Sea Change

Tillberg Design of Sweden is soon to launch Crystal Endeavor, which speaks of adventure and exploration

With a host of new ships set to take their maiden voyage as soon as restrictions are eased, cruise ship design expert Ayesha Khan asks their designers to reveal more.

Words: Ayesha Khan

After over a year of lockdowns and entire fleets being held at port, the cruise ship industry is finally reawakening with a host of launches and deliveries on the docket. Each new vessel reveals that there has been a noticeable sea change in the industry, so I recruited some industry colleagues to explain three emerging trends, none of which, surprisingly, have anything to do with Covid-19.

THE SMALLER THE BETTER?

To illustrate this trend, I thought of no one better than Fredrik Johansson, Partner and Executive Project Director at Tillberg Design of Sweden, the mastermind behind the soonto-launch Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection. “We have six-to-eight start-up projects on our tables right now,” Johansson explains. “A lot of new players have been inspired by the courage that The Ritz-Carlton founders had. These new players had tried for a long time to get into the market but have perhaps been less successful because they were missing the expertise and attention from the shipyards. With some ship owners reducing their design teams, there is suddenly some great talent available to enhance the new ventures,” he adds, noting that the average size of this crop of new ships is around the 50,000-tonnes mark.

In the small-ship category, Tillberg is soon to launch Crystal Endeavor for Crystal Cruises, which speaks to another trend – that of adventure and exploration. “It’s about combining luxury and gentle exploration,” he explains. “A lot of ships are introverted, so we turned the concept inside-out and are designing the structure to maximise the floor-to-ceiling glazing and transparency on the outside.” The 200-guest vessel features suite-style staterooms with generous verandas; a fold-out platform deck from which guests enjoy the ever-changing panoramas and a pair of helicopters.

Studio Dado’s staterooms on Mardi Gras (top) and Richmond International’s interiors on P&O Iona (bottom) are designed with the guest experience in mind

MASTERFUL MEGASHIPS

Terry McGillicuddy, Director at Richmond International has recently completed P&O’s largest megaship, Iona. With owners making 90% of their revenues from 50% of their fleet – ie. their largest ships – it’s little wonder there’s a focus on improving the lucrative market segment, making it more attractive to a wider cross-section of travellers. “There was a desire to attract a younger demographic and be more contemporary,” McGillicuddy explains. As luxury hotel designers responsible for grand dame hotels such as The Dorchester and various Four Seasons properties, Richmond International were certainly the right firm for the job. They also had the unique distinction of designing the entire P&O Britannia from bow to stern. “Back then, cruise ships felt a bit theme-y, so we were the first to bring a calming residential aesthetic,” McGillicuddy recalls. The directive for Britannia was along the lines of The Dorchester-at-sea, and the only thing standing between Dorchester opulence and the sheer scale of a megaship is budget, or cost complexity, as the shipyards call it. But McGillicuddy and his team quickly caught on. “By the time we got to working on Iona, we really understood the cost complexity issue. We realised we don’t have to spend money on every surface because guests will remember the grand gestures rather than if the seats had black-andwhite checks on them.” The resulting spaces on Iona employ pared down fabrics and finishes combined with grand gestures such as elaborate brass screens at the Deck 17 Crow’s Nest, or the undulating feature ceiling of Epicurean, the ship’s fine-dining venue. Guestrooms feel like suites with an elevated, residential aesthetic and subtle nautical nods that, McGillicuddy says, “give a feeling of being seaside.” ALL ABOUT THE STATEROOMS

Greg Walton is something of a stateroom master, being involved on the game-changing interlocking staterooms of Celebrity’s Solstice class and Royal Caribbean’s Oasis class before going on to found his own firm, Studio Dado, and working on Princess’ staterooms. “The thing to remember about staterooms is that whatever you do in one room, you do 1,500 times over, so you really want to work every detail,” Walton says. “There’s been a growing trend for larger, more luxurious staterooms in general; it used to be that cruise lines wanted to encourage passengers out to the casino, the shops, the bars and restaurants, but they’ve learned that the stateroom is an integral part of the vacation experience. It has become a place for people to nest.”

Co-Founding Partner Yohandel Ruiz agrees: “When we design spaces, we ultimately focus on the guest experience and consider how the guest wants to feel. We always ask ourselves, what will they remember from their lounge or suite. For us, it’s more than the creation of a sense of place, it’s about creating the environment and backdrop for memorable moments that transcend the spaces we are designing.”

Then there’s the question of whether or not to interlock the prefabricated room blocks to save space. “Technically on a ship like Mardi Gras you can get around 10 more staterooms per deck, and if you use the old saying that a stateroom is a million dollars a year in revenue, then that’s 10 million more dollars per deck,” Walton explains. Think of interlocking staterooms as Tetris pieces – each one has a notch that makes either the front half or the back half of the room narrower, meaning that when interlocking staterooms are arranged side by side, one has the bed positioned close to the window, and the interlocking room has the bed positioned closer to the entry. The challenge with these types of rooms becomes size – often interlocking staterooms are smaller or feel more cramped than standard staterooms. Studio Dado combatted this by reducing the size of the balcony. “As much as people want a balcony, they don’t really spend that much time there,” Walton explains. “Carnival did not want their guests to feel that this stateroom was small, so we reduced the balcony space in favour of more space in the room.”

Other ploys Carnival used to create the feel of a larger room was to use lighter colours and introduce a wet cell (or bathroom) that accommodates a larger shower.

For Studio Dado, the pandemic has been an opportunity to reassess design schemes, but in reality, there’s been no major changes. “At the beginning of the pandemic, we had to ensure our designs provided the retrofits required to allow for the new social distancing protocols,” explains Ruiz. “Now that we are seeing progress, I anticipate some of these modifications may not be implemented. Overall, our spaces did not undergo any major redesigns.”

So while there’s been plenty of talk over the past 12 months surrounding the changes to ships as a result of the pandemic, the consensus amongst owners, operators and designers is that although there may be a shift long-term, the vessels already under way can implement simple workarounds such as rearranging furniture or specifying anti-microbial fabrics, but no wholesale design changes are in order.