#humansofyachting – Zaniz Jakubowski

“As a child, I was always drawing and making things. I had this crazy imagination and I was always trying to find a way to bring things to life. So, as far back as I can remember, I was very into design.

I went to school in Switzerland and became very interested in the art world there and then went off to university in New York where I got my degree in design. I was always very interested in environmental psychology – I wanted to understand our physical and mental relationship to space and object. This has proved to be the building block of everything I’ve ever worked on. To me, it doesn’t matter whether I am designing a stage set, a corporate space, a yacht or a perfume bottle – they all start the same way.

The main difference with yacht design is that it’s a moving object in water, so there are different technical restraints to a land-based project. I actually love that side of it; it helps feed my imagination. A yacht has the ability to move location and change views at any moment, so experiences of place are really amplified. There are great creative opportunities, too – people have a strong connection to water and if you keep that in mind when designing, you can enhance that experience in all sorts of ways. It’s like designing someone’s private island, someone’s private world that needs to fulfil all the functions. You need to consider things like adequate food stores, flexibility in the use of spaces, making sure the back-of-house is well laid-out, and safety.

I think the yachting industry has a very strong design sector that has its own sense of community. The hotel industry does too, but the yachting industry is a world of its own. It’s almost like a private club – from the people to the suppliers. Working on Luminosity for so many years made me really see that. It’s like I went onto a movie set with a cast and crew and it became its own world from beginning to end, until the last take. That’s how it felt. Everybody in the whole team became a family.

For me, Luminosity was a wonderful journey which started in 2011 with a very forward-thinking client. To me, the words ‘it can’t happen’ don’t exist. It’s a matter of solving the puzzle. There was a real emphasis on flexibility of space. The boat sleeps so many people so I needed to make everything adaptable. There’s a table that expands to 32 people, for example, but it starts with capacity for 12 and then expands like a puzzle. In that way, there’s the possibility to have an intimate dinner or be able to entertain on a mass scale.

A lot of attention was also paid to the crew, and that’s great because without them being happy, the whole experience isn’t the same. One of my objectives was to focus the same attention to detail for the crew as we did guests. It was also important that the boat was suitable for multi-generational guests. We designed these hooks on the exterior of the boat so that if there were children or dogs on board, these specialised nets would go up so that everybody was safe. There are also no stepped decks anywhere, so it is wheelchair-friendly.

The environment is of utmost importance to me and I believe that there’s finally more awareness of designing with it in mind. Luminosity and Benetti developed a yacht that is future-proof – it really respects ecological issues. The client was so forward-thinking that he wanted it to be able to be converted in the future when hydrogen fuel cells are refined, so the system lends itself to that.

If I had my own superyacht, the words ‘invisible’ and ‘part of the sea’ spring to mind. What shape that would take, I’m not sure of yet – I’d have to let my imagination run wild on those two concepts. My first stop would be Antarctica. I really want to see the wild wilderness of this frozen continent. Second on my list would be Svalbard and then somewhere warm like the South Pacific, with white sand beaches and crystal-clear swimming spots.”