Megayacht News Radio
Megayacht News Radio introduces luxury-yacht enthusiasts to the leading shipyards, premier design studios, and even superyacht owners who bring cruising dreams to life. As the official podcast of MegayachtNews.com, we feature real stories of real interest, helping American yacht owners and their representatives make better-informed decisions when it comes to commissioning and using their yachts.
Megayacht News Radio
Sustainable Design: A Conversation with Jim Dixon of Winch Design
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What if luxury design could blend seamlessly with sustainability? Join us for an exclusive conversation with Jim Dixon from Winch Design, who takes us through his inspiring journey from crafting furniture to becoming a key player in the world of superyacht and aviation design. Jim shares the visionary process behind creating yacht owners' dreams, starting with the very first yacht he ever contributed to, the 165-meter motoryacht Dubai, and unveils the behind-the-scenes magic of integrating clients’ lifestyle preferences into high-end yachts, along with private jets and luxury residences.
Tune in to hear about the development of a 43-metre explorer vessel for an eco-conscious American family, where sustainable design principles meet unparalleled luxury. Jim delves into how the family's values influenced the use of low-VOC materials and other green practices. We also explore the philosophy that drives Winch Design, a firm committed to innovation and excellence. From the serendipitous start of their aviation projects to their dedication to using sustainable materials, this episode is a must-listen for anyone fascinated by the evolving world of luxury design. For more details, visit winchdesign.com.
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Welcome everyone. When it comes to superyachts, as much as the engineering and construction are, of course, key, the first thing that anybody ever talks about is the design. Now, it's only natural. Considering the profile is, after all, the first thing anybody can see. But curiosity takes over, leaving us all to wonder what does that look like on the inside? So, from an insider's perspective, literally and figuratively, jim Dixon of Winch Design is my guest today. Those of you who are longtime yachting aficionados certainly know the Winch studio and its work on both interiors and exterior styling and exterior styling. Just to name a few yachts from recent years Sparta by Heysen, excellence by Abaking and Rasmussen, come Together by Domin Yachting and Cloud 9 by CRN. As you're about to hear, jim and his team in the Yacht and Aviation Division do a lot more than design interiors around how owners like to live, and same thing with exteriors. They do extensive research into sustainable design as well and incorporate a better for the planet and better for people approach regularly. Jim, welcome to Megayacht News Radio. Good to have you here today.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much, diane, lovely to join you today.
Speaker 1:So I always find that people have interesting backstories as to how they came into their career. So what inspired you to go into design?
Speaker 2:Well, it's an interesting question. I grew up in the 70s and 80s, which, for those who recall, wasn't a particular highlight for design in the centennial calendar, so to speak. So I guess I had an innate curiosity and, you know, wonder for making things better functionally and and visually, aesthetically. So I was always interested in lots of different aspects of design and I was also obsessed by making things, and that led me to go and study furniture design, originally Furniture making and furniture design, and then from there came designing interiors of all kinds of different things, different disciplines, and how did you end up joining the Winch studio and how did you end up joining the Winch studio?
Speaker 2:Well, I joined Andrew Winch at the studio here in 96. And that was having come from some experience of very high specification residential projects and hospitality projects around the world. And my next foray into yachts was kind of a natural progressing from that. Really, the first project that I worked on here in the studio was 165 meter Dubai, or what became Motor Yacht Dubai, which we were building at Blom and Voss in the time. At the time for a different client and then it subsequently changed to a different ownership. But that was a very involving, complex project and for me I was building, or learning to build, in a different set of materials and constructs, so it was fascinating to see that being created on paper and then, of course, being built in steel and aluminium. So I had my eyes wide open to this huge 165-metre vessel, which was incredible. It was a landmark vessel at the time, of course, and still is today somewhat, you know, in terms of its size and complexity.
Speaker 1:Having a 165-metre as your very first yacht project is astounding. I can only imagine, like you said, your eyes were wide open. I can just imagine they were probably as large as saucers.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly. Well, I was used to the kind of you you know size of spaces and volume of spaces as I wasn't used to building in metal and everything that that entailed engineering wise so there was so much to learn which I've always been one for, for learning as I go and and so much to learn, so much experience to gain from a very big team, as you can imagine, of external professionals in all kinds of different aspects of building that vessel. So it was fascinating.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. It would have been amazing to be a fly on the wall for that for sure. So, speaking of teams, the yachts and aviation division is a whole team of people within the studio. So I'm wondering if the design for one ever influences the other. I can imagine that you have clients who have private jets and have their private yachts and want a sort of cohesive feel. They like to live a certain way, they like certain colors, textures et cetera. So that obviously would be. They would want the design of one to complement the other. But I'm wondering if there are, say, practices or even trends in aviation that influence yachting or vice versa trends in aviation that influence yachting or vice versa.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you know, as a design team here we've become adept at using all of our knowledge and experience and insights across the different disciplines that we work in, which is now yachts and aviation, and land-based residential and hospitality architecture. So we transfer all of our knowledge and insight. The clients are common to all three disciplines and we have a number of clients that we've carried across the disciplines and done multiple projects for them and to that end, their expectations of the project are pretty similar. Really, everything starts with their expectations of how we can service their lifestyle and how they're serviced, so to speak, on board the yacht or on board the aircraft, privacy aspects, convenience aspects and the materiality. The quality of the build again, doesn't really change whether it's a yacht or an aircraft. So all of those things we have to be very attentive to.
Speaker 2:But we carry our knowledge from one to the other and in fact our first aircraft project came about serendipitously, really, by going to meet what we imagined was going to be a sailboat client and he actually invited us to take the opportunity to design a BBJ at the first meeting, which was very unfamiliar to us in terms of the physical asset, but in terms of the space and the volume and the the geometry of it, we liken the tube of the aircraft to the irregular shape of a sailboat hull, and of course we've done lots of sailboats by that time. So we transferred everything that we knew from yachting into that industry and I have to say I think we, you know, we pretty much shook it up at the beginning of the 2000s with a completely different approach to designing an aircraft cabin.
Speaker 1:How so? How would you describe it? As being shaken up?
Speaker 2:I think everything in that industry at the time was ruled by convention and it had I think there's no harm in me saying become pretty staid. Really. The VIP aircraft industry grew up in the States and followed a certain past of which was pretty common throughout business jets and even then larger private aircraft. So I think we came to the industry with a different sensibility about materials and aesthetic, but more so about how the aircraft was going to be used and how we connected people on board to different activities, whether that be chatting casually in a corner over a cognac or doing a conference at 30,000 feet around a dining table, or converting sets or seats into a birthing arrangement. All of these kind of things, on an aircraft in particular, become real puzzles, real mind-bending puzzles of how you get the most out of furniture and combine it in different ways to give you different functionality in actually what is a very limiting space. So they're fascinating projects to do from that point of view of understanding the space but getting the most out of each and every part of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's important to take that critical step back, I think and rethink how spaces are being used and how they can function better for everything really for yachts, for jets, for houses. There's never a one-size-fits-all approach forever and ever.
Speaker 2:Of course, our clients keep reminding us of that, because every one of them comes to us with a different brief and a different way of living their life. And even though the platform of a super yacht generically might be quite similar and certainly the cabin of an aircraft can be identical from the last one in terms of how you start the project the end result is completely driven by the individual and the way that they client and understanding what makes them tick, what they enjoy in life and what they're going to enjoy when they yelp to all their aircraft. So our approach is very interrogating from that point of view, but analytical, and that's what drives us down to, you know, successively down to the detail and the materiality and the touch points which clients might enjoy.
Speaker 1:So, along those lines, when you are speaking with these clients and you're doing that digging analysis, if you will, trying to learn more about what specifically they like, exactly how they like to live, exactly how they like to live I know that you are doing a lot of research into more environmentally friendly materials and ways to incorporate that on board. Is that a big conversation driver? When you're speaking with the clients, are more of them coming with that already in mind?
Speaker 2:Or are you finding that it's crucial for you to bring up the subject first? Well, yeah, I think it works both ways around and in both the disciplines that we're talking about the yachts and aviation both of those industries are being interrogated massively now by the wider audience, the wider general public, as we all know. So we're being, on the one hand, being forced into looking at alternative solutions and different materials, different technological solutions to things, different propulsion methods, more economic fuels, etc. The shipyards are very, very focused particularly on that kind of aspect of the build. But we're equally trying to do as much as we can and make sure that we're doing that in a meaningful way. So here in the studio we have one of my colleagues in the team is 100% as a research role in the company, investigating sustainability of materials and supplies and the finishes and materials that they're producing and the way that they're going about creating alternate businesses, really in that sense. But of course, alongside that need reliability of your provision of their service and provision of their particular material or technique. So there's a lot of investigation to be, to be done, but we're trying to, you know, both find the clients who are interested in this aspect of of what we're doing and of course course there are clients out there. And equally we're trying to promote everything that we're learning on to clients who might have a more conventional approach to the project, by simply offering different things and trying to change clients' perception of what constitutes a luxury, quality product and item. And finish, you know so, in in yachting there are, you know, very pertinent subject matters which we've all become familiar with now, such as the, the use, the availability and the usage of teak as a raw material. So every time we're now applying a teak decking which of course we've been doing for hundreds of years but we're now questioning ourselves as to whether that is the right answer. There are more and more applicable alternatives to that which are more robust and acceptable now to clients.
Speaker 2:And if we're using teak in another manner, such as you know, I have a client at the moment where we're putting teak onto ceilings, onto overhead deckheads, because it's become a a little bit of a trend maybe in terms of exterior yacht aesthetics, but it would be a little bit unreasonable of us to immediately suggest to do it in in real teak. That doesn't seem very responsible. So in that case we've substituted it with a very high grade foil product. So it's a synthetic material. To the naked eye and when you're a meter or so, you know away it. It looks, for all intents and purposes, identical to teak, but of course it's much cheaper, much easier to maintain, durability is much better and you can repair it very easily. So it has a much long-term sustainability quotient than the raw material of teak. So you know, that's a specific thing which we might be looking at.
Speaker 2:I've also a client that we are building a 43-metre explorer vessel for At the moment. They're a delightful young American family, a family of four children. They're going to go and sail around the world and take the children on the greatest adventure of their lives once the yacht is finished. And it all started from their great interest in living a life more sustainably, more ecologically, with a very, very low footprint. So everything that they did in their day-to-day life as a child, a theory, was transferred into the design of the yacht. So they're having us really interrogate every material that we're putting into the interior and test it.
Speaker 2:We're using an organization, again in the us, which is called econest, and they are. Their purpose is to achieve greater and greater global standards for a healthier living environment. So all of the materials we're testing for off-gassing and trying to reduce the amount of VOCs in lacquers and the finishing systems that we're applying to different materials. So from that starting point, it's had a great effect on the style and the aesthetic of the interior. It's very different, it's very natural and very easy to live with. But alongside that, in parallel, it has a sustainability metric let's put it that way which is, I think, far higher than we've ever achieved on another project. So it's a real benchmark for us. Is, I think, far higher than we've ever achieved on another project. So it's a real benchmark for us. And an example of a client who is really engaged in that conversation, really excited about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it sounds like it. That sounds also like something that will help a lot of other owners and their immediate representatives better understand that, like you had said before, there's a way to still have an absolutely beautiful, absolutely luxurious look and feel while being much more mindful. I think maybe a decade or so ago there was still a I don't want to say stigma, but kind of kind of like a stigma associated with things that were considered more eco-friendly. They weren't considered beautiful, they weren't considered durable. It was. They were kind of looked down upon. At least that's the impression that I got. Is that the impression that you were getting, maybe from clients too?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I think as an industry we were very used to using materials which were considered precious because they were running out.
Speaker 2:Whether that be an exotic veneer or a precious stone or all of these kind of things had a value, an inherent luxury value to it. So now we're looking for clients and promoting from within the materials which we might consider to be precious and valuable for the future. And, of course, the wider conversation outside the industry has moved on massively in the last few years as to what we would consider to be really valuable things in life, whether that's reconstituting something or refurbishing it. I mean, we're seeing a lot of refurbishment activity in yachting at the moment, but I'd say that's no coincidence really that there's certainly aspects of people's conscience out there which make them say to themselves well, let's refashion what we already have or what somebody else already had and make it new again and make it individual for ourselves, but let's not simply discard for the sake of it. So it's a very refreshing way of looking at the industry and, whether we've been forced into it or it's simply the passage of time, it makes us approach our work in a different way as a creative agency.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, fair point. So one last question for you, something that I like to ask most people when I speak to them these days. There's a lot of chatter in the industry about how everyone provides what owners want, but not everybody, obviously, is doing it. So if you were to use one word to sum up what your clients are actually seeking, what would it be?
Speaker 2:It's a great question and one that I haven't been asked before, diane, so thank you for bringing it to the table. In one word, it's very difficult, but I would say confidence. Our clients are looking across the table at us for somebody that they can trust in their expertise and their knowledge and, in our case, our creativity, to bring them a solution which is appropriate for them, hopefully new and exciting and creative. But ultimately, they're looking for the confidence and you know, to look each other in the eyes, across the table that we should, we should implement it for them, we should take it off the paper and we should build it, and they should have confidence to spend some very hard-earned money and considerable money, of course in something that's going to be very special. But they have to have a lot of trust in us that it will be that very special thing that they're going to enjoy in life. So yeah, confidence.
Speaker 1:Good one, Good answer. Confidence has to touch everything too. In terms of that yacht, it needs to be the confidence that it's going to be supportive of how they want to live. Relax, let them relax. Of course, nobody wants headaches, especially when they're in desperate need of taking a break from their crazy work life. And then the safety aspects, et cetera everything comes down to confidence.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and I guess you know everybody that I work with externally in their different roles and expertise could give you the same answer because, yeah, clients are looking for that confidence from the engineers, from the ship right down to the fundamentals of is my yacht going to float?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:That's the first question to answer. So, yeah, I think that's a constant really throughout the project and of course, you have to keep delivering that confidence throughout the project, for might be two years, might be three, four, five or more years.
Speaker 1:so it's yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a long game and you have to keep the client's attention in in trusting you yeah, yeah, absolutely, oh, jim, it's been really good speaking with you today and learning more about the design process that you and your colleagues have and the approach you have with your clients, from the obtaining of their confidence straight off the bat to all the other details that come into play. There's certainly been a lot that we've covered and I think a lot of people will come away with some good education and better understanding of your philosophy, so thanks again.
Speaker 2:Thanks, diane, that was fascinating. Hope your listeners enjoyed.
Speaker 1:I'm absolutely sure they have Everyone to learn more about what Winch Design can do for you. You can visit their website, which is winchdesigncom. Until next time, I'm Diane Byrne.
