Designers and specialists discuss the realities of collaborative design
Venue: K3
Session name: What it means to design well - together?
Speakers:
Kai Dittmar, CEO, Metrica
Ed Slack, global editorial director, BOAT International
Kai Dittmar and Ed Slack explored what it really means to design well together in an interactive session involving an audience poll. Their discussion focused on collaboration between designers, artisans and specialist disciplines, as well as the importance of integrity, longevity and shared vision in superyacht projects.
As a turnkey supplier, Dittmar says he's observing more owners wanting to become involved with the design process. "They want to feel connected to the process, they want to know the story and the artisans behind the pieces they're commissioning," he explained. "They're choosing companies, crucially, by visiting them, and I think they are much more engaged and happy to listen. I think there's a great opportunity to incorporate more storytelling, so we can communicate what the industry is really doing."
An audience vote found that "managing timeliness and budgets" is typically the most challenging aspect of collaborative design, though Dittmar also warned that "integrating new technologies with traditional methods" is moving increasingly to the forefront of the industry's productive processes. "Production will need to embrace technology like AI machinery while also maintaining handcrafting methods," he said.