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30 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • FEBRUARY 2014 CRUISE SHIP DESIGN Tomas Tillberg Mr. Tillberg, as a long-tenured and well-respected member of the Cruise Ship design community, put in per- spective the overriding design trends that you have seen in cruise ships over the last decade? There are more diverse and better defi ned cruise ship designs today than 10 years ago and there is more at- tention to intimacy, variety, options and multiple functions in the designs than ever before. One reason is that there are more cruise lines catering to better and better defi ned segments of the cruise market, which means the designs have to be more conscious of the different brands and how they are marketed, a wonder- ful challenge for us as a design fi rm. The itineraries are also more diverse than before and present interesting choices for the passenger that were non-existent 10 years ago. As one of the factors considered when designing the interiors of a cruise ship is the itin- erary this too presents new and exciting challenges for us. Cruise lines have always been look- ing for new potential revenue sources. The retail areas have been an impor- tant one of those and have developed considerably during the last 10 years as have casinos and food venues. There are more restaurants with different food choices than ever before. The designs have to refl ect this, so today we design Asian food venues as well as the very best French or a casual Italian “Eataly” or even a fully authentic Moorish Café. There is a trend to introduce what you can fi nd on land also on the ship such as the Central Park on the RCCL ships or different amusements or sports activities. Also the ship can actually be a destination today rather than a means of travel. Today families with children of all ages are an important part of the guests of many cruise lines and large areas on ships are devoted to these dif- ferent age groups. Technology has moved forward at a rapid rate and today we see wireless communication as a natural part of the experience on a cruise. This means that areas such as the business center tend to diminish in importance as the guests are able to use their laptops, iPads or phones for emails, Skype etc. anywhere on the ship. To summarize, the trend is towards more of a boutique hotel atmosphere and residential feeling, multiple choic- es in itineraries, level of comfort and luxury, food and entertainment and ba- sically more bang for the buck! Modern cruise ships can cost upwards of a billion and built to last more than 25 years, so the platforms much be built for change, as evolving style & taste, material innovation & maritime regulation dictate. “Built to stand the test of time” is the mantra, so in seek- ing insight on modern cruise design we sought insights from a designer that also has stood the test of time, Tomas Till- berg of Tillberg Design International. By Greg Trauthwein Five Minutes With ... MR #2 (26-31).indd 30 2/3/2014 10:12:20 AM
