“There are some nice correlations between our value systems as a company and value sys- tems that you encounter in Hawaii. One of these core values is this notion of community and family. That you are part of something.You are not here alone; we are here with you.”
WORK IN PROGRESS: Joiningthe Aulani project,Walt Disney Imagineering knew the physical layout that was planned for the property. “What we didn’t necessarily know,” said Joe Rohde, “was, how exactly is this thinggoingto bringHawaiian culture to life for the guests? That’s really where a lot of our attention has been in the last couple of years.”
There’s a Hawaiian philosophy of land use built around watersheds and the responsibility of every individual along a watershed to treat the water well as it flows down to the sea. That causes all these people to have relationships with each other, to be close to each other, to be interdependent; and our whole site is modeled as if it was one of these watersheds — what they call an ahupua’a. That’s just kind of neat. That’s another level of experience. And everywhere there’s this massive art program. The place
Andthat’s very Hawaiian—to include, to embrace, to welcome, to be part of something. And of course we aim our resorts at families and at groups, and we tend to produce experiences that bring people together and help themexperience community, and Aulani will do that. So that’s one thing. Another is a kind of an awareness of
the land.We’ve done a lot to make [Aulani] very specific to where it is and to make you very aware that this place sits not just in Hawaii but in a very specific place in Hawaii. One of the very first details that you’ll see when you pull up into the resort is the garden. The garden is built around a taro field— what Hawaiians call kalo. Rather than a generic tropical gar- den with, I don’t know, birds of paradise and something else growing in it, you’re looking at the quintessential Hawaiian crop as the focus of this garden. And that tells you where you are on Hawaii, in a place where the land means something to peo- ple, where they live from the land.
is crammed, crammed, crammed with fantastic art, almost entirely by Hawaiian artists [who] express what they feel to be the essential nature of the Hawaii that you’re coming to see.
Why is it important for a property like this to tell a story in the first place? First of all, being Disney, our interest in places is in their story- making properties.Human beings make story constantly in our brains wherever we go. It’s what we do.We may not realize it, but we’re constructing story all the time.When a place has been constructed to be a story already, it’s just that much easier to be in [it], because it lines upfor your brain very nicely. They’re very relaxing places to be in, because the story work is being done. Another thing is, we need to occupy a niche that is unique to
ourselves. Our niche is to bring story to life with this degree of detail, of lavishness, of involvement. If you’re a visitor coming toHawaii—it’s a big investment of time and energy.You’ve got to fly across the ocean in an airplane to just get here. So you’ve