Author name: genissolevilalta

There are projects designed as buildings. And others built as complete universes. Studio City Macao belongs to this second category: a city conceived for entertainment, where architecture, spectacle, retail, hospitality and scenography coexist under a single logic of carefully designed excess. Although the origin of these complexes remains the casino, the model has evolved into a total experience. What began in Las Vegas ended up finding a new scale in Macau: gigantic hybrid infrastructures where leisure works as a parallel city. Hotels with thousands of rooms, shopping centres, restaurants, auditoriums, theme parks and immersive spaces build an ecosystem designed never to stop. And within that universe, the spectacle appears. SCENOGRAPHIC DESIGN FOR A NEW GENERATION OF ENTERTAINMENT COMPLEXES Designing magic: three theatres for Studio City Macao Our work formed part of the creation of three theatres dedicated to illusionism shows within the complex. The project, conceived and designed in the United States, was led by Franz Harary, one of the great international figures of contemporary magic performance. The production made a stop in Barcelona, from where we developed all the technical and construction work of the stage décor of the venues. Although the visual language referred to classical theatre — ornamentation, volume, atmosphere and theatricality — the logic of execution belonged entirely to the world of the international show: extreme precision, fast assembly and optimised transport. Our work consisted of translating conceptual sketches and preliminary designs into a fully demountable and exportable construction system. Every structure, panel and piece had to be technically documented, broken down precisely, optimised for sea freight and able to be assembled on site with no margin for error. The entire project had to travel inside three 12-metre containers. That is where creativity stops being only aesthetic and also becomes production engineering. When the finish builds the illusion In projects of this kind, technique is essential, but the true emotional language appears in the finishes. Paint, textures, modelling and patinas are the elements that turn a functional structure into a believable visual experience. The spectator never sees the technical effort. They only perceive the atmosphere. And that is precisely where part of the craft lies: making complexity disappear behind the feeling of wonder. Macau: the new scale of international entertainment Macau inherited from Las Vegas the idea of the great leisure complex, but took it to another dimension. While gambling remained restricted in mainland China, Macau became the territory in which to develop a gigantic industry around entertainment and international tourism. Studio City perfectly represents that vision: hybrid architecture, consumption, spectacle and visual narrative integrated on a single stage. As an anecdote, the owners of the complex, Melco Resorts & Entertainment, produced for its opening the short film The Audition, directed by Martin Scorsese and produced by Brett Ratner. The piece brought together Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio in a production created exclusively to present the complex to the world. A clear demonstration of how, in projects of this kind, architecture and spectacle form part of a single narrative strategy. How we got there We are often asked how we ended up collaborating on projects of this international scale. The answer lies in the nineties. We had the opportunity to collaborate with American companies and major studios that came to Spain to develop theme parks and international productions. Among them Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Miziquer & Co. or Ideltime Network Inc. Those collaborations allowed us to understand a different way of producing: large teams, intense rhythms, extremely precise technical design and a constant capacity for adaptation. Because working on projects of this kind involves much more than building sets. It means designing experiences able to function on a large scale without losing the capacity to surprise. Designing spectacle is, in reality, designing emotions. And when technique, logistics and creativity manage to disappear behind the experience, the magic can begin.