With its sleek weave of intertwining curves and its spacecraft-like design, it looks more akin to Beijing’s famous ‘Bird’s Nest’ Olympic stadium than something that would take to the open water.
But this is the superyacht of the future, likely to become the latest plaything for the uber-rich and the envy of everyone else who will be unable to afford it. This is the first yacht designed by award-winning architect Dame Zaha Hadid, the brains behind the iconic Aquatics Centre built in London for last summer’s Olympics.
Scroll down for video ‘tour’
The Iraqi-born British-based architect designed a family of the futuristic superyachts for German shipbuilders Blohm+Voss. The upper mesh structure – which has been compared to a skeleton – of the stunning design connects the different decks of the 90m vessels.
Dwarfing the five ‘smaller’ yachts is a design for a 128m ‘mothership’. The first of the smaller designs, which will be known as the Jazz, has been transformed into a fully workable design. It combines a sharp torpedo-like prow with a more open back. The rest of the fleet will be customised according to their owner’s desires.
Video: Animated tour around 128m ‘skeletal-superyacht’
She told Dezeen: ‘As a dynamic object that moves in dynamic environments, the design of a yacht must incorporate additional parameters beyond those for architecture – which all become much more extreme on water. Each yacht is an engineered platform that integrates specific hydrodynamic and structural demands together with the highest levels of comfort, spatial quality and safety.’
The 2004 Pritzer Architecture Prize winner has previously won worldwide acclaim for some of her iconic buildings. She famously designed the Aquatic Centre for the London 2012 Olympic Games and the futuristic Riverside Museum in Glasgow.
Among some of her other more famous works are the Roca London Gallery, the BMW Central Building in Leipzig, Germany, and the MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome. As well as the Pritzer Prize, Ms Hadid has won the Sterling Prize twice in 2010 and 2011 for the MAXXI building and the Evelyn Grace Academy in Brixton, London.
Her involvement in Olympic architecture doesn’t end with the London Games. Hadid has been commissioned to draw up plans for the revamped National Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, which hosted the 1964 summer Games and will host them again in 2020.
She was also made a Dame in 2012 for services to architecture having already been awarded a CBE ten years earlier. As well as buildings and boats, Dame Zaha recently designed a fancy bottle for a limited edition wine produced by Leo Hillinger.
Her forays into design have also seen her help create vases, cars, and jewellery. Dame Zaha has previously designed a limited-edition speedboat for American art dealer Kenny Schachter.
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