has it's pathways mostly completed now, and I'm beginning to construct the entrance plaza and the bridge to World Showcase!
Next up will be a discussion on Progress City, the original plan for EPCOT, and how it will factor into EPCOT 2055. Stay tuned!
I'll be back in EPCOT this week and will take the time to document remnants of the past. This trip will also provide photographs for when I build the 2021 model. 1982 is still under construction and I'll have more photos real soon.
Okie Dokie, updates have been a bit scarce, but progress has been made! I keep forgetting to post stuff in this thread!
Alrighty, first off here's the entire 1982 EPCOT as of right now.
A lot of work was completed on the entrance structures.
Spaceship Earth's exterior is 98% complete now! (I just need to finish the actual ride entrance.)
World Showcase has gone vertical with the American Adventure, Germany, China, Mexico, and the Odyssey Restaraunt!
This project will be four months old in a couple days, and the progress has been wonderful! I'm also formulating the pavilion ideas for EPCOT 2055 (currently thinking of a Mission Space rehab/replacement). Stay tuned hopefully sooner than last time!
I've spent a bit of time recently on pavilion interiors in Future World. Here are some recent highlights!
Universe of Energy:
A complete ride system test to accurately recreate the vehicle movements of the attraction.
Note: The delays in the video are from the recording software. The ride itself runs smoothly.
The Land:
Construction has commenced on the main atrium and outlines for attractions are being installed.
World of Motion:
Interior work has progress similarly to The Land. The iconic atrium ramp and load have been constructed while the interior ride, exit, and postshow receive outline work.
6-month tribute slideshow documenting the progress made from October 2021 to April 2022 featuring music selections prominent in my vision for EPCOT's future. I hope you enjoy!
Hello everyone. It has been around a year and 4.5 months since I last posted. I have continued with this project in that time and have released the first alpha version of the 1982 world while working diligently on the second alpha version.
Over the next few days I plan to get this thread updated to the present with new media. I'm working on a second slideshow ranging from May 2022 through May 2023, the release of the first alpha version.
You can download all versions of this project here.
Hello everyone. It has been around a year and 4.5 months since I last posted. I have continued with this project in that time and have released the first alpha version of the 1982 world while working diligently on the second alpha version.
Over the next few days I plan to get this thread updated to the present with new media. I'm working on a second slideshow ranging from May 2022 through May 2023, the release of the first alpha version.
You can download all versions of this project here.
