It’s been just over three years since Disney first revealed Enchanted Storybook Castle as the centerpiece of Shanghai Disneyland. Since then, details about this under-construction theme park have been slowly revealed.

Set to open in late 2015, Shanghai Disneyland will include an area called the Garden of the Twelve Friends and an entire land based on Pirates of the Caribbean.

Now, in a recent presentation for the 2014 BIM Awards, Walt Disney Imagineering has unveiled thorough details of their architectural design work that has been created for Shanghai’s Enchanted Storybook Castle – the biggest theme park castle Disney has ever developed.

Enchanted Storybook Castle will include a grand staircase, restaurant, areas for an outdoor stage show with fountains, theatrical lighting, and fireworks, salon, store, garden, character areas, and two attractions, one walk-through and the other a boat ride. Its 196.8 foot height will make it even taller than Cinderella Castle.

A glimpse at Enchanted Storybook Castle was offered at the 2011 D23 Expo, when its boat ride was first announced, as seen in the video below.

Video: Shanghai Disneyland Enchanted Storybook Castle virtual fly-through



But the magic of the completed structure will hide the incredible amount of work that was put into its creation.

Designing all of these experiences to fit inside a beautiful outer shell is no easy task, one that Imagineers have taken great pride in completing. The presentation detailed how each discipline worked together to create the final construction plans, the complexity of which is obvious in this cross-section of the castle plans:





Each phase of construction has been modeled in 3D using Building Information Modeling (BIM), stages of which are seen below.

The recent construction photo below gives those 3D renderings a reality check, showing just how much real-life work is required to build such a massive undertaking.

When completed, Enchanted Storybook Castle will feature multiple floors that guests can explore to encounter all of the experiences listed above, from attractions to shops to dining. It will all fit together seamlessly – a fantasy castle made real.

To ensure the technical design work flows well with the artistic design, Imagineers have employed use of the DISH – their Digital Immersive Showroom that allows them to explore an environment virtually before building it.

Though the specifics of what exactly will be featured in the boat ride, walk-through attraction, dining, and other experiences are not announced yet, it’s clear that Disney has developed the most advanced and most incredible theme park castle to date, another of many elements that will certainly separate Shanghai Disneyland from all other Disneyland-style parks in the world.

Until those details are announced, a few concept renderings are all that’s available to showcase the beauty of how this construction project will appear when finished late next year.