Design Showcase: Table Talk
Louis Postel
08/01/2007

What could be more prosaic than a table?

Surprise, surprise: Megayacht designers and their clients are focusing increasing amounts of creative energy on these flat, but not necessarily dull constructs where most of our joyful occupations ultimately come to rest—eating, chatting, playing backgammon in the salon, breakfasting on the aft deck, leafing through a stack of treasurd books in the stateroom.

Photograph Courtesy of Fly Pictures, Industrial & Corporate Profiles. (Click image to enlarge)

Witness the art and technology involved in the evanescent, marine-like tables aboard the Evan K. Marshall-designed, soon-to-be-launched Trinity 164 Norwegian Queen II, Luca Bassani’s carbon modules on the 118 WallyPower, Sylvia Bolton’s black lacquers for Northstar Lady or David Linley’s marquetry-topped, reversible games table for Mirabella V. The challenge for these designers is how best to express in furniture the high-tech muscularity and sleekness of the yachts themselves. Or to paraphrase visionary artist and architect John Anderson, who redesigned the ShowBoats International Award in 2006: The question is how to personalize these tables, make them so that if one of these tables were standing alone in an all-white room you would still be able to tell a lot about the owner and the yacht.

Marshall is doing nothing but personalization on his yachts. "No one wants products out of a catalog anymore, not even if it just came out," he says. "They want something unique and custom." His scheme for the interior of Norwegian Queen takes this sentiment to new levels, with a virtual "concert," as he calls it, of texture, form and color.

The musical metaphor makes sense because each table created by Marshall is a well-orchestrated whole. There’s an established order and structure to their design without any stiffness or static quality. They’re stable, logical, bolted to the deck and at the same time they flow, and when Marshall’s clients are in the mood, they will even glow. Marshall had the dining room table, coffee table and gaming table in the salon under-lit by a new kind of plastic film by CeeLite, cited as one of Time magazine’s Best Inventions of 2006.

Circular, rectangular and oval geometric tables help turn voids into energetic spaces. Middle & Bottom photography by Matteo Piazza. (Click images to enlarge)

The surface itself," says Marshall, "will be a frosted ‘Star Fire,’ or low-lead glass with glass inlays in red and black." These flaring red accents can be found in the patterns of the Hermès china, as well as the glass spheres under the surface of the coffee table, and most brilliantly of all in the coral hues of a custom chandelier by glass impresario Dale Chihuly.

Part of what makes a table stand out as unique is not simply the shape of its legs or its glossy finish. It’s critical how the piece interacts with other elements in the room, whether in convergence or juxtaposition; in other words, how it helps define what is essentially an empty void and makes it into something positive. That’s what designer Sylvia Bolton did so masterfully on Northstar Lady. By virtue of a simple black strip around the perimeter of the dining table, Bolton married it to the black of the spiral stairs nearby, thereby creating an organic whole.

There’s also a matter of contrast, as well as harmony. "If the dining room table is the larger, heavier piece, make the cocktail table in the salon smaller—not necessarily daintier, just a little different," says Bolton. "For example, if you have glass on the coffee table you would use more wood on the dining table to differentiate them not only by their different uses but also by their designs. On Northstar Lady, the client wanted contrast between the dining room and the salon, thus the high-gloss black lacquer in the dining area."Most of Bolton’s tables are high-gloss. She feels the surfaces tend to add a little protection to the elements. In any case, there’s a certain glamour attendant in all the reflected light her surfaces produce.

Right now Bolton is working on a new project involving a play of colored light between the dining table and vertical panels set around it. "I’m using glass mosaic inlays set in epoxy and covered with tempered glass, framing the edges in wood," she says. "A small company (in Seattle, Washington) called Norberry Tile produces them. I pick the colors I like, they mix them, and there it is, voilà: amber, aubergine, mother-of-pearl, metallic beige, white amber and orange."

While projecting the power of the yacht, tables also support fun, elegant living from formal dining to backgammon. Top photograph by Bannenberg/ Feadship De Vries. Bottom photograph by Sylvia Bolton. (Click images to enlarge)

Uniqueness also comes from the ingenious use of space. Even on the largest vessel, multiplicity of function and flexibility of every piece of furniture including tables makes up a good part of the design vocabulary. Sarah Allen of Linley, bespoke furniture makers based in London, speaks this language fluently. On the 247-foot, four-masted Phocea, she created a radially expanding table inspired by the 1835 invention of compatriot Robert Jupe. "By turning a circular table," she says, "eight to ten pie leaves come out on sliders. You store the leaves inside the frieze of the table or separately."

And on the sailing yacht Mirabella V, Allen designed a gaming table for the salon with a laser-perfected marquetry top and a reverse side for backgammon, chess and cards. The table also included individual compartments for storage of game pieces and secure drawers for when the yacht is in motion.

On projects such as Lady Moura and Olympia, choice of veneers is as key to the tables’ uniqueness as their engineering. English oak, sycamore, American walnut, cherry—there are 40 or 50 veneers Allen works with. "Linley’s very committed to using sustainable sources," she adds. "We haven’t used mahogany in years."

Let’s now return to architect John Anderson’s imaginary white room with the table insde that evokes everything about the vessel itself—or should. He maintains that Wally yachts are prime examples of the seamless correlation between a high-tech hull and the furnishings within. The tables on the 118 WallyPower, for example, are of the same carbon material used by Wally designer Luca Bassani since 1993 to build yachts. Originally developed for the aerospace industry, Bassani prefers carbon fiber for its lightness and strength, which for tables means the flexibility to be moved at will.

"On Tiketitan back in 1998, we built the first table in carbon with no legs," Bassani recalls. "It was suspended from the deck. Then in 1999 on Wally B we built those rolling tables, which could disappear to clear for living space; then on the 118 WallyPower [we built] carbon modules that could be, at the same time, tables and sofas. And on the Wally 80s, legs of titanium tubing support small, innovative tables in the cockpit. When the legs are in the down position, the tables become ‘pulpits,’ or elevated platforms, which give people something to hold on to as they walk through the area."

Bassani would surely appreciate the old Gothic dictum: Ars sine scientia nihil est; or, art without knowledge is nothing. In fact, knowledge of the cutting edge is a prerequisite for Anderson, Marshall and Bolton, as well as Linley’s Sarah Allen. In combination with their artistic gifts, they require "scientia" in spades, with every tool and substance at their disposal. Once in hand, they can truly project the unique power and modern technology of megayachts throughout every space, even in the most common of tables.