Design in motion
Three global designers share their inspiration for creating functional-yet-sexy interiors for planes, trains and luxury liners outside the built environment. By Stephanie Rosenbloom
They say it’s not the destination, it’s the journey, and for a select group of the world’s top architects, interior and industrial designers, their mission is to make the journey as extraordinary as possible. They’re the bold innovators whose creative vision is changing the way we experience and connect with a space in motion. Designing interiors of airplanes, ships and trains involves taking on a unique set of challenges unlike design in the usual built environment. These designers know that the sometimes mundane, oftentimes incredible experience of travelling can be elevated through design. They need to be able to anticipate the evolving needs of passengers knowing they may choose a form of travel for its ease, comfort and style as well as environmental impact. We spoke to some of the world’s preeminent designers in this sphere to see how they approach interior design.
Jean-Philippe Nuel
Parisian interior designer and architect Jean-Philippe Nuel is renowned as an international name in high-end hotels, private homes, spas, restaurants, and boutiques but his work with luxury cruise brand, Ponant from three-masted yachts to the luxury icebreaker, Le Commandant Charcot holds a special place.
“Ship design is particularly enjoyable because, for me, while staying in Paris, I feel like I’m travelling around the world,” Nuel says. “I put myself in the guests’ shoes and imagine how I can give them exceptional moments.”
Nuel notes the parallels between hotel and ship design, both offer similar environments; a cruise ship and a hotel generally have the same amenities, that is rooms, restaurants and bars.
“The major difference lies in the standards: fire regulations, hygiene, safety, and also the size of the spaces which are generally much more confined,” he says.
Besides, the overall design needs a different approach.
“Like with a hotel, it’s essential to define an identity to create a consistent theme that will be the project’s signature,” says Nuel. “The sea is inspiring, but if the ship travels around the world, we can’t seek inspiration from a particular culture; we don’t have specific roots or anchors.”
Nuel says that the travel experience is shaped by the countries visited but also through the ship itself because guests on a ship are more captive to the space that accommodates them.
“As such, the experience is holistic, blending landscape and interior. For this reason, I like to create projects that remain in harmony with the sea; the sea evokes the feelings of freedom and adventure,” he says. “The overall experience contributes to the charm of the cruise”.
On Ponant icebeaker Le Commandant Charcot, for example, the light-filled spaces onboard with a complementary palette of soft blues, greys and beiges, and in warm textures of wood, wool and slate draw the eye to the views outside.
“Design, even if it draws inspiration from the poetry of the maritime universe, must also be reassuring and cocooning,” Nuel says.
“Because, unlike a hotel, the environment constantly changes depending on navigation conditions.”
In designing for the French-flagged Ponant fleet, Nuel likes to imagine he’s onboard.
“I imagine leaving Venice at sunset, entering the bay in Sydney, or passing through the Bosphorus,” Nuel says.
“As a designer, I wonder how the ship will allow them to experience these moments and how it will create other experiences, such as watching a movie projected on the sails or simply enjoying the purity of a starry sky in the middle of the ocean.”
David Caon
Australian Industrial Designer David Caon is well-versed in aviation design, he has a longstanding relationship working with Qantas, his latest project designing all cabins for the new ultimate long-range aircraft for Project Sunrise. Expected to launch in mid-2026 the new Airbus A350s will fly from Sydney to London and New York. Cabin design in any class for extreme long-haul flights like these needs aesthetics and features that are ergonomic and at the same time attractive.
“It has to interact with the customer in the right way,” says Caon.
“You’ve got to put yourself in the customers’ place – I’m being a designer but I’m also trying to put my head in passengers’ minds and imagine that I am flying for over 22 hours, for example, between Sydney and London, that’s essentially what we do on any project, you try to visualise and I guess pre-experience what that might be like”.
On a flight this long, one must consider all the senses. Recently Qantas previewed a series of unique lighting scenes specifically for the Project Sunrise flights.
David Caon said the lighting design, inspired by the colours of the Australian landscape, followed more than five years of design grounded in science to help minimise jetlag and improve customer wellbeing.
“Aircraft lighting doesn’t cross the mind of most travellers, but the external light cycle of night and day has more impact on our circadian rhythm and the impact of jetlag than any other factor,” said Caon.
“Using the unique light of the Australian landscape and contemporary interior design as inspiration, we’ve been able to curate an immersive suite of more 12 different lighting scenarios and transitions to help travellers best adjust to their destination time zone and improve their inflight wellbeing.”
Qantas has revealed design details of all the Project Sunrise cabins. A highlight includes a Wellbeing Zone, a dedicated space for movement and refreshments that all passengers can access. The First suites feature a full-length bed with a separate reclining armchair and the Premium Economy cabin has adjustable winged privacy headrests and calf rests which allows for full leg cradling.
David Caon is now partnering with The Woolmark Company on a new project designed for airlines called Modulo. His design office recently revealed a cabin seat concept featuring merino wool as the core component of a new 3D-knitted wool membrane, a surface that is significantly lighter than current material, and can also be easily swapped out to reflect changes in branding and identity.
“In exploring how to expand the capability of the wool fibre within the airline industry we address a major bugbear of airlines in that they have to spend huge sums of money and time in changing the feel of their cabin interiors,” says Caon.
“Passengers benefit too by having more of this wonderful material which breathes and allows us to play with light and opacity to create new scenarios for privacy and relaxation.”
Rosina Di Maria
Tasked with designing Journey Beyond’s new Gold Premium carriages on The Ghan, and soon the Great Southern and The Indian Pacific, Rosina Di Maria, Principal of global architectural and consulting practice Woods Bagot, and her team looked to the rich colours and textures of the outback landscape.
“The carriages convey the beauty and romance long associated with slow travel, with a design response that is deeply contextual to the history and topography of Australia,” says Di Maria.
“The Gold Premium carriages restore the glamour of transcontinental rail travel that capture a genuine sense of place,” she says.
Di Maria says that designing for a moving locomotive required creative thinking to ensure a practical and enduring response.
“The design team navigated challenges of motion alongside a compact footprint while including comprehensive amenity to cater to users over their multi-day journey,” she says.
The spaces, including cabins, a lounge carriage and a dining carriage, evoke the old-world elegance of rail travel with art deco detailing. The design narrative references the lands across which the train travels, and the people who live on it.
Wood Bagot project leader Bonnie Hamilton says the team wanted to honour what was outside of the train with a design that didn’t detract from the landscape, creating a connection between what’s inside and out.
“We were inspired by First Nations artist Albert Namatjira and his celebrated paintings that capture the landscape the train travels through,” says Hamilton. “The palette responds to Namatjira’s works, from the silver ghost gums to the terracotta tones woven through the spaces.”
This sense of place in interior design is likely to attract a new audience to the beauty of long-distance train travel in Australia, which was exactly the plan.
“The purpose of the redesign is to attract a wider demographic, to experience and connect with Country in a more intimate form than just flying over it,” says Di Maria.
“The designers appraised every detail and each addition with care and consideration for movement, operability, and ergonomics to cater for a wide demographic of traveller.”
This is an extract from an article that appears in print in our thirteenth edition, Page 138 of Winning Magazine with the headline: “Design in motion”. Subscribe to Winning Magazine today.
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