Architectural delight

MOST architects would baulk at the thought of working on a theme park development. After all, fairytale castles, as pretty as they are, would hardly be considered Architecture with a capital "A". Still, when Lim Koon Park of Park + Associates (P+A) was offered the chance to work on Universal Studios Singapore (USS) in 2008, he welcomed the opportunity.

P+A were not the lead architects at USS and had no involvement in the actual design of the theme park; this was left to theme park specialists from the US. Instead, P+A was offered the somewhat tedious job of producing "shop drawings" (the drawings contractors used to build the theme park) for 18 of the 19 attractions at USS. Explaining why he was grateful for the opportunity, Mr Lim, 49, recalls: "In October 2008, there was the financial crisis. Then the next month, we were offered the Universal Studios job. We took it on without thinking too much."

The then modest firm "doubled in size in a matter of weeks" and, more fortuitously, got even more job offers later for theme parks in the Asia region. With a staff strength of 70 and a dedicated team that specialises in theme park design, P+A now has jobs at Shanghai Disneyland, 20th Century Fox World in Genting Highlands and most recently, at an as yet unnamed theme park in Abu Dhabi. Mr Lim does concede that working on theme parks has been "a steep learning curve". But it has proven to be worth the effort. "Theme park design is a very specialised field and we are now one of the few firms here that can handle it," he adds.