Trans RINA, Vol 156, Part C1, Intl J Marine Design, Jan - Dec 2014
THE POTENTIAL FOR SURFACE DISRUPTION TECHNIQUES IN THE AESTHETIC EVOLUTION OF SUPERYACHTS
T Nelson, EBDIG-IRC, Coventry University, UK (DOI No: 10.3940/rina.ijmd.2014.c1.25)
SUMMARY
Superyachts are some of the largest man-made structures designed outside of the discipline of architecture, but as their sizes have increased over the years, there has been little change in the aesthetic treatment of their surfaces. This scaling- up of design features has often resulted in the creation of amorphous, incoherent and incongruous masses of steel and aluminium.
Superyachts spend a large proportion of their existences in-dock, stationary aside from the movement of the water. We can therefore justify analysing them within the context of architecture, where buildings with such vast expanses of unbroken white surface are rarely seen. When such instances do occur, criticism soon follows – the Benthem Crouwel Wing of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has been dubbed ‘The Bathtub’, and is widely derided. Whilst no such formalised and directed criticism of superyacht design exists as yet, there is clearly an opportunity for a rethink.
This paper summarises research and development activities, where in-depth visual analysis of contemporary architecture has informed design output. The body of this paper discusses methodologies for expansive surface disruption in superyacht design. These methodologies (which advocate the progressive adoption of design approaches from the world of contemporary architecture) are beginning to inform marine design projects, the first of which has been analysed within the context of both the superyacht industry and architectural practice.
1. INTRODUCTION
As superyachts continue to increase in size, should their design language change? Currently, the largest superyacht in the world is 180m in length (see Figure 1) [1], yet shares much aesthetically with craft ten (or more) times smaller. Can we continue to scale-up this design language ad infinitum?
Ranking Name of Yacht 1 Azzam 2
Eclipse
3 Dubai 4 Al Said 5 Topaz
5 Prince Abdulaziz 7 El Horriya 8 Yas
9 Victory 10
Al Salamah
Length (m) 180
162.5 162 155 147 147
145.72 141 140 139
Figure 1: List of the World’s Largest Superyachts [1] It is difficult to question
the beauty of superyachts
without context. Perhaps this is why the vast majority of press images show superyachts at sea, without any other visual reference that might reveal their true scale. When we are given backgrounds in these images, they are typically landscapes of
epic grandeur (for example,
mountains or coastlines). Superyachts are rarely pictured when in port, where they may spend up to 75%
of
buildings, they appear incongruous: vast swathes of largely uninterrupted
tessellated constructions in brick, timber and metal.
This paper sets out to question whether lessons might be learned from the only other field of design operating at this scale: architecture. There are very few examples of façades
in architecture with such large un-textured,
uninterrupted surfaces. Indeed there is a large sector of the construction industry concerned with the design of both structural and decorative architectural elements and treatments. When buildings are designed like superyachts the results are contentious [4] [5].
At only 100m in length (roofline level), the Benthem Crouwel Wing of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (Figures 2-3) is a minnow in comparison with the very largest superyachts. Its smooth white façade is composed of 271 Twaron® composite panels, seamlessly blended together. This is a material more often used for marine and aerospace
applications [3]. The looking building building than the new Stedelijk
their time [2]. When viewed alongside coastal white surfaces
float alongside
was
unveiled in September 2012 to a mixed reception. Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for the New York Times wrote: ‘Offhand I can’t recall seeing a more ridiculous
Museum, which recently opened here.’ [4] The L.A. Times’ architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne undermined the lead architect’s attempt to endear the public to the new annex by nicknaming it ‘the bathtub’: ‘Mels Crouwel dubbed his new addition to Amsterdam's Museumplein the 'bathtub,' a fitting description for such an oversized, antiseptic and mismatched design.’ [5]
©2014: The Royal Institution of Naval Architects
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