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Meeting... Rottet Studio
PROFILE Richard Riviere Founding Principal Rottet Studio
Having joined Rottet Studio as Founding Principal in 2008, Richard Riviere now leads the firm’s West Coast and Asia divisions from its office in Los Angeles.
With a focus on brand building, Riviere’s design approach looks to visually reflect the culture of the client, placing particular emphasis on bridging the gap between brand-in-concept and brand-in-life.
Recent Launches: Viking Octantis; Viking Venus; Viking Saigon
Upcoming Launches: Viking Mars (2022); Viking Aton (2022); Viking Saturn (2023)
As Rottet Studio nears its 100th design for Viking, the firm’s Founding Principal Richard Riviere explains how the relationship has evolved and why Norwegian culture has been key.
Words: Ben Thomas
With over 30 years of design experience under his belt, Richard Riviere knows a thing or two about shaping hospitality environments. So when the Texas native stepped into the marine sector to collaborate with Viking a decade ago, he tapped into his expertise in brand building to help the cruise operator develop a visual narrative for its fleet of river and ocean vessels.
Since then, Riviere has worked closely with Viking Chairman Torstein Hagen to design over 50 ships, from the 930-passenger Viking Star in 2015 to the more recent Viking Polaris expedition vessel, which are characterised by a contemporary Scandinavian style that reflects the company’s heritage.
It is this pared-back aesthetic – think clean lines, natural woods and muted colours – that has earned the group a reputation for offering more of a hotel-like experience, with Riviere’s hospitality background and Hagen’s Norse heritage coming together to create a sense of calm that is echoed throughout the public spaces and guest cabins.
According to Riviere, the consistent design strategy will continue aboard forthcoming ocean vessels such as Mars, Neptune and Saturn – a trio of ships joining the portfolio within the next year – as well as on purpose-built vessels for the Nile, Mekong and Mississippi, which draw inspiration from Viking’s longships in Europe.
Tell us about the journey to 100 designs for Viking Cruises...
It’s a bit of a hyperbole, but the concept is true as ships tend to be built by class, with many considered sister vessels of others that are of the same type in the fleet. When we started working with Viking, the group had 11 river ships of various styles, and since then, vessels have been created as prototypes for a particular function or location and we construct several of each. To date, the largest class is the longships in Europe; there are over 60 of these and changes primarily occur in size to cater for different rivers and conditions. Viking also has ocean cruise liners – eight sailing today with more under construction – and a series of purpose-built vessels for river cruising. More recently, the group launched the first of two expedition ships, with the second debuting later this year. Each project we do is a design with subtle differences, so if we were to add them all up, 100 is not far off.
Does Viking give you a specific design brief to work to for each project?
The brief is always to support and grow the portfolio that we helped create. Our partnership is less about moving from project to project and more about the continuity of building a brand. The first venture we embarked on together – for the longships in Europe – was a discovery process
of what Viking is all about and the experience its ships have to offer. Instead of being restrictive, every project since has been a voyage of discovery, with each ship type a different permutation of the Viking DNA.
How much creative freedom does Viking give you and has this changed over time?
The joy of a long-term relationship between an architect and owner is not necessarily greater freedom, rather an understanding of one another and a shared direction. Myself, Torstein and the Viking team are excited by our work – the surprise and delight element – but I also rely on Tor’s fundamental sense of what his guests want to retain some perspective.
What is the main inspiration for the vessels you design?
Hotels tend to take their design direction from the surrounding location, but Viking’s ships travel all over the world, so we opted to create five fundamentals for the brand based on the Norwegian character of its founder: Norse heritage, residential Modernism, a love and respect for nature, a sense of craft, and exploration. Personally, I have also embarked on a discovery of Norway and its culture – every time I visit, I learn something new with my findings often becoming part of the brand DNA.
How do you define that DNA?
We have what we call the toolbox, a series of designs and ideas that have resonated with the Viking team and its guests over the years. A good example is the brand’s signature bar, whose body is based on the Norse shipbuilding technique of overlapping hull planks – something that is beautifully displayed at the Viking ship museum in Oslo. A version of this bar is located on every ship in the fleet, though the design changes to suit the conditions and the evolution of how guests are serviced. When returning passengers step aboard, we hope they recognise familiar elements that have been reinterpreted in new and interesting ways.
Have you noticed a change in guest expectations over the years?
While I have only been working in the marine sector for ten years and solely with Viking, it’s fascinating to watch how guests react to our spaces. It’s not so different to hotel design work; the fundamental basis of our industry is to surprise and delight, and we must always meet the challenge between the familiar and the new. For cruise ships, the gap between the comforts of a hotel and what a ship can offer is long gone – the expectation now is that the style, service and space of a vessel should match that of a hotel while providing the luxury of transportation.
Tell us about some of Viking’s forthcoming cruise projects…
This year we will have helped Viking launch ten new ships and introduce three new classes, one of which is an expedition ship that will sail around the Antarctic, Arctic and Great Lakes. I recently returned from our shakedown voyage to Antarctica and am now gearing up for the launch of the Nile and Mississippi vessels later this summer. From penguins to pyramids over the course of six months is quite impressive!
