The Impact of COVID-19 on Future Cruise Ship Design
“Lionel Ohayon, founder and CEO of ICRAVE – a thought leader in strategy, interior and experience design says, ‘There [need] to be behavioral changes as well as technological innovation to reinvent the whole experience. Ships need to be a safe haven and cruise companies need to own the messaging.’”
This article was first seen in CruiseTimes:
An Insight into Cruise Ship Design for a New Era
The coronavirus pandemic has brought the cruise industry to its knees. For the past decade cruise lines were reporting record profits then in 2020 it fell victim to an existential crisis unlike any other. Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by The New York Times shows that more than 100 ships in the US jurisdiction alone had outbreaks on board, resulting in nearly 3,000 people diagnosed with COVID-19. Now cruise company CEOs around the world are staring into metaphorical crystal balls trying to predict what the future holds.
Tom Wolber, CEO of Crystal Cruises puts the situation into perspective. “Although this global health pandemic is unprecedented, the cruise industry has weathered storms before, and we have a strong track record of adapting and responding to world events around us. More than 30 million people cruise every year and absolutely love it so the cruise industry will come back from this.”
There is no doubt that the future of cruise is being predicated on a vaccine – if one is ever found. According to Dr David Nabarro, professor of global health at Imperial College London, who is also serving as a special envoy to the World Health Organisation during the coronavirus pandemic, a vaccine to deal with COVID-19 may not be possible. He believes it may well be the case that for the foreseeable future, we are going to have to find ways to go about our lives with this virus as a constant threat.
Cruise lines are currently in a frenzy trying to come up with concepts that can be incorporated into existing tonnage to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 but what is the impact of the virus on cruise design of the future.
Lionel Ohayon, founder and CEO of ICRAVE – a thought leader in strategy, interior and experience design says, “Cruise lines need to front up to the virus, the paradigm has to change. There needs to be behavioural changes as well as technological innovation to reinvent the whole experience. Ships need to be a safe haven and cruise companies need to own the messaging.”
Next generation architecture
Having been responsible for the interior design of P&O Cruises’ Britannia, Terry McGillicuddy, director of Richmond International gives his views on the way forward. “As a major hospitality designer, we believe that for the industry as a whole there will be generic major impacts from COVID-19. The outcome will be driven by the economic consequences which will affect these markets and also the customers of the hospitality business,” he says.
“Before the virus, ship-building was reaching the peak of potential accommodation with ships getting ever larger; there seemed to be limited newbuilds after 2025 and new to cruise interest was increasing dramatically with all the new ships being delivered in the past few years. We believe in the short term this will affect the future of cruise ship design and building as there will be less potential cruisers in the market and thus the larger capacity ships will have difficulty filling their cabins and making a profit. This will turn the focus to the industry creating smaller capacity ships at an increased passenger cost but providing more luxury of space and exciting on-board services,” adds McGillicuddy.
There’s no disputing that a new wave of protocols and directives by such commissions as CDC; USPH and SOLAS amongst others to safeguard the way the industry operates and protects its guests are imminent; but there needs to be consensus. These will drive changes not only in functional designs but also in the business model. It is almost certain that passenger-space ratios will have to decrease. McGillicuddy believes the final direction of the ‘post COVID-19’ scenario isn’t clear pointing out, “Currently with our cruise ship clients there are no specific briefs to follow but many ideas are being discussed between the owners, operators and designers to enable the future of ship design to address these issues. We also believe that the usual competitive nature of the industry is now collaborating to share thoughts and solutions for the future.”
This viewpoint was echoed in a recent webinar hosted by Tillberg Design of Sweden entitled ‘Collaboration – Not Competition’. This offered a platform for authorities on architecture and design to convey the message that COVID-19 offers a challenge to create contemporary and technologically sophisticated spaces.
Speaking to CruiseTimes, Per Lindqvist, Business Director US at Tillberg Design of Sweden says ships will have to be thought out in a healthier and safer way as well as coming up with new notions of how passengers and crew interact around the ship.
Going into more detail he says, “Technology and design will be a large part of the solution and I foresee shipyards will have to accommodate new designs when it comes to finding common solutions. In an ideal world the construction of the ships should be brought up from the beginning and constructed based on what we have learned since the advent of coronavirus.”
He continues, “I think the majority of newbuilds will have to improve the fresh air circulation of the ships and air-conditioning should have the ability to be compartmentalised. Vertical communication in all parts of the ship will have to be used in a safer way. Sometimes looking forward is also the ability to glance backwards and maybe even allow the luxury of bellboys onboard assisting in a safer way to travel vertically.”
Marco De Jorio, CEO of De Jorio Design International envisages an even more radical solution. “Vertical connection is of paramount importance on ships. The ideal solution is to replace elevators with escalators or even an open moving platform similar to that incorporated on Celebrity Edge and Celebrity Apex. Internal passenger access is also an issue if one-way flow is to be incorporated, this will then require more internal crossing points between port and starboard corridors. From a social distancing perspective the passageways are the most problematic as they are at best 1 to 1.2 metres wide” he points out.
DJDI has been fully involved in the launch and development of the MSC fleet since 2000 and is renowned for its research and technological advances in all its fields of expertise. Now focussing on the new challenge for cruise ship architecture Marco De Jorio stresses, “Designers, Microbiologists and Hvac specialists must cooperate for the definition of future furnishings and materials. We are currently in discussion with some owners and are making presentations with consultants about modifying our design concepts to enable ships to operate in a COVID-secure mode,” he points out.
Revolutionary concepts
The future will bring changes to cruise ship design, some in the short term and possibly some for longer. Anna Koutsoukosta, principal architect at AMK Architecture & Design points out, “For new builds that are in the preliminary phases of construction, the ship owners and the architectural firms have the luxury to design the General Arrangement from scratch and implement a series of complex changes.”
When asked what specific areas of the General Arrangement could be affected Koutsoukosta said, “The question should instead be what areas of the General Arrangement will remain intact - and these will not be many. The GA is the backbone of the ship. Thus, if any changes in the function of the ship are needed, the GA needs to reflect these. Design companies need to plan and conceive skilful ways to accommodate the desired functions and ensure ships all mandated ‘virus-resistant’ properties.
“Passengers should be offered the best possible travel experience and their interaction with the ship as frictionless as possible. The right GA design must enable smooth passenger flow and cater for the right passenger distribution across the decks. For this, we need to ask ourselves the right questions: how they check in, how they embark/disembark, how they eat, how they socialize, how they move around the ship, how they entertain themselves.”
Controlling contagion
Accommodation will also be the focus of profound changes. There could be a higher proportion of cabins with verandas as well as larger cabins which have a sanitising ‘wet-room’ in their vestibule. It’s almost certain internal passenger cabins have been consigned to history; while in crew quarters there will be a maximum of two persons per cabin. There will be stipulations for anti-microbial carpets and fabrics plus touch-free bathroom fittings. Viral resistant materials will be essential to ensure compliance with new sanitization protocols.
On the subject of public spaces Koutsoukosta opines, “Specific designs of certain public areas needs to be considered individually. It is vital to re-visit the passenger journey, to study how they use these areas and how a new design can offer a better experience. In terms of food and beverage outlets, restaurants can be redesigned both in areas dedicated to them and in terms of table sizing and table spacing. Buffet layouts will need to provide more counters to avoid queues plus compartmentalization to create micro-areas. By creating smaller, more intimate and safer areas in various areas of the vessel, guests can still have the experience they want – without the risk.”
This prompted a question about her main concerns for compliance with bio-security. “Ship design needs to allow physical distancing in tandem with social interaction as well as including provisions for on-board crisis management,” concludes Koutsoukosta.
One thing is without doubt, the landscape – or seascape – will be reset when ships set a course towards a brave new world.
© Gary Buchanan
03.07.20