Designing Tomorrow’s Interior Innovations

Cruise-ship interior designers perform an interesting juggling act. Each generation of ships must take design a step beyond, but not run too far ahead and lose its passengers.

Shipowners and design teams work together to keep a step ahead while remaining true to the brand.

“Generally the industry is developing organically, with very few significant leaps in the evolution. Every new invention pushes the boundary a small step forward,” said Fredrik Johansson, a senior architect with Tillberg Design. “Space is luxury,” Johansson said. Maximizing the “perceived space” has become a major part of basic master planning.

Big Spaces Without Herding

A. Scott Butler, director at Wilson Butler Architects, said he wanted to take advantage of the scale of the newest ships by creating the same variety of venues that a small city might provide.

Both the Oasis and Solstice ships feature deliberate “neighborhoods” accentuated by similar design traits that distinguish them from other areas on the ship, Butler said.

Arnold Bos, managing director at VFD Architects, likened designing large ships to making “a path through the forest.” It’s good for passengers to find private places, “places for people to hide.”

Helena Ahokas, an architect with Arkitektbyrån, said it is important to have points where passengers can look down and have an overview of the whole ship. “The most important thing is that it must be easy to find your way around the ship without getting confused,” Ahokas said. “This can be done by making the plan layout simple and clear.”

The Great Wide Open

Outdoor areas like Royal Caribbean’s Promenade and Central Park concepts are in demand, said Andy Yuill, managing director of SMC Design. “Passengers now expect outdoor areas and features comparable to or even better than they find in similar land-based resorts. The fact that these exterior elements are onboard a cruise vessel sometimes offers an extra dimension that would not exist on land,” Yuill said.

Cruise architect and designer Joe Farcus said spa space is also in high demand, with private spa-bound elevators on Carnival Cruise Lines’ ships growing in popularity.

Light Emitting Diode (LED) systems allow an amazing versatility in lighting options, said Cecilia Kinnison, founder of Kinnison Design. “It’s not just on and off. It can be color changing and fading,” Kinnison said. The LED technology is also more energy efficient and produces far less heat than traditional light bulbs, thus requiring less air conditioning. Kinnison said there is also an “unwritten consensus” to not use rainforest woods, the logging of which leads to deforestation. Instead, she and other designers are looking into composites that offer interesting natural-looking grains. “We have to be extremely open-minded with regards to design concepts and themes. Even if we do not love everything we design, we have to do it perfectly,” said Tillberg’s Johanson. “One of the most important aspects of our job is thereby the ability to step outside our own personal taste, and provide something that is spot-on right for that particular client – or rather the client's customers – the passenger segment that the shipowner wants to attract.”

Not Fashion Victims

Farcus said technological advances will always be part of design innovations, but shouldn’t be at the whim of fashion. “Technology changes, as well as facilities, onboard activities, food and entertainment. The challenge has always been to stay ahead of the curve, but in an innovative way, which is not derived from fashion, but rather from experience, creativity, and innovation,” Farcus said. “Technology always progresses and we keep this moving on our ships to give the best state-of-the-art lighting and entertainment systems possible.” In the end, Farcus said, interior ship designing is like story telling: “It’s like writing a story, and its success is like a real page turner. I see the mixture of designs as one composition actually, even though the design is an eclectic mix of styles. The results are not unlike an ideal holiday city, where there are always interesting places to visit and enjoy.”

For more information or to book a cruise email me at jod@zanza.com.