Design Trends | Spaceship Yacht RFF135

Design Trends

Being touted as a "spaceship on water," the latest yacht design from the partnership between the Porsche Design Group and Singapore-based Royal Falcon Fleet is fantastic, and definitely delivers on the promise.

Named the RFF135, it is able to hold up to 20 passengers, split between ten crew members and ten guests; giving a nice one to one service ratio if you're on a luxury yacht charter.

“Our newest project once again demonstrates that our design, outstanding in many ways, is setting trends in numerous fields. With the first Royal Falcon Fleet yacht, we are building a bridge to the Porsche Design Sport textile collection that was developed specifically for the maritime area,” says Dr. Jürgen Geßler, CEO of Porsche Design Group.

The luxury yacht, which travels at 35 knots, will be available for sail or charter sometime near the end of 2010.

Design Trends

Trends | Personal Rapid Transport Vehicles

Tech Trends

Heathrow Airport has been the recipient of Personal Rapid Transport or PRT vehicles, which are essentially four-person battery-run taxis running on rails, which through a touchscreen system, a rider can direct which parking lot in the airport they want the taxi to take them.

Designed by Mark Lowson, who also was part of the design team for the Saturn Rocket used to launch the Apollo missions, shows you why it has such an interesting, futuristic look.

The initial number of PRTs will be 18, which will cost $41 million, and if as successful as hoped, will be expanded by the BBA with another $331 million which will allow passengers to embark to hotels located near Heathrow terminal.

At such high costs it's doubtful the pods can be used in anything other than a than a smaller, controlled environment. Still, the idea of zooming around in one of these little pods with a couple of friends is pretty exciting.

Tech Trends

Travel Trends | Butlins’ Ocean Hotel

Travel Trends

Everything retro, nostalgic and vintage seems to be in, and that's true of hotels as well, as the latest one to emerge with a retro-chic look is Butlins Ocean Hotel with spa in Bognor Regis, West Sussex.

Along with the usual luxurious spa treatments, guests at Butlins Ocean Hotel also enjoy a lot of fun and unusal places to engage and interact with.

For example, there's a snow cave where you can enter in and freeze while having a snowball fight, or you can enjoy taking a disco shower with flashing lights and the rest. There are other showers that reproduce the sense of your skin being hit with raindrops.

Of course other places like a Kaleidoscope Bar have the mirror balls so widely used in the disco era, along with galaxies on the ceiling that slowly move.

You can't escape it in the elevators either, as disco music continue to emerse guests in the overall experience.

But that relaxation pod really appeals to me, which you can see in the photo below. Now that's a way to relax after disco fever wears you out.

Travel Trends