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[ CREATIVE MINDS: HOT LAB ]
ARCHITECTURE FOR VOYAGERS 80
For Enrico Lumini, creative director of Hot Lab, yachts are an architecture to be lived. His vision takes shape in the Atlantique 65 concept by Columbus Yachts, where the distribution of the spaces transcends design conventions to imagine new ways of living the sea by Samuela Urbini ph. XGrotska Films
Above, Enrico Lumini, creative director of Hot Lab, a studio he founded in Milan in 2004 alongside Antonio Romano. Lumini trained in industrial design, architecture and yacht design and heads the Motor Yacht Workshop for the Masters in Yacht Design at the Milan Polytechnic. Opposite page, the 65.5-metre Atlantique 65 by Columbus Yacht, for which the studio curated both interiors and exteriors
81
[ CREATIVE MINDS ]
I
ndustrial design and architecture rarely meet in the same project.
move from innovation of function to innovation of meaning”, says
The yacht-building world, however, is one of the few exceptions.
Lumini. “We’re not only interested in understanding how to make
Enrico Lumini is the creative director of Hot Lab, a Milanese
something, we also want to know why we should make it”.
studio he founded in 2004 alongside Antonio Romano. The studio
The design, then, is born not from form but from use. The yacht’s entire
has become one of the most widely-recognised names in international
configuration is based on the patterns and routines of those on board
yacht design. In Lumini’s words, “This is because a yacht’s complexity
and how the spaces are used. This approach, typical of product design,
and dimensions mean clothing interior volumes in a way that suits a
often leads to questioning conventions that were previously considered
design object, although with an architectural element”. The studio’s
to be set in stone. In Hot Lab projects the traditional distribution of
career was launched by a 20-metre yacht for the Raffaelli yard, the
spaces has often been rethought and constructed to encourage new
Ontera 66. The first international clients arrived a few years later,
types of on-board socialising. “To us, that’s architecture”, says Lumini.
especially in Turkey, with yards like Bilgin, then RMK, Yildiz (which
“Treating the volume as a space for use”.
at the time was Perini’s Turkish division). These have now been joined
One of the most mature expressions of this philosophy is the
by Sirena Marine and Numarine Turquoise with relationships forged
Atlantique 65, an evolution of the successful line developed by Hot
with Palumbo Superyachts for Columbus, Extra and Antonini Navi
Lab for Columbus Yachts, where the studio curated both interiors
brands, plus, in the past, Baglietto.
and exteriors. Here, the design does not simply address the aesthetics,
Lumini’s training was initially in industrial design, then architecture
but also the meaning of the spaces. To obtain a sleeker outline and
and finally luxury yachts. Not just a series of experiences, it was the
smaller volumes than other yachts of the same length, the design of
deliberate construction of a method. A yacht cannot be approached in
the 65-metre craft did not include a bridge. This choice could have
the same way as a car – which is mainly an object of industrial design –
had an adverse impact on the owner’s suite, located on the main deck
or a villa, because it does not offer volumes large enough to involve the
instead of the upper deck, but it actually led to an original architectural
same architectural rationale. “From our point of view, yacht building
solution, a duplex on more than one level flooded with natural light
is a realm of its own, a hybrid of the two worlds”.
and in direct contact with the private bow area
This line of thought has also inspired the studio’s payoff, “Architecture
The exteriors fully express the studio’s language. The surfaces
for Voyagers”, a description that signals a clear intent. “We seek to
are simplified and smoothed until they seem sculpted by a single,
82
This page, the spacious flybridge exteriors, and right, the original architectural duplex solution for the owner’s cabin on the main deck, but laid out over several levels and connected to the private bow area. The height above the bed is about 4 metres, creating the sensation of being aboard a 100-metre yacht. Opposite page, the scenic eternity pool on the aft main deck
83
[ CREATIVE MINDS ] Right, the Hot Lab team. Below, a profile of the Atlantique 65, the flagship of the Atlantique line, for which Hot Lab has already designed models 38, 43 and 48 metres in length, shunning the classic “wedding cake” effect to introduce lines more typical of a sail craft. Bottom, the stern, with a high space designed to create an entrance lobby directly on the water rather than on the main deck
continuous oval volume. “The idea was to work as if the yacht was a single object, naturally smoothed, from which we have simply removed the superfluous elements”, says Lumini. This apparent simplicity conceals one of Hot Lab’s distinctive elements – an almost obsessive attention to detail. Variations in height, changes of material, lighting construction solutions that are often invisible at first glance emerge gradually as on-board life is experienced. Nowadays Hot Lab numbers around twenty professionals and in 2022 it joined the Swedish Viken group, while retaining its design autonomy. The studio’s career is developing constantly but remains true to a clearly-defined principle – to design yachts as architecture intended to be experienced. 84