Cruise & Ferry Interiors 2021

1 4 6 Gio Ponti was the leader of Italian design, he was an expert in ocean liners and was looking for logical answers to the problems that afflicted them: the operational evolution (from liner to cruiser) could not ignore a profound rethinking of functionality and aesthetic form, that is of the ship’s urban planning. An interesting project emerged: the graduation thesis on the Turtle Ship, published by Gio Ponti in March 1969, in issue 472 of Domus, a prestigious architecture and design magazine he directed. The concept of the Turtle Ship was expressly conceived for cruises and not simply derived from an ocean liner. Wide and slow, it was not designed for the transfer journey from one port to another, but for the relaxation of life onboard and the pleasure of discovery. Since then, and for the duration of these last 50 years, everyone has followed the teaching, and there has been a proliferation of hundreds of cruise ships, beautiful or ugly, small or gigantic, but all successful, economical and public. The new transition Today history repeats itself. What should we learn from the past? About a year ago, an enemy as unexpected as it was small caught us by surprise, immobilising us. Confident in our scientific and technological capabilities, we trusted the Chinese model: a moment of patience and everything would be as it was before. But it did not go that way. Our reliable world has changed. For better, for worse? Probably for the better, for more aware human beings, but it will depend on how we deal with it. The lesson of the past tells us that, even if the event was brutal, the transition to something new, which we do not yet know, will be gradual. Whenever we believe we have overcome the worst, the enemy returns, more evil than before. We still have to learn to recognise it, the something new that awaits us. We must continue to work patiently, wisely and yet again, with much creative imagination. So, trying to have a positive vision of the future or, better, a proactive one, we might do the following: • First, which all operators are already doing, is to recreate trust. How? With many small measures: sanitisation, distancing, reassuring itineraries, commercial promotions. In the collective imagination, the ship must go back to being the ‘happy island’, the best place for feeling safe and coming back to for relaxing. In the harsh reality, however, it means making ships work under an uneconomical regime, after a whole year of losses. • Gradually transform the units in operation to make them more suitable for changing needs: fewer passengers in larger private spaces, with groupings of cabins in mini-residences. The lower turnover could be minimally offset by a reduction in crews and simpler services. • Reassure with near-proximity itineraries, with lower fuel consumption, travel costs, supplies and more. However, these are transition phases, which are slow and costly. The real challenge is to know if, after the transition period, it will be possible to return to the status quo ante , a solution that everyone dreams of, of course. Or instead, new ‘Turtle Ships’: better, completely innovative ideas. So let us go back to sails and that is to the imagination, to see if they can offer us some good suggestions. NYK Line, SES 2030 concept About 10 years ago we had the privilege of being able to study a container ship concept for the near future for NYK Line. The aim of the project was the concentration of technologies aimed at improving operational efficiency and reducing energy consumption of fossil origin. The project, called SES 2030, was led by a team formed by MTI, Monohakobi Technology Institute of NYK, Elomatic and Garroni Progetti for the design. The results were encouraging because returns were likely to improve by 50 per cent. Many of the solutions proposed were taken up in subsequent projects and also tested in real life. Xiamen Cruise Vessel A few years later, in conjunction with a didactic collaboration with the Jimei University of Xiamen, the opportunity arose to resume and further study some concepts developed for the SES 2030, applying them to passenger cruise ships. The Xiamen ship concept has two rows of telescopic masts and airfoil sails DES IGN LEGEND