Zaha Hadid Architects Teams With Rossinavi to Create a Fully Electric Yacht

Known for spectacular organic forms, Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has taken to yacht design like a fish to water. For the three years preceding Hadid’s 2016 death, the Dame Commander had partnered with German shipbuilder Blohm+Vohs on a family of seacrafts sporting outrageously braided exoskeletons. Now, the Italian maker Rossinavi is preparing to celebrate ZHA’s next plunge into the discipline with its introduction of the Oneiric at Fuorisalone.

Oneiric is an electric catamaran and its energy consumption is managed via artificial intelligence. In a nod to the superyacht’s lessened environmental impact, ZHA’s sinuous design of the 44-meter (144 feet) watercraft pays homage to the gently rolling ocean. Oneiric’s exterior appears as a single continuous line that rises from an aluminum hull, snakes up and around three photovoltaic-integrated levels, and undulates into the other hull. To make the design feel even more like an extension of the water, the catamaran’s hull, gunwale, and transom merge and diverge in branching curves, and the stern gradually steps down like an oversize swimming platform.

Flowing lines characterize the ship’s interiors, as well, with integrated furnishings melding into adjacent planes; walls also meet ceilings via endless coved surfaces. To underscore the sensation that ocean and physical environments are one, Oneiric’s captain controls the superyacht from a patio-like command center that is a hybrid of the traditional enclosed cockpit and an open flybridge. And in the owner’s cabin, the bedroom boasts 180-degree views as well as sunlight penetration through skylights. (Oneiric encompasses four additional guest cabins, and another quartet of cabins for crew members.) Just as Rossinavi replaced a conventional yacht monohull with an efficient catamaran shape to maximize the usefulness of the electric battery pack, so the interior is finished largely in lightweight, high-performing recycled and recyclable materials that burden Oneiric with the least drag.