Jora Vision, a leading design and production company, has shared insights into how it creates imaginative theme park designs and constructions with a clear vision and powerful design tools.
Known for its versatility, Jora Vision is sometimes called “the Swiss Army knife of themed entertainment.” It can deliver a wide range of projects, from restoring century-old carousel horses to designing complete destinations with multiple theme parks and hotels. To manage this complexity, the company relies on skilled craftspeople, powerful tools and top-tier software.
This is where Vectorworks and its design-centric BIM (Building Information Modelling) workflows come in.
Streamlining projects
Vectorworks is the ultimate software for Building Information Modelling (BIM) workflows due to its integrated 2D/3D abilities, smart management of changes and data, and industry-wide interoperability. By seamlessly combining both 2D drawing and 3D modelling, facilitating efficient data exchange, and promoting collaboration across different software platforms, Vectorworks offers a comprehensive workflow solution for design professionals.
“Before we started working with Vectorworks, every discipline had a separate software package they worked with,” says Andrea van der Vlis, an interior architect and senior design lead at Jora Vision. “Going from 2D to 3D and the other way around was a bit of a hassle.”
Vectorworks’ hybrid drawing environment allows Jora Vision’s designers to easily switch between 2D and 3D views with one click. This flexibility improves BIM workflows, facilitating floorplans, elevations, illustrations, and more in one document. It also allows for multiple views for complex themed elements: a 2D top-down view for drop tower measurements, elevation views for height clearances, and 3D views for impressive thrill-ride visuals.
Jora Vision’s design team uses Vectorworks’ Data Visualization to assign colour codes to 3D masses, specifying data. They sculpt buildings and elements with 3D modelling features like Subdivision and Deform tools, allowing for intuitive, precise creation of organic models aligned with their design vision.
“We use Vectorworks in our detailed design, but it’s just as strong when working on a concept design. Especially when the client already has info on their buildings, we can import that and use that as a starting point,” van der Vlis says.
For instance, the team used Vectorworks to design spatial volumes for shelves, display tables, and the register in a theme park candy shop. “We quickly realized it would feel overcrowded, so we reviewed the client’s wishes with them to adjust where needed,” she adds.
Brainstorming and ideation
Vectorworks provides designers with tools to conceptualise and present design ideas. Features like Subdivision and Deform enable exploration of 3D building geometry. Its hybrid environment generates 2D measurements of floorplans quickly.
Brainstorming and ideation are essential components of Jora Vision’s process, and they can be enhanced in Vectorworks. Even when Jora Vision has established dimensions, floor plans, and building placements, it can still experiment with colours, materials, and illustrations without altering the model’s related data. In Vectorworks, technical design and aesthetic coordination complement one another.
Creating high-quality presentations in Vectorworks can also clearly articulate design information and engage clients more effectively. This helps make informed design decisions and showcase designs. Using Saved Views facilitates live discussions about changes with clients, jumping from one ride to another. Then, annotative tools in Vectorworks can display relevant information like space dimensions and material details — which are both crucial to construction, offering clear and concise building information.
Attention to detail
Jora Vision can manage the whole process of creating leisure destinations, from pre-planning to setting confetti cannons on opening day. However, some customers only need partial assistance.
“When we know we’ll not be building our designs ourselves and are not involved directly in art direction, it’s essential for our deliverables to contain all the important information,” says van der Vlis. “This is especially true when theming, which means not only dimensions and materials but also specific details, exact colors, and material finishes. The clearer we can convey this information to the client, the better . . .”
The Jora Vision team uses Vectorworks to manage data and create detailed specification sheets for each park element, including architectural details. Similar to Vectorworks’ annotative tools, these sheets help construction partners bring the fantasy world to life.
Opening any project created by Jora Vision in Vectorworks typically reveals towering coasters and extensive fantasy streets on the screen. Yet, not everything designed in the software is meant to be large. You might also discover 3D-printed models of smaller building components, mini golf courses, and more within the Jora Vision office.
Francisco Patrão, a technical designer at Jora Vision, highlights a recent project involving a larger-than-life dragonfly: “We used Vectorworks for precise 3D modeling, then translated it into a high-quality prototype using 3D printing. Our painters brought it to life as a realistic specimen.”
Bommelwereld, the Netherlands’ new indoor theme park
One recent project Jora Vision created in Vectorworks is Bommelwereld, an upcoming indoor theme park that promises a unique blend of nostalgia and cutting-edge rides. The park’s name stems from Olivier B. Bommel, a beloved character from Dutch literature. He’s an aristocratic bear known for his well-meaning but often clumsy attempts at gentlemanly behaviour. His adventures with his clever friend Tom Poes have captivated readers for generations, making them the perfect inspiration for a theme park.
The park was completely new and had to be built from the ground up. This was a challenging feat, with over 19 attractions that had to fit in a 9000 square-meter hall while maintaining proper queue lengths, guest flow, and themed sight lines. Using Vectorworks’ space planning tools, Jora Vision could test different layouts and instantly generate capacity calculations, ensuring each attraction had adequate space for operations and theming.
The project’s toughest challenge was to complete the park’s master plan and the individual ride signs in just a few months. Therefore, collaboration and efficiency were vital. Fortunately, Jora Vision utilised Vectorworks’ BIM features, which offered unmatched interoperability. With numerous import and export options, they could easily share files in various formats with clients, including design plans and 2D illustrations.
“Bommelwereld is unique not only because it’s extremely rare that a new theme park comes into being in the Netherlands, but we also had to bring the 2D comics that many people adore to life in the real world,” says van der Vlis. “Some buildings we used were only drawn once or twice in a newspaper comic forty years ago. It was a lovely challenge to translate all this content to resemble a real world with a castle, village, gardens, mountains, and a traveling circus.”
Using Vectorworks for the Bommelwereld project, Jora Vision seamlessly switched between technical ride clearance specifications and the artistic design of castle facades, for instance, adjusting tower heights to meet building codes while preserving the whimsical proportions of the comic book illustrations.
In the video below, the Jora Vision team discuss how their freedom to sketch, model, and design in a single application has shortened their workflows without draining their budgets and how Vectorworks’ robust import and export abilities make communicating with their clients easier than ever.
Earlier this year, Jora Vision, along with Plopsa, Holiday Park, and LF Studios, shared four animated scenes and additional details of the upcoming Smurf dark ride at Holiday Park on its booth at IAAPA Expo Europe 2024 in Amsterdam.
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