1,056 scientists sailed on the ship I redesigned for them
A ship given to science
Dear friends and colleagues,
In ten years, 1,056 scientists from all over the world went to sea on R/V Falkor, the research vessel I redesigned for Eric and Wendy Schmidt and their Schmidt Ocean Institute. None of them paid to be on board. Falkor was the world's first philanthropic research ship open all year round, free of charge, to scientists. I am proud to have played a part in her journey, because her work went on long after mine was finished.
Warm regards,
Stefano Pastrovich
What the ship found
Falkor made 81 expeditions and sailed more than twelve times around the world. Her scientists mapped over 1.3 million square kilometres of ocean floor, and shared the maps with everyone. They found a coral reef 500 metres tall on the Great Barrier Reef, gardens of deep-sea corals off south-western Australia, hydrothermal vents and species new to science. In the Mariana Trench, in 2014, they filmed what was then the deepest fish ever seen, at more than 8,000 metres. And they brought back rare footage of the glass octopus, an animal that hides from almost every camera.
Designing for people who look for the unknown
Before drawing a single line, I went to work with them, at NOAA, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Scripps and the University of California San Diego. I asked what they needed. They never gave me an answer. Scientists spend their lives looking for something nobody knows yet, and they are the happiest people in the world on the day they find it. They could not tell me where their research would take them. So I did not give them a solution. I gave them freedom: open laboratories, panels that bring power, water and oxygen wherever they are needed, furniture that changes with every expedition. A different team came on board every time, and the ship changed with them.
A mirror on board
Falkor is named after the luck dragon of Michael Ende's The Neverending Story. On board, a large panel quotes Ende's Magic Mirror Gate, where whoever looks sees who he really is. It reminds everyone on the ship that studying the ocean means looking at ourselves, and rethinking how we live in our world.
A designer rarely knows what his work will make possible. With Falkor I know. Every reef, every vent, every new species was found by people working in rooms we drew without knowing what they would find. Leave room for what nobody knows yet: that is the best thing a design can do.
Concept, Exterior, Interior Design, Hospitality, Market, Building Strategy
Architect and naval designer, author of the 104 m Le Grand Bleu and the 118’ Wallypower. Since 2010 Pastrovich Studio has developed platforms for boutique charter yachts — blending the industrial construction of the cruise market with superyacht sophistication for the new market of the “millionaires next door” — from the 35 m Xpagoda to the 190 m X Shinobi. A lifelong sailor and competition pilot, he brings to his designs the operational discipline of both worlds.
“To realize great ideas, it is essential to assemble a group of professionals eager to develop and innovate, in total economic and intellectual freedom.”