Built to house 5,610 guests, Royal Caribbean’s Star of the Seas towers over the Aura River near Finland’s oldest city, Turku, when Monocle visits the Meyer Turku shipyard. Across 365 metres and 20 decks, the ship is divided into eight “neighbourhoods”, with names including Thrill Island (with a waterpark with six massive waterslides), Central Park (home to more than 33,500 plants) and Aquadome (a retreat and show venue with robotic arms and diving platforms), the last being a giant glass dome perched above the ship and, as I soon learn, a veritable feat of engineering. The ship also boasts more than 40 bars and restaurants, three theatres and a sizeable spa with 28 treatment rooms.

Meyer Turku has a reputation among industry professionals as the go-to dockyard for the largest and most complex cruise ships. “The shipyard here has the ability to translate our most ambitious concepts into reality,” Royal Caribbean’s vice-president of Architectural & Design, Sascha Lang, tells Monocle. The vessels built here are so complex and so large that an entire marine cluster has grown up around the area. It includes universities, subcontractors and suppliers, making the marine industry a key driver of the regional economy. “This is the biggest single employer in Western Finland,” adds Meyer Turku CEO Casimir Lindholm. “Every day more than 6,000 people work on-site and the indirect economic effect doubles that.”

One area of shipbuilding expertise that this region boasts is interior design. Though the scale of the vessel is astounding, that alone isn’t enough to justify the hefty ticket prices that people pay to cruise on the likes of Star of the Seas. Given that guests often spend days to weeks on these liners, they also need to look the part. Star of the Seas features elegant interiors spread across dozens of accommodation categories. Rivalling the world’s top hotels for style and comfort, its cabins are bright and modern, many with balconies opening directly onto the sea. The most opulent suites span across four decks and feature private sun decks and en-suite dining. “The interior design and fit-out companies in Finland are the crème de la crème,” says Lang. “Companies such as Merima, Naval Interior Team [NIT] and Orsap are not just suppliers. They are partners who help us innovate.”

Founded in 1987 and still family-owned, Merima’s 140-plus employees are often called in for the most challenging assignments. On Star of the Seas, this meant handling the Aquadome, the main theatre, the waterpark and the outer decks. “This has been our most complex project,” Juuso Normio, the company’s head of newbuild, tells Monocle as we tour the expansive pool area, where slides hang overhead, some even running over the ocean for the ultimate thrill-seekers. “We receive the architects’ concepts, adapt them so they can be built, make sure that the technical systems fit and confirm that the materials suggested are possible to use. Then we manufacture parts either at our factory in Helsinki or with our subcontractors and install them here at the shipyard.” Merima is a turnkey provider, meaning it delivers the entire package from design to finishing. “That’s what the shipyards and cruise lines value,” says Normio. “They know we can take care of everything.”

Designing and building interiors for a ship of this scale is so time-consuming and technically demanding that several companies are often involved. On Star of the Seas, the 7,000 sq m Royal Promenade – the vessel’s high street of sorts, lined with cafés, bars and shops – was entrusted to NIT, a shipbuilding company based in Piikkiö, east of Turku. “In this project, the biggest challenge was to make the space feel light and airy, while not compromising on the physical security of the vessel,” says NIT’s director of sales Sebastian Lagerlöf. The shipbuilder’s role in the Royal Promenade illustrates how design is shifting towards connection with the ocean. The light-filled avenue offers magnificent views of the surrounding Caribbean Sea (where the vessel is based today), reminding passengers that cruises are about more than what happens inside the suites. Like everywhere, interior-design trends evolve with time. “Large American cruise-ship operators are moving towards the Scandinavian style, which means lighter materials, cleaner lines and more natural light. That plays to our Finnish strengths,” says Lagerlöf.

The stair towers, a large conference centre and the lavish spa were entrusted to Orsap, an interiors specialist founded in 1991 that now employs 71 people. “The spa features a lot of stone and marble, as well as curved forms and integrated steam technology,” says project director Jukka Ansavuori. “We first prefabricated the treatment rooms in our workshop and then installed them here on the ship.” Orsap prides itself on controlling the whole chain from design and electrics to fabrication and installation. “We don’t outsource design. We take the cruise line’s concept, then we determine how to make it real. Almost everything is drawn and planned before production,” adds Ansavuori.

Finnish businesses such as Merima, NIT and Orsap face intense competition from abroad. Italy’s strong design credentials make it a powerhouse in ship interior design. Germany’s tradition of engineering excellence makes it another formidable player. France is another major European competitor, with Chantiers de l’Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire producing large vessels. “The cruise interiors industry is international,” says Lang. “But Finland has carved a very particular niche for itself. The Finnish companies merge ambition with precision and they are willing to adapt to new challenges.”

Finland’s prominence in this industry might surprise many but it is not accidental: Turku has been a shipbuilding hub since the 18th century. For Finland, the effect is economic as well as reputational; the maritime cluster employs about 30,000 people nationwide and generates €12bn in annual revenue. “When we innovate, we want to create the next big thing. Meyer Turku and its partners are willing to take risks with us to solve problems that look impossible at first. That’s why we build our most ambitious ships here,” says Lang.

Walking through ships like Star of the Seas, it is easy to forget the complexity behind its walls. Most passengers will likely never hear the names Merima, NIT or Orsap. Yet their work, and that of other Finnish companies specialising in cruise-ship interiors, shapes every experience on this ship. For Turku, the reward is recognition as the world’s capital of cruise interiors – a title it’ll hold on to as the next maritime leviathans are already in the works in its docks.

The post Behind the walls of a design-led cruise ship: The Finnish craftspeople kitting out a megacity on the sea appeared first on Monocle.

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