You might also like:
Ponant provided further details about the first-of-their-kind underwater lounges that are being designed for its next four luxury expedition ships.
The multi-sensory lounges will be located beneath the water line on the four Explorer-class ships.
They will be called Blue Eye, and will have two large observation windows, one on each side of the ship, shaped like a whale’s eye.
Ponant said wall-mounted digital screens will project images filmed live by three underwater cameras strategically placed to capture spectacles.
The lounge will also include a sound system that will use hydrophones — a type of microphone designed to capture underwater sounds — to pick up audio of sea life within a three-mile radius of the vessel.
“Body Listening Sofas” will discreetly vibrate in unison with the streaming aquatic acoustics, Ponant said.
Ponant released renderings showing the futuristic-looking lounges bathed in dim blue light, with curving white contemporary sofas tiered in banks around the observation portals. A carpeted staircase leads down from an upper deck, partly screened by a glossy white amoeba-shaped bulkhead.
The designer for Blue Eye is Jacques Rougerie, a French architect who specializes in underwater habitats and aquatic centers.
Ponant said the sound system was developed by Michel Redolfi, a contemporary music composer and sound design expert.
The first ships to receive a Blue Eye will be Le Laperouse and Le Champlain, two 184-passenger ships due in 2018. The following year, two more Explorer-class ships, Le Bougainville and Le Dumont-d’Urville, will follow.
Sоurсе: travelweekly.com
