Pandora - The World of Avatar is a breathtaking
themed area at Disney’s Animal Kingdom that was inspired by James Cameron’s award-winning
film. Construction first began on the area in early
2014, and took over 3 years to complete, opening to the public in May of 2017. Pandora features astounding scenery with immaculate
attention to detail, immersing guests in the Valley of Mo'ara with a combination of real
Earth plant species and artificial alien flora. Two attractions are located within The World
of Avatar: Na'vi River Journey, a dark boat ride which
takes guests along the Kasvapan River, showcasing the native fauna and flora of Pandora; And Avatar Flight of Passage, a flying augmented
reality simulator where guests fly through Pandora while riding on the back a Banshee. The showpiece of this spectacular land is
located directly in the middle of the Valley of Mo'ara, and that’s the floating mountains
of Pandora. The floating mountains were inspired by the
Wuling mountain peaks in China, and they appear to float in midair as guests weave through
the walkways underneath. They are truly a work of art, and a feat of
modern engineering. Building these massive mountains was no easy
task, and that’s what I will be talking about in today’s video. The first trick that the Disney Imagineers
used for the mountains is called forced perspective, and you can find examples of this all over
Walt Disney World as it’s something that they use quite often. Forced perspective manipulates human visual
perception, and the Imagineers have used it to make the mountains appear much larger than
they actually are. This includes the use of relative scale, vantage
points, and textures to create the illusion of larger scale. For example, the smaller mountains which extend
into the air above the main structure are perceived as being farther away due to their
size, which tricks our brains into thinking that they are much larger. The green foliage placed on top of the mountains
may also be perceived as distant forested areas with trees that are located so high
up that they appear to be very tiny. Now the floating mountains are in no way small,
in fact they are 156 feet in height, which is over 15 stories. However, forced perspective allowed the designers
to make the mountains as small as possible while still maintaining the illusion that
they are actually the size of real mountains. Or at least a lot larger than 156 feet. In addition to forced perspective, the designers
also made extensive use of colour and texture to make the mountains appear as though they
are as heavy as real mountains. They really do look like they’re made from
actual rock and earth, when in reality they are hollow with a steel superstructure on
the inside and a thin concrete shell on the outside. To create the illusion that the mountains
are floating in mid-air, the Imagineers hid the steel support beams inside large vines
which appear to be hanging down from the mountains. Our brains are used to seeing vines hanging
in a catenary shape just like rope or string, so when we see the floating mountains our
brains instinctively assume that the vines are suspended, even if we know that the opposite
is true, and the vines are actually holding the mountains up from underneath. To further the illusion, the steel support
beams were given natural organic shapes, and a large number a relatively thin beams were
used to give a more realistic appearance. Plenty of naturally hanging vines were added
all over the structure as well to help camouflage the false vines, and it can be pretty difficult
to tell which ones are natural and which are hiding steel support beams. Despite all of the effort that went into creating
the floating mountain illusion, there is one major design aspect that somewhat detracts
from the illusion. That’s the fact that one of the mountains
is sitting directly on the ground. These mountains over here are clearly suspended
in mid-air using some Disney magic, but this one not so much. It’s pretty obvious that this mountain is
not floating, although the Imagineers did do their best to make it seem like the mountain
is balancing on top of a large rock rather than being securely fastened to the ground. Of course this must have been done for a reason,
and there are two main reasons that I could think of for why this mountain was built at
ground-level. The first was to provide a hidden access point
to the inside of the mountain. Access to the inside of the mountain is necessary
for maintenance purposes since it contains plumbing systems for the waterfalls located
on the outside. If this mountain was elevated off the ground
like the others, then there would need to be some kind of access staircase or elevator
underneath which would detract from the natural landscape that the designers were trying to
achieve. The second reason why I believe this mountain
was constructed at ground-level was to provide secure anchorage to the ground so that the
structure can resist lateral loads from strong winds and earthquakes. It might have been possible to achieve sufficient
lateral stability if all of the mountains had been elevated, but it’s a lot easier
to accomplish when you can simply anchor the entire base of the structure directly to the
foundation. And since a hidden access point was needed
anyway, it just makes sense to take advantage of this from a structural standpoint as well. Let’s move on now from how the Imagineers
achieved the physical appearance of the floating mountains, and talk about how the engineers
designed the support structure hidden inside. You probably noticed that I just said engineers
instead of Imagineers, and that’s because the structural design work was contracted
out to an external engineering firm. The Disney Imagineers don’t always design
all aspects of Disney attractions in-house, and they often work with a variety of specialized
engineering and construction companies. In this case, Disney teamed up with the structural
engineers of Walter P. Moore in Orlando to design the support structure for the floating
mountains. The entire structure sits on top of large
concrete foundations that are reinforced with steel rebar. The foundations extend below the ground and
are disguised with theming elements, so you can’t actually see them when you are walking
around Pandora. The steel members of the internal superstructure
are anchored to these foundations, transferring all of the loads to the ground underneath. The steel members can be divided into three
main categories, as demonstrated by this simplified 2D cross-section. As you can see, we have primary structural
members, shown in dark gray, secondary structural members, shown in white, and steel box beams,
shown in brown. The primary structural members consist mostly
of steel I-beams and hollow structural sections, also referred to as HSS. These are the same kinds of structural members
that you might see used for other large structures like as skyscrapers, factories, or office
buildings. The primary members form the shape of each
of the mountains, and they provide support for the secondary structural members. Although the primary structure looks like
complete chaos with steel members going in almost every direction, the members generally
follow a grid pattern with vertical columns, horizontal beams, and diagonal cross-bracing. The secondary structural members protrude
off of the primary structure, and their purpose is to support the exterior façade. They were also used to support workers during
the construction of the façade, but I will talk about this in more detail a little later. The secondary members are a lot smaller than
the primary members since they carry much smaller loads, and they consist mostly of
steel C-sections supported by diagonal steel angles. Circular tubes have also been used so that
the secondary members could be installed in any direction as required by the designers. Lastly, we have the steel box beams which
are hidden inside the vine-work as I discussed earlier. Their purpose is to transfer loads between
the mountains, as well as to the concrete foundations on the floating side of the structure. They consist of square box sections that have
been welded together to form curved segmented beams. The box beam design is actually comparable
to the track of roller coasters built by Swiss company B&M. The various primary members, secondary
members, and box beams that make up the superstructure of the floating mountains are all connected
together using various types of bolted connections. The engineers had to get pretty creative to
come up with techniques to connect so many members together at difficult angles. Almost every member and connection in the
structure is unique and had to be custom-fabricated, which is one of the reasons why construction
took so long to complete. The structure is also extremely intricate
and is made up of hundreds, if not thousands, of steel members that had to be installed
individually like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Creating organic shapes from straight geometric
members is not easy, and the resulting superstructure that was needed to capture the natural shape
of mountains is a complex a 3-dimesional web of intertwined steel. Before the exterior façade was put in place,
the steel superstructure by itself looked like an impressive work of modern art. To create the natural-looking façade on the
outside of the mountains, a steel mesh was first installed around the entire structure. The mesh consisted of hundreds of unique pre-fabricated
panels that were hung off of the secondary structural members and secured in place. A type of spray concrete was then applied
to form a thin rigid shell following the contours of the mesh. Spray concrete is useful because it allows
the designers create any shape that they want, and it does not require any formwork like
regular concrete. To make it easier for the construction crew
and artists to work on the exterior of the mountains, the secondary structural members
were originally left much longer so that they protruded through the façade. This allowed the workers to install scaffolding
all the way around the mountains at different levels so that every part of the exterior
surface could be accessed. All of the secondary members had small round
tubes welded to their ends, which were used to install guard rails for the scaffolding. Once the façade was complete, the workers
simply cut off the ends of the steel members that were protruding through the finished
surface and patched all of the remaining holes. This is a clever and effective construction
method that Disney uses quite often for large naturalistic installations. It eliminates the need for an external scaffolding
system by using the steel support structure itself, which gives the workers full unobstructed
access to the exterior surface. The same method was used for Expedition Everest
back in 2004, and it is being used again right now for the construction of Star Wars: Galaxy’s
Edge. A similar concept was also used for the small
floating mountains that extend off of the main structure. These smaller pieces were fully constructed
on the ground, and steel I-beam were left protruding through the finished façade. The I-beams were used to hoist the mountains
into place with a crane, and they were simply cut off once the pieces were secured to main
structure. Now this just about concludes everything that
I wanted to talk about regarding the design and construction of the floating mountains,
and I just want to wrap things up by commending the artists for their incredible work on the
façade of the structure. Once all of the steel and concrete work was
complete, it still took an entire team of artists to bring the mountains to life, and
I have absolutely no idea how they did it so well. The level of realism and the attention to
detail in the paint, foliage, and vine work are almost unbelievable, and its these artistic
features that help to make the finished structure so magical. The floating mountains of Pandora at Disney’s
Animal Kingdom are a perfect example of how art and engineering can be combined to create
a beautiful world-class attraction. I really hope that you enjoyed this video,
and that you were able to learn something new about this one-of-a-kind structure at
Walt Disney World. This video was a lot of fun for me to make,
and I plan to make more content like this in the future. Please remember to subscribe if you would
like to stay up to date with future content, and feel free to leave suggestions for future
videos in the comments below. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in
the next video.
