TYD33: Awareness is the guiding factor in every choice and every challenge today. We have just emerged from a time that really put us all to the test.
It has been just three years since Covid-19 marched into our life and turned the way we lived upside down. Now that we have returned to near-normality, we have begun travelling again, meeting people and taking ownership of all those spaces we had to give up. We are back socialising just as we used to before Covid hit and the pandemic almost feels like a distant memory. Almost but not entirely. Something of it has remained inside all of us. Perhaps because of it we learned the importance of nature: both the impact it has on our quality of life and the way in which it is influencing design thought in all its forms. Fertile ground for creativity and ideas. And that’s where design comes in. A discipline that is grappling with epoch-changing challenges because of the environmental issues we are all facing and which is becoming pivotal in a time of huge change. Hence different types of design are flourishing.
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Car design, for instance, is now focused on zero emissions mobility. A taste of what awaits comes from the new Volvo EX90 featured in this issue. Also grabbing the headlines is the Swedish marque’s intention to set the benchmark in terms of both safety and sustainability. One of the most innovative features offered by this new model is LiDAR, a sensor system that uses a pulse laser to measure distances and can detect pedestrians at up to 250 metres. The cabin is made from 50 kg of recycled plastics and biological-based materials. However, as we’ve already seen, the car world is a huge source of inspiration for the nautical sector on the sustainability front. It remains very much an open game with all the big players now involved. The Baglietto Group, for instance, is focusing on hydrogen propulsion and Sanlorenzo has already announced a series of revolutionary projects that will see systems installed aboard its new superyachts in the next couple of years that will significantly cut environmental impact. But clean energy isn’t the only factor in play – using more sustainable materials is also important too as Volvo has proven.
The new Seadeck hybrid yacht range, presented by Azimut, is getting talked about too because of the green solutions used aboard. These include cork to replace teak on the decks and PET, recycled from plastic bottles, for the bulkheads. Around 15,000 bottles will be reused in every boat built, in fact. All in all, an increasingly smart and environmentally respectful approach that will also deliver and deliver on the emotional front.
Matteo Zaccagnino
