By
Alex Smith |
The most recent addition to TUI Cruises’ fleet, Mein Schiff 7, set sail for its maiden voyage in summer 2024, featuring an interior from Tillberg Design of Sweden (TDoS), part of the Viken Group.
The design includes several new venues, including a redesigned two-deck atrium. Previously featuring an interior inspired by the entertainment district in Hamburg, Germany, the space has now been transformed into an Italian piazza by TDoS.
“The piazza floor is made of a ceramic mosaic,” said Malvina Guarnieri, Design Director of Tillberg Design of Sweden. “We provided the design and the arrangement of the tiles in the different colours. In combination with the aft glazing, the idea was to enter a piazza, and imagine a restaurant which had, even if all indoor, an outdoor feeling in the design elements.”
A golden Vespa scooter is also parked in the centre of the piazza alongside outdoor armchairs, intended to give the nearby La Spezia restaurant a sense of Italian living.
TDoS also created the interior of the Hideki restaurant, which features traditional wooden beams combined with rice-paper lanterns and an organically patterned carpet. The venue has also been broken up into many different, smaller spaces.
“We wanted to create different seating groups and seating arrangements, to provide passengers with different types of dining experiences, from the private room to the fixed banquette with the wooden pergola above it for privacy,” said Guarnieri.
Single staterooms have been added to Mein Schiff 7 in a first for TUI Cruises. TDoS designed the interiors for 26 of these cabins, each of which offers eight square metres of space. The design is aligned with standard cabins elsewhere on the ship, including muted blues for the upholstery, white stained oak cabinetry and carpets with wavy lines intended to evoke undulating sand dunes. However, the firm has also worked to ensure that the design is sustainable.
“We took into account the environmental properties of each material, thinking about everything-from sourcing locally to emissions,” said Guarnieri. “On the carpet for example, we specified the Dansk Wilton Origin collection, which uses undyed wool. The design intent for the materials selection was both for the standard staterooms and for the single staterooms.”