A pioneer of storytelling through design

COURTESY OF GREGORY BECK

Throughout his career, this research has led him to design large-scale mixed-use complexes; unique spaces for brands such as Swatch and Lockheed Martin; interactive media and educational settings for Sony Attraction Group; and immersive theaters like Secrets of the Luxor Pyramid in Las Vegas. These projects often incorporate media technology and digital information to help convey a global narrative.

The idea that built spaces should offer visitors a more engaging experience has transformed commercial and civic design in recent years. Any of the top 50 retail brands would expect a design firm to create not just a beautiful space, but one that tells a story, Beck says. “We must think of architecture as public art and feel free to criticize it and demand better.”

Beck says his ideas about what architecture could be opened up at MIT, where he studied during the early years of the Media Lab. The curiosity he developed at the Institute has become a theme throughout his career. He applied the concept of storytelling in design to his position at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he served for five years as dean of the School of Entertainment Arts. And recently, his firm launched two projects that will bring the narratives to life on opposite sides of the world.

In Los Angeles, Beck collaborates with Netflix to create events inspired by series like strange things i The Queen’s Gambit. And in Macau, near Hong Kong, he is working on a resort that will include a casino, a 1,500-seat theater and a variety of family attractions incorporating what he describes as “cutting-edge media technology” that says it “tells the great stories of Asian culture”.

“I would never have thought that dropping out of MIT would be working in Macau,” says Beck, who currently lives in Amsterdam. “I’m just scratching the surface of this evolution of architecture; it’s really exciting to think there’s so much more to come.”