Interior design
latest projects, the Crystal Endeavor. Billed as a spacious, luxurious vessel, the challenge was to balance opulence and comfort with the specific operational requirements of polar exploration. The vessel’s completion has been delayed due to the pandemic, but it is still scheduled for delivery in summer 2021.
New ways of thinking
Another facet of cruise design that is being touted as a post-pandemic trend is the emerging concept of biophilia, where plants and living walls are incorporated into the ship’s layout to promote calmness and reconnect guests with the natural world. While McGillicuddy can see the benefits of this approach, he is unsure how it would work in practice: “Plants on ships are quite difficult to maintain because of the sea air, the salt atmosphere and the cost of replacement so most greenery you see is artificial,” he notes. Moreover, on the general hygiene front, while cabin crews will now be cleaning vessels within an inch of their lives, McGillicuddy maintains that the overall cleanliness of the ships before the pandemic “was still extremely high”.
“Hotels and cruise ships are constantly cleaned,” he says. “However, you rarely see the crew because of the secondary service routes on board the ships. These enable the crew to circulate and carry out their duties without being visible. After midnight, when you walk around the ship, there will always crew cleaning everything.” Of course, it’s not just the ships themselves that are being recalibrated. Lockdown has changed the design process itself. Whereas previously plans were laid out in an office and brainstorming sessions might be conducted in a local cafe, the latest batch of ships are being developed from home kitchens and makeshift offices. Invariably, this new manner of working has taken some getting used to. “For all the Zoom calls, it’s really not the same. Sitting down face to face, it’s so much easier to gauge what a clients’ aspirations are and how you can help shape them,” McCarthy explains. “Meeting with someone is far more rewarding than staring at them on your laptop.”
McGillicuddy is particularly worried about what effect this is having on creativity and innovation. “I feel that this lockdown has deprived us of experiencing and understanding things in reality. I feel very strongly that design and creation has become confused by the overuse of online media imagery,” he says. While it will take time for trends to emerge post- pandemic, the general consensus seems to be that radical change is not necessarily the best way forward for the field of cruise ship design. A thoughtful embrace of new technologies and an even more rigorous focus on core design principles are seen as the best tools to combat Covid-19. While Le Corbusier once saw cruise liners as important signposts for a futuristic style of architecture, many of today’s ship designers remain firmly planted in the here and now. ●
26 World Cruise Industry Review /
www.worldcruiseindustryreview.com
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