Duck and Decorated Shed

Okay so here's what my argument is...

How integrated are themes to the actual resort beyond the "decorated shed"?

To identify the level of integration of themes beyond the "decorated shed," one must first uncover who is writing the architectural narrative. Is the user identifying conventional elements in relation to past experiences in the Imperial Palace? Or is the space immersing the consumer in a thematic world of Venice? Robert Venturi and Denis Scott Brown, the authors of Learning from Las Vegas, beleive the "decorated shed" is successful in exemplifying the conventional as the new high-culture architecture. In opposition to this theory, British architectural historian and theorist Reyner Banham perceives the living architecture of our age for what it is - " 'formlessness and tastefulness' not as a source for high culture but as an end in itself." By adopting Banham's ideology, one can hypothesize the everyday "ugly and ordinary" gives power to the user to define its space using past recollections of their lives and ultimately eliminating any trace of a predefined thematic space. The "duck", the polar opposite of the "decorated shed", is identified by its ability to wholly integrate the theme into the built form in order to narrate a dictated story of place. Kligmann's Brandscapes reveals the bylaws of a thematically integrated space and how an architect can create a "duck" - a choreographed architectural narrative - using three broad strategies: drama, diversity and detail. Four resorts were analyzed and placed in a spectrum commencing with the compositional space of the "decorated shed" to the choreographed space of the "duck": Imperial Palace, Excalibur, Paris and The Venetian.

Spectrum

High Spectrum = (Choreographed Duck - A story is choreographed by the space to exemplify a theme using drama + diversity + detail)

Drama, Diversity, Detail

(Real icecream vendors FROM ITALY?)

Low Spectrum = (Compositional Decorated Shed - A story is created by the user's recollections as a result of the "ugly and ordinary" being the living architecture of our age)

Why does the Imperial Palace Hotel building looks like grandma's florida condo? Oh and hey, doesn't that celebrity dealer look like Christina Aguilera? (Familiar in an unfamilar context. Need I say more?) You tend to forget your in an imperial palace... but merely just taking familar memories, architecture and non architecture, to form your own story.