Highlights - Marbella Luxury Real Estate Magazine 2019

Highlights
entertaining areas like a private members’ club
and the top hotels they stay in, and their yachts
and jets to be more relaxed and homely.”
Technology is an important part of this
seamless lifestyle. The technical, security and
audio-visual side must be identical in each
property, so the owner knows they can conduct
business wherever they are or continue
watching a film from where they left off 2,000
miles ago. “Our job is to ensure that all the
practical elements are taken care of. These
people often travel with their staff, who want to
know that everything will work wherever they
are,” says Howes,
The desire to duplicate elements of the
design may apply to the furnishings too. “We
have one client who has the same desk, study
and bed in all of his homes and on his yacht
and plane,” she adds. “But then he wants a
differentiation in look and style to feel that
he has arrived in a different place. He never
travels with luggage because he has everything
he needs in each destination,” says Howes, who
is currently working on a 20,000 sq ft house
(1,858m 2 ) in Marbella for a repeat client.
Marbella – like Palma de Mallorca and
Barcelona - is one of Spain’s many soughtafter
waterfront cities that attract high-net
worth global individuals to the joint pleasures
of luxury property and the yachting lifestyle.
Barcelona-based interior architect Kirsten
Schwalgien, who spends half her time working
on Spanish projects and the remainder with
clients all over the world, describes this overlap
between property and yacht design as “very
common and generally ideal. These projects
generally start with a yacht or a residential
project. You work well together and the client
wishes you to work on their next project.”
Her clients want to feel the distinction in
design between being at sea and being in their
primary residence in a capital city or coastal
holiday home, she says. “But people are also
quite repetitive and they have routines that
affect how specific rooms are laid out. I analyse
closely how a client lives, down to where they
like to drink their coffee in the morning, and
then I create a design that fits with the property
or yacht.”
The blurring of lines between homes
on land and sea can be increasingly seen in
prime new developments around the world
as designers call upon nautical influences.
cryo-therapy chamber and is seeing a rise in
the number of folding balconies off master
The Corniche in London, a new luxury bedrooms on yachts and personal beach clubs
residential tower that sits on the riverfront
opposite the Palace of Westminster, is designed
on a platform at water level.
Meanwhile, Edward de Mallet Morgan,
by Foster + Partners. It includes a triplex Knight Frank’s international super prime
penthouse that overflows with references to
the water, including in its large curving rooms
and sweeping staircase redolent of a luxury
liner. On the opposite bank, another new highend
waterfront development, Riverwalk, takes
a similar theme with its handcrafted wooden
interiors and circular entrance hall reminiscent
of a yacht.
It’s not just residential property that plays
specialist, recalls a Parisian apartment in
which the bespoke dining table was designed
to fold up and sit in the back of a Falcon jet. “A
lot of these things are about the experience.
A client will often get the same designer to
do their yacht, house, plane and helicopter.
They want to make all of these spaces feel
bespoke to them and better than anything
else available,” he comments.
increasingly on the land-sea synergy either. Sometimes, though, it’s simpler than
Hotels are getting in on the act too. The Ritz
Carlton Yacht Collection will launch its first
that. “Our clients like a smooth transition
from one home to the next, with an element
BBJ-1 private jet interior by Winch Design to cater to the owner’s desire for a “flying home”
three Spanish-built luxury cruise ships in of familiarity,” says Iain Johnson, managing
2020, creating a new extension of the hotel
brand that draws heavily on the private yacht
director
ALLECT.
of the London design house
experience.
As ultra-high net worth types enjoy this
seamless existence across land, sea and air,
their expectations of how to have fun in each
space become ever more incredible. A snow
room on a yacht was a recent revelation for
Karen Howes, who says she is increasingly
asked to design secure art rooms – even on
yachts – to display a private collection. Toby
MacLaurin, sales and marketing director at
yacht brokers Ocean Independence, mentions
his surprise at coming across an on-board
Two of his current projects – an Italian
super-yacht and a new 17,000 sq ft (1,580m 2 )
“super house” development near Harrods in
Knightsbridge – have a definite “synergy”,
says Johnson. “Both require impressive public
and private zones for family and guests, one
of a kind materials and items that give the
space a hand-crafted, artisan touch and top
of the range, user-friendly technology,” he
says. “Super-yachts and luxury residences are
both homes. When one advances, the other
surpasses it.”
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