Creative Director of new Cunard ship appointed

[Host Hattie]

I posted this when we were in exile but I thought it deserved a wider audience -

From Cunard here

Luxury cruise company, Cunard is proud to announce that world-renowned designer, Adam D Tihany has been appointed Creative Director of its upcoming new ship.

Tihany will oversee the entire interior design process of the much-anticipated, but still unnamed ship, which will join the Cunard fleet in 2022.

Widely regarded as one of the world’s most talented designers, Tihany has made his name creating beautiful spaces for luxurious and iconic hotels, restaurants and resorts across the globe, including The Beverly Hills Hotel, Belmond Hotel Cipriani and The Oberoi New Delhi.

“The name Cunard is obviously magical and I’m very excited to be involved in this project,” he says. “If you look at the history of Cunard, it has always been a forward-looking brand. It has a classic image but actually each ship has been innovative for its period. We want to continue this tradition and move the brand forward with the creation of an exciting and spectacularly beautiful new cruise liner.”

Work is now ongoing and Tihany promises plenty of surprises. “Guests can expect a much lighter, contemporary feel, but crucially it will still feel like a Cunard ship and Cunard’s loyal guests will feel very at home. The new ship will celebrate Cunard’s British heritage but with a whisper, not a shout. Everything a guest expects to see on a Cunard ship will be there, but in a different way to the other three.”

Tihany has led the way in restaurant design, creating signature restaurant interiors for such culinary stars as Thomas Keller and Heston Blumenthal. He and his expert team of designers are currently working on plans for the new ship’s dining areas and he confirms that Queens and Princess Grill restaurants will feature among the dining options.

Design work is well underway in preparation for construction at the Fincantieri shipyard in Italy. The ship, Cunard’s first new-build for 12 years will be the 249th vessel to sail under the Cunard flag and when she joins Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth in the Cunard fleet, the luxury cruise brand will have four ships in service for the first time since 2000.

Simon Palethorpe, Senior Vice President, Cunard said: “We are immensely excited about Adam’s appointment. Cunard offers unrivalled luxury ocean experiences and to have such a renowned designer as the Creative Director for the new ship shows our commitment to providing our guests with a whole new experience. Adam is working with a great team and there are some stunning ideas and concepts in the making, but still with the unique Cunard luxury and distinctiveness that our guests know and love. We look forward to sharing more of our designs next year as they come to life.”

[eroller]

Interestingly enough, Adam Tihany was also the lead design firm for HAL's KONINGSDAM, which is the same platform of the new Cunard ship.  "Cunard K-Dam" as its been affectionately nicknamed.  I wonder how much cross-over we will see with the interior design?  K-Dam was quite a departure for HAL in regards to interior design.  Much more modern and contemporary compared to prior vessels.  Some have said it's more Celebrity than HAL in terms of decor.  For me that is a plus as I love Celebrity interior designs.  The new CELEBRITY EDGE looks stunning.  I just don't want the new Cunard ship to be too similar.  Cunard needs its own identity and is more traditional, but I'm glad they are getting away from the ocean liner "theme-like" interiors we saw with QE and QV.  I think it's time to move on from that, and there are more modern and contemporary ways to capture tradition and history in design.    

The recent refit of QM2 a few years ago was carried out by design firm SMC.  I haven't been able to determine the design firm or firms responsible for QV's refit, or the upcoming QE refit.  It might give us a clue as to how the new Cunarder will look if Adam Tihany had any responsibility in those refurbishments.   

Edited October 18, 2018 by eroller

[Cruiser Bruiser]

4 hours ago, eroller said:

Interestingly enough, Adam Tihany was also the lead design firm for HAL's KONINGSDAM, which is the same platform of the new Cunard ship.  "Cunard K-Dam" as its been affectionately nicknamed.  I wonder how much cross-over we will see with the interior design?  K-Dam was quite a departure for HAL in regards to interior design.  Much more modern and contemporary compared to prior vessels.  Some have said it's more Celebrity than HAL in terms of decor.  For me that is a plus as I love Celebrity interior designs.  The new CELEBRITY EDGE looks stunning.  I just don't want the new Cunard ship to be too similar.  Cunard needs its own identity and is more traditional, but I'm glad they are getting away from the ocean liner "theme-like" interiors we saw with QE and QV.  I think it's time to move on from that, and there are more modern and contemporary ways to capture tradition and history in design.   

 

Halifax class (which I gleaned from the URL; aren't I a clever boy) will likely be Pinnacle class with an added deck or two. Pinnacle I-II are both 99.5k GT; Halifax will be 113k GT according to the above. Pinnacle carries 2,650 pax; Halifax is rated for 3,000. I share your concern that Halifax may be too close a cousin to Pinnacle. My fear is that Tihany may be too much of a one-trick pony. Solstice inspired Pinnacle which inspired Halifax?

[eroller]

Halifax Class huh?  First I've heard that one.  Anyway whatever it's called, it's essentially a K-Dam with perhaps more cabins and a slightly altered layout.  I don't really justify that as a new class of ship, but I know cruise lines love to tout "all new class of ship" even when it really isn't.  Just a tweaked version of an existing design, which usually translates into they found ways to add more cabins and create a higher density ship.  

 

I agree K-Dam definitely looks inspired by CELEBRITY SOLSTICE.  I know Tihany designed many spaces on the Solstice Class as well.  I'm sure the dining room.  They are very similar on the two classes.  

Edited October 19, 2018 by eroller

[Underwatr]

The Carnival/Cunard recruiting video that someone shared a month or two ago had a scene where on someone's PC screen you could see a Carnival internal briefing slide from 2017 showing Carnival new builds, and the one in Cunard colors was designated as Ship #1 of the Halifax Class. The slide also showed two ships (as I recall) being built the Konigsdam Class (presumably for Holland America).

 

Edit: See this post.

The image was taken from the video on this webpage: https://carnivalukcareers.co.uk/careers/#corporate-shipbuilding

Edited October 19, 2018 by Underwatr

[eroller]

More interesting than the so-called Halifax Class, which is nothing more than a Koningsdam on steroids, is what they are showing as the Vista Class.  They show a Carnival Cruise Lines ship, but that is not what I have seen referred to as the Vista Class in the past.  It’s a Dream Class ship, and Carnival Cruise Lines doesn’t operate any Vistas.  

 

It’s quite probable that internally Carnival Shipbuilding uses different class names then what is released to the public.  

[Underwatr]

Carnival also has a ship named Vista which isn't built to the HAL-Cunard "Vista Class" design. The slide doesn't appear to use what we consider to be standard cruise ship class names, instead using the name of the first in the "class" (e.g., Konigsdam Class"). This observation leads me to wonder whether there's something behind "Halifax" as a Cunard ship name. It's unique and it speaks to the Cunard tradition (and it's right there for us to see!).

[eroller]

You could be on to something there.  Personally I would be happy if they moved away from calling every ship “Queen” something or another.  Most Cunard ships were not named a Queen.  

 

The naming doesn’t hold true though with the LNG ships.  They have it shown as the XL-Class.  It’s commonly known as the Excellence Class which I guess XL could stand for.  The first ship is named AidaNova so to be consistent with the others it should be the Nova Class.    

Edited October 19, 2018 by eroller

[Cruiser Bruiser]

1 hour ago, eroller said:

You could be on to something there.  Personally I would be happy if they moved away from calling every ship “Queen” something or another.  Most Cunard ships were not named a Queen.  

 

The naming doesn’t hold true though with the LNG ships.  They have it shown as the XL-Class.  It’s commonly known as the Excellence Class which I guess XL could stand for.  The first ship is named AidaNova so to be consistent with the others it should be the Nova Class.    

 

Thanks for that new-to-me tidbit. I'm booked on P&O's Iona (Sep 2020), which is an Excellence-class ship. I believe Princess has a few on order, too, after the final Royal-class is built.

[eroller]

15 minutes ago, Cruiser Bruiser said:

 

Thanks for that new-to-me tidbit. I'm booked on P&O's Iona (Sep 2020), which is an Excellence-class ship. I believe Princess has a few on order, too, after the final Royal-class is built.

 

 

Currently with the Excellence Class we have P&O'S IONA, Costa's COSTA SMERALDA, Aida's AIDAnova, and yet unnamed vessel for Carnival Cruise Lines.  There is an order for Princess as well, but it's unknown if it will be an Excellence Class ship, or perhaps a hybrid of one.  It's being touted as only partial LNG and sounds a little different than the current Excellence Class, so I guess time will tell on that one.  

 

I've studied the deck plans of the three versions of the Excellence Class (P&O, Costa, Aida), the the P&O version to me at least, looks to be the superior layout with the most public spaces and swimming pools.  At some point I would like to sail on one, but they are very high density ships.  More passengers than the Oasis Class on smaller ships.  It will be interesting to see if they handle all the passengers as well as the Oasis Class.  

Edited October 19, 2018 by eroller

[kohl57]

Sorry, but Tihany doing the interiors just reinforces my belief that we are indeed looking at a QUEEN K'DAM as the new Cunarder.  And also my belief that with this new ship, Carnival will attempt to "reimagine" (God, how I hate that trite millennial term) Cunard with new decor, "freedom"/"fixed" dining and making us accept no traditional promenade deck etc etc. not to mention sharing the ship with 3500 others. They might as well go for broke and I suspect they will. Companies love poking their regular clientele in the eye with this "but we gotta think of where the next generation is coming from" and Cunard is next on the list for sure. 

 

Good luck with all that. 

 

But almost anything would be an improvement on the decor of QE/QV which I personally find just about the worst of any premium line ship. It's brown, it's beige, it's an insipid take on "art something or rather" and it's rendered in the cheapest fake wood imaginable. As a "homage" to the great liners of the past, it's rather an insult.  Having said all that, Cunard has at least made improvements with the recent QV refit (similar to that done on QM2) and it's at least in a step in right redirection. Or at least discovering some other colours other than brown or beige. I suspect the length of QE's upcoming refit indicates rather less will be attempted. 

Edited October 19, 2018 by kohl57

[Jack E Dawson]

In my opinion, Adam Tihany is great designer. I've had the good fortune of staying at two of his hotel projects. While his designs are specular, he aways keeps a focus on comfort. In the battle between form and function both come out winners. Tihany will likely touch EVERYTHING in the new ship; flooring, lighting, linens, flatware, furniture, china and color schemes. If you Google Adam Tihany, then click on images, you can see dozens of his hotel and restaurant projects. Definitely not a one hit wonder. Will we like his designs for the new ship? Cunarders on this web site seem to be a pretty discerning group but with a very diverse sense of style and taste. So there will likely be a certain amount of "wailing and gnashing of teeth" while others will be very pleased. To Cunard's credit, they are not going second rate or just duplicating whats on the the QM2. This will likely be a bold new look. So hang on to your knickers.

PS: If you happen to read this Mr. Tihany, I'd start wth the drawer pulls!!!

 

Jack

[Cruiser Bruiser]

2 hours ago, Jack E Dawson said:

In my opinion, Adam Tihany is great designer. I've had the good fortune of staying at two of his hotel projects. While his designs are specular, he aways keeps a focus on comfort. In the battle between form and function both come out winners. Tihany will likely touch EVERYTHING in the new ship; flooring, lighting, linens, flatware, furniture, china and color schemes. If you Google Adam Tihany, then click on images, you can see dozens of his hotel and restaurant projects. Definitely not a one hit wonder. Will we like his designs for the new ship? Cunarders on this web site seem to be a pretty discerning group but with a very diverse sense of style and taste. So there will likely be a certain amount of "wailing and gnashing of teeth" while others will be very pleased. To Cunard's credit, they are not going second rate or just duplicating whats on the the QM2. This will likely be a bold new look. So hang on to your knickers.

PS: If you happen to read this Mr. Tihany, I'd start wth the drawer pulls!!!

 

Jack

 

I followed your good advice, and I'm glad to see that Tihany does have some diversity in his design repertoire. I'm especially glad to see that he can work with wood, a warm palette, and in a context that could easily be described as traditional. Not that Halifax needs those things necessarily, but Tihany's having some experience with those elements might reassure the traditional Cunard passenger. (I'm not one yet, but I'm aiming for 2021.)

[seacruise9]

Hi, 

 

Based on the refits to the QM2 and Queen Victoria, I think Cunard interior designs are improving. I really like the new/refurbished areas on the QM2 (such as Cafe Carinthia) and the Queen Victoria (such as the Chart Room, Britannia Club and Winter Garden). Also, I have been assigned to both types of new single staterooms on the QM2. They are beautiful. Hopefully, the interiors of the new ship will continue this trend.

 

Chuck

[frantic36]

I have been following the Cunard board as we have a QM2 cruise booked in 2020. I usually sail Seabourn and Adam Tihany was the interior designer for the two new Seabourn ships, Encore and Ovation. Which are also of course under the Carnival umbrella. 

Interior design like food is an individual preference thing. His design does have a more modern, clean feeling and generally looks lovely. There were some glitches but they were tweaked to improve them when they built the second ship. His use of glass and light does add a definite sparkle especially in places like the Observation Bar.

 

Julie