One morning in late August, I met Ivana
Porfiri in the silence of her all but deserted studio.
The relaxed atmosphere made it easier to
talk about a project that has tested the capabilities
of this versatile designer and her lengthy
experience in the nautical world. A long-time
collaborator of Gregotti & Associates, she
has been involved in the planning of large
cruise liners and yachts, which is still one of
Porfiristudio’s central activities. The designer
loves forging strong ties with her client: if both
are seeking really innovative solutions, the
meeting of ideas almost produces a kind of
partnership.
Dakis Joannou is a client with
whom Ivana Porfiri has established
a particular rapport. The effects of
this special relationship have been
surprising, especially since they
unveiled the result of their latest collaboration.
Dakis Joannou is a famed Greek art
collector. He spends a lot of time on his yacht,
which he uses as a home and a means of transport
between the islands of the Aegean – and all
without giving up art. Until a few months ago, his
seafaring gallery was the Protect Me from What
I Want, a traditionally designed boat that was
also the work of Ivana Porfiri and was named
after a piece by Barbara Kruger. The client did
not want there to be any restrictions on the new
boat (RINA Maltese Cross class), except those
dictated by the size of Joannou’s moorings. The
limited dimensions inspired the design process
from the outset. Cutting away the bow is a tactic
often adopted by ship-builders to gain length:
once the boat has cleared official checks, the
bow takes on its original shape again by replacing
the part that had previously been removed.
Designer and client agreed that there was no
need to resort to this kind of “prosthesis” for the
new boat. The snub-nosed cut made for practical
reasons would remain, in effect, as a cut of the
hull charged with great symbolic value. The line
of the bow appears reversed next to the hawse,
the hole through which the anchor cable runs.
The cut was made on a fibreglass hull produced
using a mould that was already in the shipbuilder’s
possession. The water-lines remained
the same, but the process of transforming a traditional
hull had begun. While we were talking, the designer showed me a tiny boat made from
stylised wood in three overlapping pieces. “This
is the design that I had in mind from the start.
Its simplicity sums up the research that led me
to the design for Dakis Joannou’s new yacht: a
standard hull, an intermediate space for laying
out the bridge and communal areas, and a separate
upper level, set aside for the owner. The
surfaces of the glass sections are larger than
usual and they are almost vertical (the angle is
around 15°). Visibility of the outside is surprisingly
good, especially in the owner’s area. This
is often compromised by the streamlined shape
of traditional boats. Here we have integrated
design at the service of mobile architecture, a
prototype for a new kind of boat.” The blocks
have been designed to reflect the composition
of the interiors and their surfaces. While the
bow seems deliberately inverted, the treatment
of the surfaces draws on a paradoxical use of
camouflage.
Mimicry is well known in nature. Animals
and plants exploit it to defend themselves or to
attract prey, and its military applications are
also extensive. During World War I,
German U-boat commanders were
often deceived by ships painted
with mimetic designs that broke up
the outline of the hull. This made it
impossible to identify the class of
ship and determine course and speed
using a periscope alone. Thanks to “Dazzle
painting”, or “Razzle Dazzle”, a camouflage
pattern invented by the British artist and naval
officer Norman Wilkinson, many ships escaped
torpedo attack. The technique’s effectiveness
declined with the advent of radar and sonar, but
the history of cleverly disguised boats (whose
designs were often inspired by cubism) deserves
to be told in greater detail. Ivana Porfiri was
convinced that, due to the distinctiveness of the
overall architecture, the boat she was developing
needed this kind of treatment: not just colour
but camouflage. She telephoned Dakis, who
happened to be in the studio of his friend Jeff
Koons at the time. As the three of them talked
they became excited about the unanticipated
characteristics that the project was assuming.
Koons immediately volunteered to do the artistic
work, the client accepted, and the designer
took up the challenge of applying complex camouflage
to the boat.
The result is Guilty, a travelling manifesto
that accommodates pieces by different artists
in its interior. Their works seem to have been
born alongside the choices made in the design.
Corian floors and sides take on the colours of
the changing natural light filtered through the
glass, while in other areas white surfaces are
covered with works of art, giving every part of
the boat a unique personality.
Guilty
Guilty, the new yacht designed by Ivana Porfiri for Dakis Joannou, proposes a new model of boat design that is greatly emphasised by Jeff Koons’s camouflage design. Text Maria Cristina Tommasini. Photos Andrea Ferrari.
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- 12 November 2008
- Milan