This article is part of the Design special section on water as a source of creativity.
Midway through Milan Design Week last month, in the middle of the Bagni Misteriosi — a historic swimming complex in the Porta Romana neighborhood — Italian luxury shipbuilder Azimut Yachts hosted an unusual exhibition. It was a celebration of the company’s latest offering: the Seadeck 6, which debuted last year and features interiors by the design team of Matteo Thun and Antonio Rodriguez.
Having been lowered into the facility by crane, the nearly 60-foot vessel floats in an outdoor pool. There it launched, plowing through hordes of invited guests while a hidden device blanketed it with blasts of atmospheric steam. Surreal, elegant, not a little absurd, it was a scene straight out of Fellini, with hints of Werner Herzog’s tug-of-war epic Fitzgerald.
But what made it more unusual? “Azimut wanted to make this the most sustainable boat on the market,” said Mr. Rodriguez. “We tried to do that.”
The ultimate playthings for the ultra-luxurious, high-end yacht don’t seem like optimal candidates for greening. However, a growing number of builders and designers are trying to change that, producing large and (comparatively) small yachts assembled from fewer carbon-intensive materials, requiring a fraction of the power to operate and drawing more energy from renewable sources.
In a curious twist for an industry uniquely exposed to supply chain shocks and geopolitical vicissitudes (the loss of the once-lucrative Russian market continues to sting), global brand leaders appear to be making the move toward energy efficiency their own , rather than in response to any express demand from their clientele.
“We’ll have to see if the world is ready,” said Giovanna Vitelli, Azimut’s president, as she stood on Seadeck 6 during its not-so-maiden, not-so voyage.
It is an approach that carries some risk. In January, Silent Yachts – an Austrian solar-electric catamaran company based in Fano, Italy – was reported to be nearing bankruptcy amid problems with both its corporate parent and a key subcontractor. A former customer stepped in to save the brand from insolvency, but challenges remain. In a recent interview with trade publication Superyacht News, the company’s new chief executive, Fabrizio Iarrera, spoke of the “costs associated with creating a completely new market”.
However, the push towards more sustainable sailing appears to be moving forward, part of a wider shift in the role of design in the industry. Seven years ago, Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture in New York – known for its plush hotel interiors for hospitality magnate Ian Schrager – was invited by Azimut’s sister company Benetti to develop a new yacht concept, the Oasis. It was one of the rare occasions when Benetti, founded in 1873, had sought partners with no previous nautical experience, and all parties took it as an opportunity to introduce a set of values they felt was lacking in the boating world.
According to Enrico Bonetti, co-founder of the architectural office, boat design previously favored large spaces that no one liked. “There’s always this big table that nobody uses, then you go into another place with shiny things,” he said. “We didn’t follow that.” With its open, airy living space, wood paneling and notable lack of gold leaf, the Oasis represented a more human vision of the yacht of the future, limited at least by an appearance of refinement and reserve, though nonetheless it was elegant.
This low-key trend is very much in line with the decarbonisation campaign now underway at Azimut and other manufacturers. In recent years, design studios such as Zaha Hadid Architects and Pininfarina have presented proposals for yachts that combine elegant graphics with a reduced dependence on fossil fuels. Later this year, Yves Béhar, the Swiss-born maestro of products and furniture, will unveil his own take on the trend – a catamaran designed for a yet-to-be-named manufacturer. “It’s essentially an EV,” said Mr. Béhar, who was also in Milan for the design fair.
Underlying the phenomenon of eco-yacht designers is the intuitive sense, as Antonio Rodriguez put it, that “silent luxury” is fast displacing opulence. Where previous generations of yachts tried to show off their wealth, today’s owners may be less keen to draw attention to their own well-being. By reducing their carbon footprint, boat builders hope to entice customers who want to lower their profile while still allowing them to sail the seven seas in style.
The Seadeck 6 certainly does that. With a clean, white exterior – the work of veteran yacht designer Alberto Mancini – the ship can accommodate up to eight in three cabins below deck. Upstairs, guests can stretch out on the fore and aft lounges or have lunch prepared in a semi-hidden kitchen, served at an elegant folding table. The interior palette is muted, the contours are soft, and throughout, Ms. Vitelli said, the intent was to let people “feel close to the water” rather than cramming them into a penthouse overlooking the ocean.
Speaking of which, Seadeck’s green credentials are also impressive. Almost every feature has been redesigned for minimal environmental impact: replacing the usual teak decking with sustainably sourced cork. covering the walls and covering the seats with organic and recycled materials. even sealing the hull with what the company refers to as an “eco gel finish”. More importantly, the vessel incorporates an even more innovative (for marine propulsion) hybrid engine, capable of a top speed of 33 knots with the ability to navigate about 200 miles offshore – enough for a quick spin from Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas.
Add it up, and the company claims the Seadeck 6 and its larger cousin, the 71-foot Seadeck 7, achieve an operational carbon efficiency of 60 percent of that of comparable vessels.
It’s a start, but only that. A comparative analysis with a similarly sized Azimut product—combined with Environmental Protection Agency statistics—suggests that a cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Nassau would contribute about 4,400 pounds of carbon dioxide to Seadeck 6, far more than what the average American month.
And then there are the more immediate costs: about $2.8 million for Seadeck 6 and $4.25 million for Seadeck 7. Ms. Vitelli said the company hopes enough buyers will come in to make possible price cuts in future.
Much is riding on these hopes. Elsewhere in Milan, on the vast showroom floor of the Salone del Mobile furniture fair, a talk with a panel of yacht experts highlighted the stakes: During the panel, Stefano de Vivo, chief commercial officer of luxury yacht brand Ferretti Group, presented a slide showing Italy’s dominance of the custom-yacht sector, with domestic builders taking a large share of the $9 billion global market.
Mr de Vivo stated that sustainability is essential to the continued success of shipbuilding and spoke of a general convergence with the design sector more generally. “As a shipyard, we needed to become less ‘marine’,” he said.
Back at the Bagni Misteriosi, the sailors seemed somewhat confined as various design enthusiasts and Salone personalities (including renowned architect Michele de Lucchi, who helped create an on-site installation for Azimut) circulated around the bath’s garden and aquatic center of. . As a picture of an ecologically sensitive future, the sight seemed unexpected — but then Seadeck’s creators are careful not to make too sweeping claims about whether their yacht, or any yacht, can really be considered an eco-good.
“We don’t really like the word ‘sustainable,'” Mr. Rodriguez said. “We prefer to say it’s ‘conscious.’