If you like to have something really different, it is not any longer about building the biggest, fastest or most expensive yacht. For this you just have to say the word and write the check.
No, I think we will see many more yachts built on pure design concepts.
We have seen a parallel in "Designer Hotels" popping up almost everywhere around the world. Although Hotels and Restaurants has always been designed to attract their customers, this new trend started with the Morgans Hotel in New York, designed by Andrée Putman in 1985.
Then we have seen Philippe Starck designing quite a few more and most travelling people have got used to Designer Hotels as an alternative to Luxury Hotels or Hotel Resorts. What makes them special is not the location, the luxury or size of the rooms. Rather the clean, often with a touch of humour and above all, special design.
We have had many brilliant designers since the 1920:s, breaking new grounds in architecture and furniture design. Remember names like Aalto, Breuer, Castiglioni, Eames, Jacobsen, Kjaerholm, Knoll, Le Corbusier, Mackintosh, Sapper, Scarpa, Sottsass, Thonet, van der Rohe and Wright. Plus our First Ladies of Design, Charlotte Perriand and Eileen Gray.
They have given many interior decorators inspiration also in this century, and many yacht buyers already have their masterpieces at home.
Yachts are in general still very conservative and in my opinion a little boring if you think of them as mainly made for pleasure. Financially it will be little difference to build a new concept compared to copy an existing, since most of it are built to measure anyway.
What will make a difference though is how you like to achieve it. To find and pick a designer who can make this concept to your taste, might be difficult. This could be the reason why Philippe Starck is commissioned, despite his limited knowledge of yachts. Home interior architects are not uncommon to use and of course this transfers some of the responsibility back to you as a buyer.
The shipyard will make sure the yacht is built to work as a yacht, but you have to coordinate so the exterior styling, the interior plan and the decoration is good enough to be used on a big yacht. If not, you might end up with more crew, or no crew!
But with demand comes supply and I think that there are several yacht designers out there who would love to take on the whole project of pushing the limits, without breaking them...
This is how you will be met at some of Morgans Designer Hotels;