Sheer size can be a yacht designer’s friend. It can also be an enemy. The same goes for the interior design and layout. Nobody wants to take credit for a yacht that ends up looking like a wedding cake on the outside and a hotel lobby on the inside. London-based studio Bannenberg & Rowell avoided all these pitfalls as the exterior and interior designers of the Freire Renaissance, which tops 367 feet (112 meters) in length and has an interior volume of 7,200 gross tons.
Able to sleep 36 guests under Passenger Yacht Code regulations, the yacht charters with 45 crew for an eye-watering $3 million weekly base rate through Burgess Yachts.
“If you’re going to build a very big yacht like Renaissance, you can’t just scale up the specification to fit the space because it involves exponential cost and complexity,” says Dickie Bannenberg, whose father, Jon Bannenberg, designed a 137-foot concept for the same owner in the mid-1980s. “The client was aware there were more levers he could pull to create a yacht that is commercially interesting, so a lot more passengers than usual, without just throwing more money at it. He was very specific about where he wanted the high-value items and where he could bring in other efficiencies. So more than a bespoke design, it was a bespoke project.”
Budgets were precisely targeted and resources were tailored to fit before the project was tendered out to commercial and semi-commercial shipyards—none of them top superyacht brands. Freire Shipyard in Vigo, Spain, was chosen for its track record of building large merchant and naval vessels—and for delivering the 241-foot (73.6-meter) motoryacht Pegaso (now Naia) in 2011. The ice-class naval architecture of Renaissance—the largest superyacht ever built in Spain—is by Marin Teknikk, a Norwegian ship design and engineering company with a portfolio that includes the 381-foot (116-meter) Ulysses (now Multiverse), also built by a commercial shipyard, Kleven Verft.
Externally, one area that came under discussion was the hull finish. Superyachts are ordinarily faired before painting in a labor-intensive process to present a perfectly smooth surface. This was done for the superstructure but not for the hull, which means the steel plates and weld seams are faintly visible. Given the size of the yacht, however, it’s not noticeable except from the quay, right next to the yacht.
“There was a lot of debate about where to draw the line, but ultimately it was a decision based on the perceived value for the guests and the owners,” says Simon Rowell, creative director at the design firm. “After all, the superstructure is what guests come into daily contact with when they’re on board. When we first saw the unfaired hull in the shipyard we were pleasantly surprised, so it was the right call.”
To break up the bulk of the imposing six-deck profile, the designers introduced two-tone balconies on the sides. Aft deck overhang angles were varied to present alternating planes of light and shade. The choices add purpose and movement to a superstructure that could easily have looked ponderous and static.
“On the face of it, it’s quite a simple design,” Rowell says. “It all comes down to the nuance of the stance, coloring, contrast, angles, shapes and just making sure the styling is honest and robust. Based on the brief, there was no point in making this some sort of organic, sinuous exterior. ”
The same cogent attention to the client’s brief extends to the interior design. The owners were adamantly against huge rooms repeated throughout the yacht, so the designers worked with them to define the purpose of each space, the movement through the yacht and the options available.
A prime example of this approach is the double-height main salon. The central balcony on the upper level has exterior views on three sides and looks down onto a gathering space on one side, a dining table on the other, and a walkway in the middle flanked by rotating screens of metallic bronze mesh. A home video that Rowell took on his smartphone from the upper level while underway is the most reposted item on the studio’s social media channels.
“We argued that there was so much volume, the client could afford to give some of it away,” Rowell says. “We managed to subdivide a huge volume into smaller spaces that all relate to each other and can be used by smaller groups. And you wouldn’t get the same kind of drama from a central atrium with a hole in the floor looking down.”
Next to the main salon on the main deck is the popular jazz room, with themed artwork and black-and-white photographs of jazz masters. Bannenberg & Rowell sourced the collection of pre-owned trumpets. During a shakedown cruise attended by the designers and 20 or so other guests, this snug speakeasy was the default pre-dinner and post-dinner location for sitting down for a chat over drinks.
“Even the bottles of rare cognac lining the shelves of the backlit onyx bar were personally chosen for their size and shape by the owner,” Bannenberg says. “Simon got an eleventh-hour email one day requesting the exact heights between the shelves so he could work out how to arrange the bottles. So, pretty hands-on.”
Other client-driven essentials include high ceilings; a substantial gym on the spa deck with a steam room, sauna, and hot and cold plunge pools; a 32-foot (9.7-meter) swimming pool on the main deck; an outdoor pizza oven; a touch-and-go helipad; geo-locating wristwear for requesting crew service; a business center; and a private owners’ deck. The owners were just as specific when it came to the choice of interior materials and finishes.
“We gave the client a comprehensive look book to get an idea of what he and his wife liked or disliked,” Rowell says. “It took them just a weekend to come back with their preferences listed on a scale from one to five. The next stage was to wrap those choices into an architectural palette while introducing elevated finishes here and there to add a touch of sparkle.”
To be precise, there are 24 “special finishes” on board, along with 31 varieties of stone or marble and 21 wood veneers. Quirky pieces include a feather-filled glass coffee table by David Gill and playful artwork by Jane Waterous of tiny, humanlike figures. The detailing is devoid of ostentatious clutter and is played out against a clean backdrop of pale wood veneers and neutral fabrics, so it can provide pleasure well into the future.
“The most interesting thing for me is that this is a more personal yacht than the brief might suggest,” Rowell says. “It is every inch the owners’ yacht—I use the plural purposely—and proof that you can reconcile the demands of the charter market with a really personal project and private onboard environment.”
Specifications
LOA
367.4ft. (112m)
Beam
59ft. (18m)
Draft
17ft. 9in. (5.4m)
CONSTRUCTION
steel/aluminum
Speed (max./cruise)
16/12 knots
Gross tonnage
7,200
Exterior design
Bannenberg & Rowell
Interior design
Bannenberg & Rowell
Builder
Friere Shipyard
This article was originally published in the Fall 2024 issue.
