Epcot’s World Showcase is an ongoing World’s Fair encircling a picturesque 40 acre lagoon. The history, architecture, culture, and cuisine of eleven countries are displayed in national pavilions spaced along a promenade. The pavilions are replicas of familiar landmarks and typical street scenes. Lush gardens display the native plants and natural scenery of each country. While there are too many pavilions to explore each in detail there were many unique technical issues to be addressed.
In the Mexico Pavilion guests take a boat ride from a colonial village plaza through a lush jungle landscape under a twilight sky. To create the illusion of an outdoor environment, the large show room had to be acoustically dead. The walls and ceiling were covered with fiberglass absorptive material. We developed a method of forming compound curves of fiberglass panels, which could be painted and lighted to simulate different times of day. Even the simulated stucco structures were sound absorptive. |