Arcadia reinvents itself and presents Arcadia 2.0
The Neapolitan area based ARCADIA Yachts – reference point for those who are looking for seaworthy yachts with a strong personality that offer an experience of total immersion into the surrounding environment – looks to the future with an evolution in styling that respects the yard’s principles and creates a new vision to enlarge and renew their present range of yachts and reinforce the firm’s management.
DESIGN IN COLLABORATION WITH HOT LAB
For this new styling race, ARCADIA Yachts has entrusted interior and exterior design to the Milan based Hot Lab studio, famous for their youthful, innovative and refined approach that reconciles elegance and contemporary styling, exalting in all their yachts that timeless beauty that made the studio renowned worldwide.
Ugo Pellegrino, ARCADIA YACHTS sole administrator, comments on the new direction: “We are convinced that the success of a yard, which includes us at ARCADIA, is connected to the experience that the owner and his entourage are part of, from the moment that they begin to think about a new yacht to when they decide to sell it to buy another. Here the role of the design studio in the early phase of design plays a fundamental role in creating a solid and trustworthy relationship between the yard and the owner. We therefore went to the best professionals in yacht design who not only are technically prepared, but also have an extraordinary ability to listen and to emphasize. Only when we could completely identify ourselves with the owners could we really understand the nuances of the client’s needs and imagine designing the details that make the difference when creating a successful semi-custom project.
After thinking very hard about our choices and working together on several pilot projects, we decided that the best partner to evolve into ARCADIA 2.0 would be the design studio Hot Lab. I am sure that our collaboration will be an immediate success, both with our first projects and with the relations that we are developing with old and new ARCADIA clients.”
“The purpose of our work with ARCADIA will be to contribute to the continual evolution of the brand, already so avant-garde”, explains Antonio Romano, partner at Hot Lab. “Our objective is to develop the winning characteristics of the ARCADIA brand in concordance with client briefs. ARCADIA Yachts is a consolidated and successful reality and we have approached them with enormous respect and pleasure given our first-hand experience with the quality of their products and their highly professional workforce and management.”
STARTING WITH THE A100+
The first project by Hot Lab will be the A100+ that, as the name suggests, will be an evolution of the fortunate 30 meter yacht presented at last year’s Cannes Yachting Festival. “In general we will respect the masculine lines, clean and multifaceted, that represent the familiar image of the yard; we will reinterpret them to further develop the on-board living spaces, both inside and out, that represent the quintessence of each ARCADIA yacht”, said Antonio Romano.
The full-height windows – providing natural illumination even from above – the spacious external areas, the latest generation of solar panels and a generalized eco-green approach for the whole gamma will be maintained, while increasing living area for guests. This translates into a larger upper deck and optimization of the foredeck area, while improving access and movement with a more efficient positioning of the stairwells.
High priority has also been given to conviviality and leisure while on-board. The aft deck can comfortably seat up to ten guests for formal dining, with space for a further twelve guests in the lounge area, transformable into an ulterior dining area. The owner therefore is able to seat more than twenty guests for dining.
The same principle was followed for the design of the entire upper deck by the skillful combination of interior and exterior spaces to create a splendid leisure area, with a beautiful view of all the surroundings, yet with complete privacy.
The redesign of the yacht’s layout, especially the exteriors, has allowed a new communication and movement mode between decks that favors a single inside-outside experience.
Hot Lab has proposed five different interior layout options to satisfy any owner’s need, which also simplify design choices (thus reducing development times) by proposing a contemporary minimalist décor that perfectly matches exterior styling, and continuously playing with the inside-outside exchange.
Interior design is simple and linear, yet rich in detailing and finishings. It attracts attention, letting new visitors discover new aspects with every glance. A perfect mix of contemporary design and neo-ornamentalism that unifies typical products of high Italian design with exotic rarely used materials like Carbalho wood and resin paneling.
The architectural container and its content are merged, creating the impression of carefully elaborated detailing found aboard a water-level attic. Soft materials like leather and cotton with warm woods like natural oak with ebony accents complete the color palette that includes the entire spectra of warm grey, sand, clear cream and black and white. A restful environment, warm and welcoming, even though luxuriously composed.
Further details on the A100+ were unveiled during the presentation, but for the new ideas that are currently under development we will have to wait for the next Cannes boat show!
A YACHTING RENAISSANCE
When style meets functionality, an object becomes design; when a yacht meets design and eco-functionality, it becomes an ARCADIA Yacht. It may seem presumptuous to talk about renaissance in yachting, but it is not that far fetched when we are referring to the yard located in Pompei. In 2010, when ARCADIA broke onto the nautical scene, it hit the market with the strength of a supernova.
ARCADIA was created to put the owner at the center of the design process, shaping the space that envelopes him and giving him the possibility to fully appreciate surrounding nature.
With an ARCADIA yacht the significance and sensations of life at sea change completely. It is not only an occasion to enjoy the gentle touch of the sea and the warmth of the sun, but to enter into close contact with the surrounding scenery.
Ample open spaces fully emerge you in the marine environment. The much larger than normal aft deck creates a space so connected to the sea that it feels like an extension of the yacht. Numerous windows and lateral openings generate spaces where the border between inside and outside becomes imperceptible, where enclosed spaces dissolve and are assimilated into the nature that envelopes the yacht. The perfume of the sea, it’s sounds and reflections, flood the interiors, creating a single element.
With ARCADIA Yachts, nature is not only enhanced but, and perhaps above all, respected. Ample openings limit the use of air conditioning thanks to the benefits of refreshing sea breezes that freely circulate throughout the yacht. Solar panels integrated into the superstructure reduce dependency on humming generators while at anchor, and the ample use of state-of-the-art thermally isolated windows are evidence of the yard’s commitment to its ecological values.
With great foresight – and a little bit of luck – ARCADIA Yachts managed to anticipate the emerging new (or reborn) trends of those years.
The world changed rapidly and a crisis permanently modified the future of the nautical industry. Owners entered into the nautical market with needs different from those supplied by traditional players. These owners wanted to return to a slower and more intimate way of going to sea, to feel the ocean breeze on their face and enjoy the best part of a cruise: the passage itself. Expert and discerning owners were asking for something new, while never thinking of trading safety and comfort for a simple exercise in style without content. It was necessary to develop new shapes that could fully satisfy these reborn expectations.
Starting with the principle that a yacht should once again be a function of the owner’s needs, in close contact with the surrounding environment and fully respecting the environment, ARCADIA Yachts proposed a project that completely broke with the type of yacht fashionable at the time. While sleek, aggressive and noisy yachts were once the trend, for owners who love to show off, the yard presented a design featuring ample transparent surfaces, both in length and height; with a low freeboard and wide beam, without a flybridge, emanating a feeling of strength and safety, with a hull shape designed to sail across the Mediterranean or the Caribbean at lower speeds (15 to 18 knots), without noise, abrupt movements or vibrations. In a word, the ARCADIA 85, today known as the A85.
It was an incredible success, proven by the complete series of models available today (the A85, A85s, A100, A115 and the Sherpa) and rapid market growth. Today the yard has a market share for these reference models of about 15%.
All these yachts have a marked and unmatched personality and impress not only for their innovative looks but also for their extraordinarily optimized layouts, conceived for 360° and 24 hour a day use and enjoyment, excellent seaworthiness, and respect of the environment, while above all offering a complete and interactive experience with the marine world.
ARCADIA YACHTS – STATEMENTS OF STYLE
The yard’s semidisplacement and semi-custom yachts differ in length (from 58’ to 115’), in layout and décor (coordinated with the owner), but all of them – including the entry level Sherpa, one of the most innovative and admired products in recent years – reflect the aim of merging form and function by use of a design envelope that not only hosts the top design brands in the world (Cassina, B&B, Cappellini, Alias, Olivari, Zucchetti, PoltronaFrau; Molteni, Sunbrella, Pamar, Fontana arte, Flos, Nahoor, BCM), but is also a statement of style in itself, the incarnation of structural design, exalting anything involved with it.
A shape built around men and the sea that plays with transparencies, shafts of light, the continual exchange between inside and out – thanks to innovative windows that open and close like those of an automobile – around vast interior and exterior spaces, with a maniacal attention paid to detailing and materials. Even the hallways are pleasing; on an ARCADIA yacht the owner has a wide margin for personalizing and expressing his desires.
More features making an ARCADIA yacht unique are solar panels integrated with glazed windows in the superstructure that charge the batteries and reduce the use of (and noise from) the generators, Krypton filled double glazed windows to give a high 18°C thermal coefficient between interior and exterior temperatures, anti-vibration and stabilizing systems and waste water treatment plants.
The area surrounding Pompei has become a center for the assembly of the highest quality European products: the design of the NPL displacement hulls, developed in the 1970s by the Royal Institution of Naval Architects and derived from commercial workboats, with a rounded forefoot and excellent characteristics of fluid resistance at slow to medium speeds guaranteeing excellent seakeeping qualities in any weather, are from the UK; the double glazed windows with superb thermal insulation characteristics come from northern Europe; the dynamic stabilization systems ABT TRAC come from the USA; the state-of-the-art solar panels that supply enough energy to run many of the onboard systems ensuring remarkable acoustic comfort at anchor in addition to considerably reducing energy consumption and limiting environmental impact, are from Germany. Last but not least, the artisan workforce from the area and the rest of Italy who collaborate with the yard to the great satisfaction of all concerned.
NOT JUST STYLE – MANAGEMENT HAS ALSO EVOLVED
Strengthened by their consolidated presence in the international market, with more than 20 yachts built and delivered and a reference market segment estimated at over 15%, the sole administrator of ARCADIA Yachts, Ugo Pellegrino, has recently decided to augment the firm’s management nominating Francesco Ansalone as responsible for Marketing & Communication and Mario De Camillis as After Sales & Service Manager.
