[ 52 ] THE SHIP OF THE FUTURE Ferries shuttling on the 22-nautical-mile Dover–Calais route are like floating bridges that connect the UK with the Continental motorway network. The 90-minute sea journey is only marginally longer than the time people typically spend in a motorway service station. Instead of a motorway service station experience, P&O Ferries and the Ship of the Future’s interior architects, Denmark’s OSK Design, put customer experience first when designing the various areas that provide a best-in-class cross-Channel experience in a cosy and contemporary environment. Extensive market research was undertaken in the early stages of the Ship of the Future project to learn exactly what influenced customers to choose P&O Ferries and to understand their future needs. The extensive research identified that customers chose P&O Ferries to recover and recharge in just 90 minutes — something the fixed link couldn’t offer — as customers pointed out that they didn’t want anxiety, stress and noise. While a variety of seating with improved comfort was vital for recovery, food and drink were needed for the recharge. Besides performing thorough customer experience research, the Ship of the Future newbuild team also gained first-hand experience from other short-distance ferry operations, with the Helsinki–Tallinn route a case in point. Although covering a distance twice that of Dover–Calais , the route’s market leader, Tallink, operates fast conventional ferries that connect the capital cities in just two hours under the Tallink Shuttle brand. Fresh from the shipyard when the Ship of the Future project was initiated in spring 2017, Megastar brought about a radical change in shipboard design, setting new standards for shuttle-type ferry crossings. The majority of Megastar’s passenger accommodation was devised by the up-andcoming Finnish interior design practice, dSign Vertti Kivi & Co. Renowned for its disruptive ideas and designs with a strong ambience, dSign Vertti Kivi & Co’s first major ferry project was Viking Line’s 2013-built ro-pax cruise ferry Viking Grace. Megastar represented an all-new way of travelling between Tallinn and Helsinki, something which didn’t escape the attention of the Ship of the Future newbuild team who travelled with the ship shortly after its introduction. When P&O Ferries ran a tender for the conceptual interior design, it was initially won by dSign Vertti Kivi & Co, using Megastar as the reference ship. However, as OSK Design had been selected as the Ship of the Future’s naval architects, P&O Ferries logically decided to keep the whole design package, including the interior design, under one roof. So OSK Design’s interior architecture offshoot, then still known as Steen Friis Design, was eventually awarded “ As OSK Design had been selected as the Ship of the Future’s naval architects, P&O Ferries logically decided to keep the whole design package, including the interior design, under one roof”
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