On a yacht, every centimetre used for equipment, racks and technical infrastructure is space taken away from something else. Reducing their footprint means recovering usable space and giving interior designers greater freedom without sacrificing the functions required on board.
For Nextworks, this is where the work of a solution provider begins: designing networks that reduce cabling and equipment, concentrating services wherever possible. The result is more room for design, without reducing onboard functionality.
From technical space to living space
Space optimisation meets interior design when technology becomes part of the environment rather than an element added afterwards. A screen can appear only when needed; audio can be integrated into surfaces; one element can combine aesthetic and technical functions.
The aim is to avoid, whenever possible, that every new function requires a new visible object. Nextworks develops immersive systems that distribute audio without making loudspeakers the protagonists. Solutions such as VBH Ceramic Sound take this further, turning the ceramic surface itself into the sound source.
Solution first, product second
For a solution provider, invisible technology is not a specific product category. The starting point is the result required and the experience expected on board. If a television should remain out of sight, the solution may be a lifter or an advanced robotic arm. Technology is selected according to the aesthetic intent of the yacht, not the other way around.
The solution provider therefore acts as a bridge between shipyard and interior designer, translating aesthetic requirements into technically feasible solutions while preserving the visual character of the project.
The collaboration with VBH
The partnership between Nextworks and VBH broadens the range of tools available in this direction. VBH, a global leader in the integration of onboard technology for mega and superyachts, has developed several solutions around the concept of Invisible Technology. Alchimia is perhaps the most immediate example: a surface that can be perceived as an imposing marble wall while integrating audio-video functions within it, such as a television that magically appears in what otherwise looks simply like a stone wall. It is a particularly refined solution, but above all it clearly represents a principle: using technology and design together to obtain more functions from the same space.
The collaboration with VBH allows Nextworks to extend its approach as a solution provider, making additional tools and products available – increasingly refined ones – whenever the project requires a particularly high level of integration between technology and aesthetics. Rather than making technology disappear, it means preventing it from dictating the rules of the space.
The point, in the end, is simple: use space better in order to leave more freedom to those who design it.
