Cruise & Ferry Interiors 2021

1 4 7 China was taking the first concrete steps to develop its own design cruise ships, targeting Chinese customers, and not importing ships built elsewhere for the Chinese market. Contacts were active and involved many centres of competence, including Fincantieri and, obviously, the Chinese CSSC. The process was neither simple nor quick, but projects have multiplied, with interesting outcomes that could also be reconsidered in the light of recent events. One concerned a ship that, in some way, derived from some concepts expressed in the SES 2030: it was a medium-large cruise ship, very green- oriented, in terms of both respect for the environment and project theme. Plant nature was the leitmotif of the onboard environment because the ship was a destination in itself. Its purpose was not to reach an exotic place, but to be itself a happy green island on which to spend a few days of pleasant relaxation. A concept which, 10 years ago, was considered only as a ‘green and soft’ variant of ‘nowhere cruises’: cruises without a destination designed to offer a few days of unusual leisure just outside big cities, especially New York. Leisure that was generally very technological, above all culinary and frequently organised as an aggregative extension for corporate business meetings, with no escape routes. It also seemed ideal for China, just off the coasts of rapidly developing megalopolises. The code name, in fact, was Xiamen, a city that would like to establish itself as a cruise hub. The concept of a ‘garden ship’ could today constitute a source of complementary attraction for the promotion of proximity cruises, the first step towards normalisation. With two rows of telescopic masts and airfoil sails, the Xiamen ship, as well as the SES 2030, highlighted the environmental trend that characterised the project. An apparently new way of conceiving sail propulsion because we are normally used to boats or ships equipped with one or more sail masts positioned along the centre line, the longitudinal axis of symmetry. Instead, lateral masts arranged in parallel rows have very ancient origins because they were adopted by the Chinese many centuries ago to push their large and wide transport ships, suitable for navigating even in shallow waters. The Lake Ship The recent challenges of the America’s Cup, with boats capable of flying very fast on only one lateral winged leg, offer us a technologically innovative vision of sail propulsion. However, it does not necessarily mean that innovation should only be technological. Continuing to think about proximity itineraries, we realise that inland waters, navigable rivers, are meeting with great success, almost Garroni Design’s concepts for a ‘green-oriented’ ship, with plant nature as the leitmotif of the onboard environment