Casino Oct08 P19-21 9/29/08 11:37 am Page 19
WATERFORMS
Waterforms
Making the casino environment aesthetically fresh and visually
attractive is a challenge faced by operators around the world – and
that’s where Waterforms International can help with their appealing
water-based designs…
L
as Vegas casinos have made it a near- art also done many unusual engineering projects. Clients
form, the water feature; the Bellagio’s these days, are looking for something unusual and
fountains attracts thousands of people every different, they want to have a competitive edge, or
day to the front of the casino, and until last they want people to enjoy a certain aspect of their
year, Treasure Island’s pirate shows were one development whether it be commercial, foyer space,
of the Strip’s highlights. Even the sound of water is or an entertainment facility. We work with the client,
generally recognised as calming, and a well-designed help develop what their expectations are then we
water-based attraction can be a highlight of any come up with concepts. We then look at the
casino. feasibility and costing for the concepts. This is an
Dirk Slotboom, Managing Director of (and a important step, as each time we create something
designer for) Waterforms International, spoke to new you have a wow factor, but it also has a dollar
Casino International about the company, what they factor, a money trifurcation, from there we generally
do and how they work… try to focus in very quickly in which direction we’re
going financially for that wow factor.
Casino International: What does Waterforms do, It’s mainly water we work with, but what we’re
exactly? finding is happening more recently is that we’re
looking at the overhaul project where we’re
Dirk Slotboom: We have a multi-role function: we integrating finishes, structure, interior design,
design, we construct, we manufacture, and we exterior design or the architectural design within the
maintain. development of what we’re working with. We’re
What we’ve found over the years is traditionally we creating something new and exciting, we’re working
come in more on the engineering side of projects, with different materials. We generally try to work with
and it’s mainly water-related projects we do, but we’ve natural materials, but we also work with man-made
materials. We’ve been introducing fire, lighting,
music, noise, sound effects, fog, and these sorts of
things where we’re enhancing the project. As I said
earlier we’re mainly working from a water
background, where we’re creating interesting and
unusual water effects.
CI: Does a customer tend to come to you with
an idea of what they want, and you realise it, and
you bring your own skills and expertise to the
table – or do you get a blank slate, people know
they want something but don’t know what they
want?
DS: It can happen various ways; sometimes a client
will have a high-profile architect, interior designer, or
an artist that’s come up with the concept and they
say this is what they want you to do, and that they
want that person because they’re very well known
internationally, but as a client may be excited about
their concepts, often its feasibility hasn’t worked out.
So we might get drawn in to work it the suitability
and cost of what that person or organisation has put
together. As our work is specialised we find, there’s
very few people who can work out the feasibility and
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