Catch up on all the action from the Superyacht Design Festival 2026 in Kitzbühel

The science of play takes centre stage in yacht design

Venue: K3
Session name: The Biology of Joy: Why Play Matters in Yacht Design
Speaker: Mia Sundstrom, CEO, National Institute for Play

Mia Sundstrom explored the biology of play and its role in emotional wellbeing, creativity and connection. She explained how play-centred thinking can unlock new perspectives in yacht design and improve onboard experiences.

Sundstrom kicked off her presentation by outlining the process of play. She said: "Play is biologically hardwired into the most ancient part of our brains, and therefore we are never too old to play. That is good news for all of us. Yes. Now I promise to connect all of this for you, right?"

She then made the connection between play and designing yachts. She said: "Yachts are pleasure vehicles. Play is an access point to pleasure. So you are literally designing for play and yachts are fantastic access points to the state of play. And that's really powerful."

Sundstrom invited the audience to "toggle between two different modes". She said: "One is you, the human being, who is a person in this world, the yacht designer. And the second is your client, who you are designing for. Because play can actually be a helpful tool, both for unlocking your own creativity – which I just learned today is important in the age of AI – and also for better understanding what your client is looking for in their journey."

Panel explores how AI is reshaping yacht design

Venue: K3
Session name: How AI will shape yacht design
Speakers:
Jim Dixon, studio principal, Yachts & Aviation, Winch Design
Maurizio Minossi, CEO, Videoworks
James Roy, managing director, Lateral Naval Architects
Rob Armstrong, creative director and co-founder, ThirtyC
Host: Lucy Dunn, content director, BOAT International

Panellists discussed how artificial intelligence is transforming all areas of yacht design – from concept generation and hull optimisation to visualisation and customisation. The conversation, which also engaged the audience with interactive polls, also addressed creative challenges and where human judgement remains essential.

One common theme among the panellists was the use of AI to help in the daily administrative tasks to boost productivity, which helps creatives to focus on the more high-value aspects of design.

“We’re experimenting to become quicker at administrative tasks, presentation techniques and the way we engage with clients and create content. But what’s really interesting and what will be coming up very shortly is mapping, merging, infusing the physical with the digital world,” said Dixon. “This is already starting to give some opportunities to engage with clients differently, in building mock-ups, for instance, and creating a different experience and a different immersiveness with our clients.”

According to Roy, the utility of an AI is in sifting through vast quantities of data to aid designers in their work rather than replacing them. “AI is essentially a probability machine. It works out probabilities based on the data it’s been trained on,” he said. Creatives will still need to derive the idea itself, but AI can then help to explore the idea further by offering a system “whose depth of content and speed of recall is instantaneous”.

On this, Dixon suggested that the real risk to the design world was in “diluting" creativity and originality that ultimately has a human construct. “I fear we’re heading down that track a little bit already,” he said. “Also, because AI is supremely good at iterative design – though this might be a good thing, given the sentiments we’re seeing from [younger generations] who are more impatient for new yachts. So, there’s a kind of value in the predictions of AI, but I hope we don’t lose the mystique and the joy of the process of building a superyacht.”