Sustainable Yachting BioBlu - Project BIO concept yacht
BioBlu Sustainable Yachting and Onital Studio unveil concept designs for Project BIO 40m concept yacht
BioBlu Sustainable Yachting and Onital Studio unveil concept designs for Project BIO 40m concept yacht
What is BioBlu sustainable yachting?
BioBlu offers a reinterpretation of yachting’s relationship with People and Planet, owner and ocean, by placing a respect for nature at the core of their activities.
Focused on enhancing the onboard health and wellness experience for the owner and guests whilst considering a yacht’s environmental impact on the seas it calls home, BioBlu’s team provide a range of innovative solutions to yacht brands, owners and captains.
BioBlu’s services reflect the team’s backgrounds in sustainability and wellbeing, yacht design and refit project management. Together they advise on reducing yacht carbon emissions and energy consumption, improving indoor air quality, managing onboard waste, prioritizing healthy, sustainable materials and biophilic design for yacht interiors.
Project BIO 40m sustainable yachting concept
The Project BIO 40 meter displacement yacht is the synthesis of BioBlu’s philosophy, one that is in harmony with Onital Studio who joined the team to lead the yacht design process.
We gave considerable weight to concerns around onboard health and wellbeing in this project, balanced with responsible yacht design and environmentally conscious operational practices. As such, the BIO Project 40 meter is a collaborative expression of BioBlu and Onital’s shared vision and values.
BioBlu
BIO yacht concept
“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others” (Jonathan Swift)
Project BIO – Build (B) Interiors (I) Operations (O) - aims to enhance the mental and physical health benefits of life at sea for an owner and guests whilst also considering the impact of a yacht on the life of those seas for future generations.
This symbiotic approach of balancing People and Planet, reducing a yacht’s environmental impact on one hand and enhancing its health and wellbeing features on the other, starts in the pre-design phase of a build and continues through into the interiors and operations, with BioBlu playing an integral project management role to ensure the yacht’s unique DNA is present at every point in the development process.
Aesthetically, our design is strongly influenced by the automotive and wellness architecture industries, both leaders in the sourcing and application of sustainable materials. It expresses a streamlined dynamism without compromising the wellness living concept developed by BioBlu Sustainable Yachting.
Onital Studio
Sustainable Yachting Concept / Build - collaboration with Initial Studio
The BioBlu team had previous experience developing new yacht concepts together; in this case, the motto of “form follows performance” quickly became central to the project, alongside a focus on sustainability from construction through to the yacht’s end of life, and natural aesthetics for their innate elegance.
Together, these three elements resulted in a design that suggests a new twist on the owner-yacht relationship, as well as the relationship between yacht and sea.
Design highlights include a second bridge with a ‘floating loft’ almost entirely glass-walled with panoramic views of the sea and a transformable stern area used as a beach club, drinks terrace or dining space, according to requirements.
Extendable terraces can add volume to the external bridges or indeed to the cabins, according to the client’s brief in the design phase.
Abundant natural light throughout the yacht combines with smart lighting systems that follow the body’s Circadian Rhythm and high-grade glazing, shielding the owner both the sun’s rays and electromagnetic fields (EMF).
‘Green tech’ onboard comes in the form of solar panels and hydrogen generators combined with hybrid propulsion systems that currently represent the best option for reducing carbon emissions.
Sustainable Yachting Concept / Interiors - wellbeing and sustainability
A panoramic owner’s suite has been conceived as the ideal cocoon for mental and physical rest and recovery. A connection to nature is provided via views of the night sky above while reclining on a coconut fibre mattress and organic linen sheets positioned on deep-pile carpets containing upcycled ocean plastic yarn.
A wellbeing area provides both indoor and outdoor exercise spaces with eco-friendly equipment made of sustainably sourced wood and cork.
Biophilic design features such as recycled teak decking, decorative wall panels made of algae, and air-purifying, non-toxic paint in a palette of soothing natural colors helps to bring the outside world in, promoting feelings of vitality.
Similarly, an office area uses the latest wellbeing interior design principles such as air quality monitors, healthy furniture fabrics, a sit-stand workstation and a nature-inspired art installation to improve concentration levels.
Sustainable Yachting Concept / Operations - systems and procedures
BioBlu looks to roll its concept out not just into a yacht’s Build and Interiors but also into the onboard Operations, again balancing concerns for wellbeing and the environment.
This equates to an initial focus on onboard systems related to water, waste and air: an advanced water ionization and filtration system; high-grade air purification filters and high-performance marine waste vacuum system with hygiene filters respectively, all equate to valuable additions from an onboard operations perspective.
Hygiene and cleaning have never been more important than they are today, so ensuring eco-friendly, non-toxic cleaning materials; anti-microbial treatments on all steel panels and the use of sanitizing UV-C lights reflect BioBlu’s pragmatic philosophy of ‘marginal gains’ in action.
Similarly, there is no easy path towards full ‘plastic-free yacht operations’ status but Project BIO aims to show what is possible in the short-term by implementing a green procurement policy for the yacht crew to follow as well as supplying natural, marine-based bathroom amenities in reusable bottles to further reduce plastic waste, amongst other details.
Globally recognized third-party certifications are likely to play an increasingly important role in the transition to a sustainable yachting sector, so the BIO yacht has aligned with RESET AIR for indoor air quality, the Clear Ocean Pact for reducing single-use plastics onboard and Yacht Carbon Offset for carbon offsetting.
About Sustainable Yachting BioBlu
BioBlu was Co-founded in 2021 by Matt Morley and Paolo Bonaveri to provide wellbeing design and sustainability consultancy services to the yacht industry. Together with Andrea Veneziani as Head of Engineering, they provide solutions for a greener, healthier and more responsible yachting sector to yacht builders, brands, owners and captains.
www.sustainableyachtingbioblu.com
About Onital Studio
Onital Studio embraces the areas of transportation and industrial design. Applying the scrum work concept, it is composed of multicultural designers working in network from all over the world, sharing their professional expertise, bringing their own skills, culture and experience. This different approach of a design studio has allowed us to be responsive, adaptive, lean and efficient, in line with our modern world.
Biophilic design for green yachts
Biophilic design combines elements of sustainability and wellness with inspiration from the natural world, making it, in our view, an ideal solution for green yacht interiors and a unique selling point for the next generation of sustainable yachts.
This article first appeared on my BioBlu website
Why use biophilic design on a green yacht?
Wellness, nature & sustainability
Biophilic design combines elements of sustainability and wellness with inspiration from the natural world, making it, in our view, an ideal solution for green yacht interiors and a unique selling point for the next generation of sustainable yachts.
So why has it made so little impact in the industry thus far? Perhaps partly this is due to lack of awareness amongst specialist yacht interior designers, or simply that an owner has a preferred style that differs from this more organic aesthetic. Current eco yacht certifications also do not currently cover materials, focusing instead on a yacht’s engine room carbon footprint.
The real opportunity here then is surely in leveraging biophilic design in the new generation of green yachts and, in future, being awarded by eco yacht certification systems for using the type of natural, sustainably sourced materials that are biophilic design’s trademark.
Another benefit for a green yacht with biophilic interiors is the added wellness benefits for the user, thanks to the healthy interior design strategies that we offer via our yacht consultancy services.
By leveraging the latest insights into healthy interiors, we create indoor spaces optimized for owner wellbeing, from deeper sleep, to greater concentration in a work area, reduced anxiety and improved mood. To achieve this our multi-sensory yacht interior concepts incorporate texture, lighting, sound and a sense of place – in this case inspired by the sea!
Blue nature on green yachts
Bringing the outside world in through nature-inspired design strategies that create harmony between onboard living areas and the ‘blue nature’ surrounding the yacht is a unique feature of biophilic design applied to the world of yachting.
Common strategies of biophilic design we might use on a green yacht interior include the use of fractal patterns, organic non-GMO fabrics, what the Japanese call ‘wabi-sabi’ finishes, the patina of age and generally a focus on honest materials in a neutral colour palette designed to create a restorative environment that is at one with the natural world outside.
Other design details integrating blue nature might include the use of marine materials in furniture fit-outs, for example dried seaweed embedded in an all-natural mattress, sustainably sourced seashells in a tabletop or a coral–inspired artwork full of textural detail.
A green yacht needs sustainable interiors
Adopting an environmentally-friendly approach to yacht interiors requires extensive knowledge of materials and their life-cycle. Thus far we have seen less uptake from the industry of this theme with energies focusing on the engine room and how to user cleaner energy forms to take the yacht from A to B.
Clearly this is fundamental and there remains a lot of work to do in this sense to go beyond the current diesel-hybrid engine solution. So as we collectively start to look ahead to what comes next for the yacht industry, the opportunity is to widen our collective scope to include not just the yacht’s engineering systems but also its interior fit-out and onboard operations.
Sustainability is a 360-degree picture, there is nowhere to hide. This can be daunting, even over-whelming for those without expertise in the field as the plethora of product and material certifications on offer, from Cradle to Cradle to the Declare Red List and beyond.
Our priority is to help guide a client to the right combination of form and function, keeping an eye firmly on the organic, natural, chemical-free, and recycled or upcycled materials.
To enquire about our green yacht interior consultancy services and biophilic design expertise, please contact us here to discuss your project. We are always open to collaboration!