Products & services

YSA Design partners with Scenso to deliver cleaner air on cruise ships

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: Products & services Products & services; Published: 10 June 2020 10 June 2020

With the cruise industry preparing for its comeback, shipowners are engaged in efforts to make their vessels safer and more hygienic. According to architecture and design experts YSA Design, clean air should be a top priority.

The Oslo-based company is collaborating with energy services and engineering firm Scenso, whose interactive software solution will harvest data from onboard air quality sensors. With an approach using the watchwords ‘analyse, optimise, manage’, the tool will help shipowners to define goals and form an action plan for achieving cleaner air throughout their vessels.

YSA Design Senior Architect Kristian Englund explains the significance of the project in the revival of the cruise sector: “As passenger ships prepare for the post-pandemic era, much is being made of surface hygiene and how thorough cleaning and the right selection of materials can limit the spread of pathogens – and rightly so. However, studies show that the novel coronavirus can survive in airborne droplets for some time, so we need to pay more attention to air hygiene.”

Should air quality be found lacking, a number of measures can be taken depending on requirements, says Englund: “Emergency improvements can be carried out to restore public trust with minimal disruption. Temporary measures include upgrading filtration systems, optimising existing air zoning and actively cleaning air in venues through ionisation and particle capture, but refurbishment could be a better option – certainly in the longer term. This may involve the restructuring of duct systems for better zoning or the integration of air cleaning equipment in venues and within filter systems.”

As a company that counts ship general arrangements and project management among its specialities, YSA Design is well equipped to assist shipowners in vessel newbuilds and refurbishments alike, Englund adds. “Cruise operators will be able to apply the insights provided by Scenso to further limit the flow of air between cabins, as well as circulation between public spaces and crew areas. Ships may also be fitted with systems to shut down or reroute airflow in an emergency.”

While tracking and harvesting data is nothing new, Scenso’s technology is custom-made – by ship designers, for ship operators – and is being developed in collaboration with cruise lines. At its core, the platform is a sustainability solution designed to monitor vessel hotel loads, highlighting opportunities for general optimisation and energy savings in the three main life-support systems on board: air, water and power. When combined with third-party technology and the credentials of YSA Design, it has clear potential in helping cruise owners to improve onboard air hygiene.

“The development of air quality technologies is accelerating, and as these solutions become more advanced, the benefit of the Scenso platform will become increasingly apparent. We are confident that by using the knowledge gained in our collaboration with Scenso, YSA Design can play a significant role in ensuring safer ship operations in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic,” says Englund.

Bureau Veritas, CroisiEurope and Attica Group in business restart work

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Products & services Products & services; Published: 10 June 2020 10 June 2020

Bureau Veritas (BV), the French classification society, has worked together with the river cruise operator CroisiEurope and ferry company Attica Group in the infection prevention area.

With CroisiEurope that operates a fleet of 32 ships, BV will help the company demonstrate that infection prevention measures have been put in place and they have been subjected to a rigorous audit process, BV said in a statement.

Attica Group, the Athens based parent company of Superfast Ferries, Blue Star Ferries, and Hellenic Seaways, has been taking all necessary precautionary measures from the first moment the COVID-19 pandemic occurred. “The focus has been on the protection of the passengers and crew members of its vessels in close collaboration with the requirements of NPHO (the National Public Health Organization) in Greece and all competent authorities,” BV said.

“With the tourist season now commencing and the transportation of passengers to and from the Greek islands now permitted, Attica Group is using the new service ‘Restart your business with BV’ in cooperation with Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore, world leader in testing inspection and certification, in order to certify the quality and reliability that have established the Group as a top provider of maritime passenger transport.”

‘Restart your business with BV’ is a new service launched in April by Bureau Veritas, addresses biological risks, as posed by COVID-19 and other infections, providing procedures and measures to protect passengers, company personnel and other stakeholders.

“As businesses world-wide resume operations it is vital that appropriate health and safety standards are put in place to help ensure confidence. BV has been working across many industries to help develop new requirements for clients, in order to provide assurance to stakeholders and regulators that the risks of infection and pandemic risk are being addressed,” BV stated.

Halton to supply Mobile Isolation Units in cooperation with Alvo

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: Products & services Products & services; Published: 04 June 2020 04 June 2020

Halton is a supplier of the Mobile Isolation Unit – a high-level container-based isolation unit equipped with an air management system. With the isolation capabilities and climate control, the Mobile Isolation Unit can treat highly infectious disease patients by providing optimal room conditions to prevent diseases from spreading while enabling the best healing for patients. 

The Mobile Isolation Unit offers a quick set-up solution to provide fast support for the healthcare systems in various types of installation sites. With the Mobile Isolation Unit, a suitable hospital setting can be provided for any application where a flexible concept and installation are appreciated.

Proper climate control plays a critical role in preventing cross-contamination and increasing comfort. The air management system of the Mobile Isolation Unit provides optimal thermal and epidemiological conditions. Engineering controls ensure that negative room pressure is achieved inside the unit. The negative room pressure prevents airborne contaminants from drifting to other areas and contaminating patients, medical staff, and sterile equipment. The units are equipped with air-purifiers as well to increase the safety and healthiness of the space. The low noise level of the air management system increases comfort for the patient and the medical team.

The Mobile Isolation Unit consists of materials selected with health benefits in mind. The materials used help in preventing the spread of microorganisms while being flame retardant as well.

The concept of the Mobile Isolation Unit varies from a single patient isolation room with an observation room, anteroom, and private bathroom to a modular complex of several isolation units connected by a common corridor, provided as a turn-key solution.

The flexible design concept allows the units to be built in multiple locations and the units can be relocated easily while being fully functional as well. All modules are based on standardized dimensions of 20-foot containers that allows easy transportation, lower transportation costs and increased mobility. Each Mobile Isolation Unit is manufactured at the production plant, equipped according to the client’s order, and delivered on-site ready to operate.

TDoS charts way forward in new normal

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Products & services Products & services; Published: 05 June 2020 05 June 2020

We all have to take the right measures, and regain the trust of the travelling public. It is a precondition for the continuing of our industry. We are about to see some very fundamental changes to the whole cruising industry in the midst of a massive crisis - from fore to aft, top to bottom. Tillberg Design of Sweden (TDoS), the Swedish interior design specialist, said in a statement

Our job, as designers together with owners and specialists, is of course to offer the best possible safety onboard, without sacrificing the very reason for leisure travelling. All ships in the cruise industry are fundamentally safe and well prepared for any demands on health and safety. We will likely have to re-define everything that has any effect on how safe the ships are to travel on. To begin with, it will affect all the offerings onboard, a lot of the hardware, the training and number of crew, onboard equipment, etc.

We also don’t want to overreact or create solutions that add concern to an already concerned guest. It still has to be fun and safe to travel, also in the future, not a calculated risk.

In the words of a well-known cruise executive: ”to suggest that overnight, you’re going to take out 40%, 50% or 60% of the inventory and not sell it, might be a very short-term solution to get the wheels moving. But that is not sustainable. Whoever tries to do that will go out of business”.

Nevertheless, there are reasons to believe that there will have to be less guests onboard - and perhaps some more crew. Prices will initially, most likely, be dropped to get people back on the ships. All this will of course affect the profitability of the whole industry, which will press for ships that are most cost-effective in the design. To find the right long term solutions, it will therefore be critical to understand the entire value chain.

WITH COMBINED EFFORTS AND INNOVATION

In order to continue offering a competitive guest experience, there will be big changes all the way back to the supply chain, and indeed how we build and operate the ships in the first place. We will need to compress all back of house facilities, and not have more crew than what is absolutely necessary. All flows onboard, back-of-house and front-of-house, will have to be optimized further to avoid congestion, and to maximize efficiency. The buffet lines may go, but what do we replace them with? If less queuing is required, we may need to redesign the whole embarkation process.

All this has potential to help turn things around, and create an even better guest experience!

JOIN US AT OUR WEBINARS

In the light of this, we have initiated a series of webinars, in which we want to contribute in the best way we can. We are doing so by picking the brains of some of the most knowledgeable people we have in our network.

In these webinars, we will touch on everything from the guest experience and all the way back to how things are produced:

History & Tech / Medical / Public Trust

Staying Sane - Anti-microbial Surface Treatments / Textile & Furtniture Treatment / Graphics

Re-boot and Re-Design - Updating the Guest Experience

Inside Insights - A Ships life - Seen from many Perspectives.

The first two session have been amazingly very well-attended, and jam-packed with priceless insights from some leading players in each area of expertise. For the coming three, we will be seeing some well-known faces from leading design companies, ship owners and ship management.

It is our genuine hope and ambition that by quickly joining forces, and collectively tackle the challenges the industry is facing, we will help to turn the development around and come out even stronger when the storm is eventually slackening.

Text by:

Fredrik Johansson, Partner & Executive Director, Tillberg Design of Sweden

Helena Sawelin Partner & Business Director, Tillberg Design of Sweden

Second TDoS webinar highlights need for new ideas, technology

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Products & services Products & services; Published: 04 June 2020 04 June 2020

Staying Sane in a Sanitized World was the subject of the second TDoS (Tillberg Design of Sweden) webinar. The invited panellists were:

-Lars Bang Pedersen,Vice President for the Marine company ACT Global that help companies create a healthier and safer onboard environment.

-Susan Sadolinfrom Shores Global, a supplier to more than 200 cruise ships with a great focus on sustainability and recycling.

-Carl Lesvoix, our own Signage and Graphic Director and an expert on digital wayfinding. Carl has supervised more then 400 000 signs and graphics on several ships around the globe.

Together with the hosts from TDoS, Fredrik Johansson and Per Eriksson, important questions regarding how to reduce microbes in public areas in a sustainable way were raised. Can we obtain social distancing with digital techniques and at the same time enhance the guest experience?

The discussion around staying sane in a sanitized world went on even after the cameras went off, showing the need to bring this topic on open waters and to collect great ideas for the future.

The panel was dispersing ideas all the way from ACT’s solution Premium Purity to Shores presentation of soft goods sanitized solution such as Sleep Angel.

Those ideas were followed by virtual directional possibilities that signage and graphic design efforts can bring described by Carl Lesvoix

This combination of proven visions is just the start of a multitude of ideas that will bring a healthier and more sanitized environment to all surfaces onboard a cruise ship, encapsulated in a sustainable and long-term budget-cutting format that is also creating a safer environment for guest and crew onboard and shoreside.