Imagine that: Swansea native wins Disney design contest

An immersive experience re-imagining the Hanging Gardens of Babylon proved to be more than just a great idea for Swansea native Carolyn Teves.

A student at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Teves and her team won first place for their creative theme park idea at the Walt Disney World Imagineering Imaginations Design Contest earlier this month.

"Our team is completely blown away by the entire Imaginations experience. To have the opportunity to visit the Walt Disney Imagineering headquarters where the magic all began and have the chance to present our project to the current and future Imagineers is something my teammates and I will forever be grateful for,” said Teves. “Having received first place on top of it all was truly an honor, and we are so proud that all of our hard work and dedication had led to something so amazing.”

At the competition, held at Disneyland in California Feb. 4 to 8, Teves’ team faced off against teams from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; Olin College of Engineering; University of Florida, University of Southern California and the University of Texas Austin.

Challenged with creating a theme park design inspired by a natural or ancient world wonder, Teves and her team, Ezekiel Waters, Nicholas Hammond and Remi Jeffrey-Coker decided to create a fully immersive version of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Teves described their design, called the Rose of Babylon, as “a botanical inquisitorium” that “serves as a spark to rebuild the nation of Iraq.”

In the project they imaged, guests to the inquisitorium would have three main exploration opportunities: a slide that brings them through an ancient shipwreck to discover the history of ancient civilizations, an interactive experience with world class researchers and finally, the hanging gardens featuring agriculture from around the world.

“Because it was discussed that the gardens were one placed in Iraq, we thought it would be a really good starting place to figure out a family friendly entertainment area as well as to help the community around the exhibit we created,” said Teves. “Essentially it involves giving back to the community and bringing in a lot of knowledge so you’re acquiring a lot of knowledge that you wouldn’t get at your average museum. The project is about revitalizing the nation and what people learn there they’ll take back home to revitalize their own areas of the world.”

Teves, who graduated from Joseph Case High School in 2015, is majoring in production design at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia.