Designing the Threshold: Studio Bound's Entrance for Marine Safari Bali

How Studio Bound designed the entrance to Marine Safari Bali at Taman Safari Bali in Gianyar — a threshold that sets up the guest journey from rainforest to open ocean.

Marine Safari Bali, part of the Taman Safari Bali complex in Gianyar, is built as a journey. Guests travel from the freshwater ecosystems of the rainforest, through rivers, estuaries and coastal waters, and out into the open ocean — a route that ends, among other things, at the underwater dining theatre Varuna. Studio Bound's brief was the beginning of that journey: the entrance.

An entrance is a promise. Before a guest has seen a single exhibit, the way in tells them what kind of place they've come to — ordinary, or worth remembering. So the entrance to Marine Safari Bali was designed as a threshold rather than a doorway: you enter through the mouth of a large whale. You aren't led up to the water; you're taken into it. By the time a guest is properly inside, they've already crossed from the everyday world into the world of the park.

A signature people carry home

Near the start of the journey, the design provides a signature element — a large tree that houses reptile exhibits. Signatures like this do quiet, useful work: they give a place a single image a guest carries home. People rarely remember a floor plan or a species list; they remember one strong thing — a tree full of life, a mouth they walked through — and that memory becomes how they describe the whole visit to someone else.

A diver in scuba gear glides through a large blue tank at Marine Safari Bali surrounded by schooling reef fish and a leopard shark. — The freshwater and river stretch that opens the Marine Safari Bali journey. Image: Taman Safari Indonesia.

Framing the living collection

The opening stretch runs through freshwater and river habitats, and here the design discipline is restraint: build the environment so it frames the living exhibits rather than competing with them. Theming should carry a guest from one encounter to the next and then step back, so the animals stay the reason they came. The best themed environment for a living collection heightens the real thing without trying to outshine it.

A sawfish glides past a submerged temple staircase in the blue-lit habitat at Marine Safari Bali. — Themed environments built to frame the living collection rather than compete with it. Marine Safari Bali — Studio Bound. Image: Taman Safari Indonesia.

A zebra shark swims through a deep-blue reef habitat at Marine Safari Bali. — The journey continues from freshwater and rivers out into the open ocean. Image: Taman Safari Indonesia.

Marine Safari Bali is part of Studio Bound's ongoing partnership with Taman Safari Indonesia — work that also includes the underwater dinner theatre Varuna and the resident show Lila at Enchanting Valley.

Taman Safari Bali and Marine Safari Bali marketing key art — "Two Worlds, One Destination", a split above-and-below composition of rainforest wildlife and reef life. — Two Worlds, One Destination — Taman Safari Bali and Marine Safari Bali, Gianyar. Image: Taman Safari Indonesia.

About Patrick Larsen

Patrick Larsen in dive gear alongside two colleagues, standing in a backstage water tank ready to dive. — Patrick Larsen (left) — Emmy Award–winning production designer and founder of Studio Bound, Singapore.

Patrick Larsen is an Emmy Award–winning production designer and the founder of Studio Bound, a Singapore studio working across immersive experiences, themed attractions, live shows, ceremonies and broadcast design. In partnership with Taman Safari Indonesia he designed the entrance experience at Marine Safari Bali. Over more than two decades he has designed for the Expo 2020 Dubai ceremonies, Olympic broadcasts, Las Vegas residencies, and resident shows across Asia and the Middle East.