Lujac Desautel

Lujac Desautels design, GLASS, is built upon a SWATH (Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull) platform specifically requested by a world-renowned composer and his family. GLASS is the re-examination of the traditional yacht typology, which is typically defined by its longitudinal linearity, creating much longer and low-profile sculptural forms. The unusual nature of a SWATH hull is free of the conventional restrictions of a monohull with narrow and cluttered indoor spaces. GLASS is a more nuanced version of the conventional yacht, leveraging the SWATH hull’s unusually large beam width. Paying homage to the skyscraper and acting as a canvas to the sea, GLASS is organised vertically in three cubic floors stacked upon each other like Lego blocks. Effectively, each floor is entirely dedicated to maximising the amount of living space for guest and crew on board. Like an ancient Mayan temple, the aft deck lowers itself to the water for access to tenders and for water sports. This large space can be also reimagined as a private amphitheatre for the owner to host performances – the aquatic equivalent of the “Stairway to Heaven”. GLASS uses materiality to create the perfect composition of architecture and nature coming together in the most intimate way and completely in tune with the environment. The facade is conceived as an ever-changing canvas for reflection. No longer an object foreign to the water, but rather a mirror reflecting the waves, it becomes a multi-faceted gem on the open ocean. GLASS was conceived as a confluence of beauty and function, with the symbiosis of nature and architecture coming together. Life on board GLASS is casual and comparable to that of a beachside cottage, yet refined enough to entertain friends and relatives from around the world in the most effortless and chic style. GLASS reflects and confirms the lifestyle of the family while offering moments of natural intimacy and escape. Light and ethereal or masculine and monumental, GLASS is a binary of these two opposites. Like a composer mastering the perfect composition, GLASS is a response to its context and ever-changing environment, maintaining essence of place through its architectural design, surface textures and the sensitivity of its material. It truly represents the marriage of both socially and environmentally perfect anomalies of nautical architecture.