By
Rebecca Gibson |
This article was first published in the Spring/Summer 2015 issue of Cruise & Ferry Interiors.
Asked to imagine a cruise ship, many people will conjure up images of opulent ballrooms with gold ornamentation, sweeping atriums with glass chandeliers, restaurants with dated nautical themes, cabins with brass portholes and patterned carpets. Viking Cruises decided to challenge these outdated perceptions when it commissioned its first-ever ocean cruise ship, Viking Star, which was delivered by Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri this April. To achieve its vision, Viking appointed UK-based SMC Design as lead architect for the project.
“Why should a ship look like a ship, why can’t it be more like the contemporary hotels passengers would find onshore?” asks Alan Stewart, design associate and project manager at SMC Design. “Finding a way to replicate the look and atmosphere of a land-based hotel was one of our key focuses from the very start of the project. The shipowner’s main priority was to highlight the quality of the materials, rather than to install the large decorative bulkheads, opulent pillars, ornamented ceiling moulds and sweeping curves found on many cruise ships. Viking Star embodies the understated elegance of Scandinavian design.”
SMC, which has designed interiors for 55 cruise ships over the past 25 years, worked in collaboration with Los Angeles-based Rottet Studio.
“Over the past three years, SMC has shared equal design responsibility with Rottet, planning and developing design concepts and then bouncing ideas off each other to create the best possible spaces,” says Stewart.
Rottet has worked on many of Viking’s latest river ships and helped to evolve its fleet over the past few years. Stewart explains that the company’s extensive experience of designing high-end hotels and hospitality spaces for land-based projects was of great value in meeting Viking’s design brief.
“Rottet introduced us to the Viking brand and enabled us to create high-end spaces that reflected the shipowner’s personal tastes for clean lines, simple layouts and contemporary Scandinavian designs,” he says. “While both SMC and Rottet shared the visualisation work, my team at SMC produced all of the detailed architectural drawings and collaborated with Fincantieri to ensure all technical aspects of the design were fulfilled and that the vessel would comply with all relevant industry regulations.”
Viking Star features five stateroom categories, boutique shops, a two-deck Explorers’ Lounge, and a glass-backed infinity pool cantilevered off the ship’s aft to enable guests to feel as though they are swimming up to the horizon.
“If it wasn’t for the panoramic views of the ocean, you could almost forget that you are onboard a ship,” says Stewart. “The modern furnishings, clean lines and Scandinavian influence make Viking Star feel more like a contemporary hotel.
Together, SMC and Rottet have created one of the industry’s most tasteful and impressive vessels and we have really pushed the boundaries of traditional ship design.”
According to Stewart, one of the most eye-catching areas is the Wintergarden. Positioned next to the main pool, the glass-fronted venue has a small stage, a water feature, a Tea Bar and a tea chest containing an extensive selection of world teas. The venue will offer daily tea-tasting, tea ceremonies and a traditional European High Tea each afternoon, enabling guests to enjoy pastries, finger sandwiches and scones while listening to live music. While the Wintergarden’s glass structure offers panoramic views of the ocean and the rest of the pool deck, Stewart explains that it also posed one of the most difficult architectural challenges of the project.
“The main pool area is covered by a magrodome that can be retracted over the Wintergarden in warm weather,” he says. “However, this meant that we needed to find a way to prevent guests from seeing the metalwork of the magrodome when looking up at the glass ceiling in the Wintergarden. To do this, we constructed an intricate Scandinavian timber lattice, which spreads across the entire roof and creates some incredible shadows on the deck when the sun is shining.”
Viking Star’s spa is another of Stewart’s favourite areas. Decorated with blonde wood, Norwegian slate and printed aspen trees, the spa offers a fitness studio, a hair salon, seven single treatment rooms and one couples’ treatment room. The main highlight is the hydrotherapy pool, which has been designed to reflect the hot and cold elements of traditional Norwegian spas. At one end of the pool is an Opti-myst fire, at the other is a waterfall flanked by a steam room on the ship’s starboard side and a snow room on the port side.
“Guests’ eyes are drawn from the Opti-myst fire, which is accentuated by the warm amber light of the steam room, to the waterfall and the cold blue light of the snow room,” says Stewart. “Each of the contrasting elements combines to create a powerful sensory experience and evoke a sense of tranquillity.”
Now that Viking Star has launched, Stewart is confident that SMC has fulfilled Viking’s design brief and is hopeful that the company will be invited to carry out similar work on Viking Sea and Viking Sky, which are both scheduled for delivery from Fincantieri in spring 2016 and February 2017 respectively.
In the meantime, SMC will be kept busy with several other projects, including completing 50% of the design work onboard Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Escape and Norwegian Bliss, which will be delivered by German shipbuilder Meyer Werft in October 2015 and spring 2017 respectively. The company will also design 50% of the rooms and install all of the signage and artwork onboard Star Cruises’ latest newbuild, which will launch in autumn 2016.
“We are set for a busy couple of years, but we are more than ready to meet the challenge,” says Stewart.