SYDW 2015 Day Two: Morning Highlights

SuperyachtDESIGN Week 2015’s encompassing theme is holism in design, the ways and means by which we can combine information found in synthetic technology or nature to create unified designs that combat the environmental and fiscal challenges we face. The theme for Day two of SuperyachtDESIGN Week 2015 was ‘Living Architecture’ and began with a keynote speech from Pavegen founder and CEO Laurence Kemball-Cook.

"At Pavegen, we want to help the world use energy different," announced Kemball-Cook. Pavegen is a relatively new company that is harnessing the kinetic energy from human footfall to create sustainable energy sources to power low energy applications. Every footstep on a Pavegen tile generates seven watts of energy which is then stored in batteries to power lights and other such applications.


Kemball-Cook emphasised that the potential applications were enormous. The tiles could power anything from mobile phones to electric cars. Another exciting aspect of the tiles is their ability to capture the data of those walking on them though. "Data is, I believe, going to be the new oil," he predicted.

After another short coffee break and an opportunity to peruse the artisan showrooms that fill Design Centre, Chelesea Harbour, it was on to the interactive workshops once again. In a workshop titled ‘On the Road to Collaboration’, held at the House of Tai Ping, Michael Eaglen, Marnix Hoekstra, Greg Marshall and Jonny Horsfield explained their innovative presentation method for brokers, a method they have taken on the road. "We were looking for a custom yacht message to deliver to the brokerage market on the road show" Eaglen shared via Skype from New Zealand.


Across the way in the Stark Carpet and Fabric showroom, Tony Castro and Rob Doyle explained and lamented the beauty of sailing superyachts and why they are not as popular as perhaps they once were. Doyle pointed out the obvious issue - that it's harder to sell someone 500gt of superyacht when the equivalent motor yacht offers 1000gt. But Castro said the blame should be levelled at the industry, which "needs to change its tune and build yachts that are fit for purpose again, and not just all about performance." Castro concluded that a portion of the blame must be laid at the feet of the designers themselves who appear to be “designing for themselves” and not for the client.


Elsewhere, founder and co-head of Michael Leach Designs, Michael Leach, talked of and fielded questions on inspiration in his Meet the Designer appearance. Leach, whose studio is credited with a number of well-known superyacht projects such as Hemisphere, revealed that the most important lesson he had learned on the topic of inspiration happened in his fourth year of study at design school.


Leach’s class were asked to design a city car. "While most of us were busy creating sketches, one of my classmates — who joined in our final year — spent his time collecting images of different tropical fish. What he had created was a mood board, which he used to design a family car and it was a real success. I remember thinking how amazing that was and how blinkered the rest of us were." The message was clear, inspiration can come from anywhere.

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