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Designers project the power of megayachts in basic furniture.
by Louis Postel
photography by Fly Pictures, Industrial & Corporate Profiles
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08/01/2007
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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."
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