MYS 2021: Lateral Naval Architects on Futurology

Having been plunged within the most challenging years of humanity, Lateral Naval Architects have channelled both creativity, commitment and focus on both the designs yet to be launched on the water, as well as their vision for a net-zero future. "It sounds odd to say it, but the pandemic has been good in our sector of the superyacht industry." shares James Roy, Managing Director at Lateral Naval Architects. "We are seeing enquiry levels almost at an all time high and a lot of demand for new projects."

Lateral Naval Architects have remained at the forefront of the sustainability discussion, pioneering change as a leading industry member. We discuss the vision accomplished with the futurology framework, and how it will change their superyacht portfolio; "This stemmed out of a concept we released 2 years ago at Monaco, Project AQUA, which was a vision of a hydrogen powered superyacht". James Roy commented. "Our Futurology framework is really just a way we help our clients to make choices about developing more sustainable designs".

Beyond futurology, Lateral Naval Architects have also put these principles into practice. 112-metre AQUA, 105-metre Esquel and 109-metre Project Bravo, are all vessels that adopt these innovations in the most exciting way. "Project Bravo was conceived very much from a sustainability perspective in trying to increase the efficiency of the yacht." James explains.

With Lateral Naval Architects being consistently a part of breaking ‘norms’ in the industry, it seemed only fitting we would discuss the Inception Platform. "At our studio we don't do design, we are engineers and naval architects." James Roy shares. "The purpose of developing the Inception Platform was to try and give [designers] an architecture which had very few constraints to express creativity on and produce design which perhaps stand apart a little bit from the norm".

What else is on the radar for Lateral Naval Architects? The answer is, plenty "We are continuing our research into new technologies based around electrification, batteries, alternative fuels [...] Yes we design superyachts but we are here to advance science and technology and create evermore iconic yachts".