Vripack designs Brazilian house on water

Conceptualising a new yacht is a special undertaking for any design team and Vripack did not shy away from the challenge that the company recently acquired.

Vripack’s bold team faced a difficult and unique challenge when they were asked to create a yacht that had all the features of a client’s traditional Brazilian house.

Robin de Vries, designer at Vripack explained, “The owner is in a time of his life where his children are old enough and his parents are young enough to join him on long voyages. They are active adventurers who will be cruising to harsh environments, so naturally they require the ability to be comfortable inside together while still enjoying the outside ambiance in its entire splendour. With three generations, plus captain and crew, there’s definitely a lot happening on this boat. The layout of this globetrotting vessel is therefore one of its key features.”

Marnix J. Hoekstra of Vripack added, “Without proper guidelines this could easily lead to something extremely modernistic. For the owner it still has to look like a yacht and not just a fancy object. It needed to be fresh and modern yet keep traditional yacht lines. It isn’t a building; it’s a ship and it needs a bow.”

The Dutch designers studied the opportunities to incorporate ideas from contemporary Brazilian house architecture and combined this knowledge with two major trends from VriThink; ‘Transparency’ and ‘We are Nature’. 

Arriving on board from the stern they designed a lofty one-and-a-half-story welcome lounge with lazy spiralling stairs and a stepless connection to two senior VIPs. The quintessential Brazilian house caters to both privacy and openness with a long and open interior layout and a loft element.

Robin continued, “The layout allows for the several different functions of a multi-generational family. She will sail all around the world, whether it is the Amazon or the Arctic and the Brazilian house architecture gave something unique to our yachting industry; the Hortus.

“We basically shifted the traditional sky lounge backwards creating a full glass observatory. In front of that we placed the Hortus which function as a breeze way surrounded with glass bulwarks the area is open.”

Following the “we are Nature” trend, Vripack took inspiration of the shapes of leaves as a pattern for the deck and integrated furniture giving the feeling of openness and spaciousness. Below decks, the layout features a large parents’ room which directly connects to two kid’s rooms. There is the option to keep all rooms open as one giant family suite. The main deck aft remains obstruction-free, which ensures ample space for numerous toys and tenders.

Marnix concluded, “We have a tremendous amount of experience in modern explorers, but it’s the new degree of contemporary architecture in this concept that’s so exciting for us. With the lack of a traditional aft deck and the addition of a Brazilian-House-inspired open mid-deck the owner lets us know that we crafted a contemporary globe trotter that sets a new standard yet again.”

For more information, visit Vripack